In the wake of the Rams’ lame, depressing and embarrassing defeat at the City Ground last Friday, pretty much all that is left for the fans to do is to ask ourselves what is next; where do the Rams go from here?

Back in August, as the season got going, the Rams dropped eleven of fifteen points by drawing four and losing one of the first five matches. At the time, I expressed the opinion that although the league table may not mean much after five games, the Rams had already left themselves a points deficiency that is hard to make up.

Teams finishing in the top two at the end of the season do not usually make such a poor start. Nobody was to blame for the Rams’ start; it was understandable after losing two of our most creative players in Will Hughes and Craig Bryson, during the first half of the opening match at Bolton.

The club’s response to the poor start was admirable: they went out and spent about ten million pounds on two experienced and highly rated midfield players in Bradley Johnson and Jacob Butterfield. The result was immediate as the team went on a ten-match unbeaten run, winning eight and drawing two; dropping just four points from thirty, and moving up to fifth place in the Championship table.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that after this exceptional run of results, the Rams were still one point behind the leaders, Hull City. If the club had made a decent start, say two wins, two draws and one defeat in those first five matches, the Rams would have been in first place with a three point lead after the QPR match.

Even after defeat at Forest, we would have been level on points with the other top teams, Hull and Brighton. So those first five matches mattered then and they still matter.

Does defeat at Forest mean that the Rams are embarking on a third phase to this still young season?

Are the Rams now a team that can be expected to struggle against weaker teams who are nevertheless well organized, hard-working and thuggish?

Certainly the Rams must improve their creative ability if they are to succeed against the tactics employed by Forest.

Thorne, Hendrick and Johnson in central midfield did a good job of getting possession, but made little impression once they moved into the Forest half.

The wide men, Russell and Weimann saw little of the ball and created nothing with it. The one player who continually tried to create something was Cyrus Christie, and he ran out of ideas as soon as he approached the Forest penalty area.

The Rams have four tough matches coming up between now and mid-December; 7th placed Cardiff at home on the 21st, leaders Hull away on the 27th, 9th placed Sheffield Wednesday away on 6th December and currently 2nd-placed Brighton at home on the 12th.

The Rams need to be looking at a minimum of six points — a win and three draws — from these four matches. That would not do much to lift them up the table, but would keep them well placed to profit from the following games against Bristol City, Ipswich, Fulham and Leeds.

I do not know if the Rams are about to strengthen the team by bringing in loan players but there have been suggestions in the media with both Michail Antonio and Charlie Austin name dropped.

Antonio could be just what we need. But the team’s creative ability needs to improve dramatically from the Forest performance.

Ince will start the next match and Butterfield must as well. As for the somewhat tongue-in-cheek title of this piece, could Simon Dawkins do a job?

Could his intelligent trickery have worked better against Forest than the more straightforward athleticism of Russell and Weimann?

Could he succeed against similar tactics used by future opponents?

I doubt we will be seeing Dawkins soon: his only first team appearance this season was in the League Cup defeat at Portsmouth and it seems he is clearly not favored by Paul Clement.

However the club responds to the Forest result, something certainly needs to be done.

We cannot afford to fall much further behind the leaders than we are, and we have a tough run of matches coming up. The next month or so will be, as always for Rams fans, an interesting time.

Photo: Action Images

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