Derby’s perfunctory defeat at Aston Villa left manager Billy Davies with a few injury worries.

It also left him with the persistent requirement to extract improved performances from his players.

Claude Davis, Dean Leacock and Jay McEveley had knocks and strains, Kenny Miller was still recovering from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the Aston Villa game and Andy Todd still has his partly-diagnosed back problems, which are being attended by a spine specialist.

The Rams Reserves lost 1-2 at Portsmouth with 17-year old striker Tyron Amory scoring for Derby; transfer target David Nugent scored for Portsmouth. It was only the Pompey stiffs’ second home victory in over two and a half years.

Centre forward Steve Howard, still battling yet bereft of a goal so far this season, was named in the Scotland ‘B’ squad to face Eire in November. It seems odd to think of the quintessentially English Geordie as a Scot but who knows, the Rams might soon provide half the Scottish team at this rate and few Rams fans would deny big-hearted Steve a chance to shine on the international stage!

Billy Davies an Adam Pearson spoke about the club’s situation and the New Year transfer window and publicly speculated more on the strategy for 2008. More assertions that the club will ‘give it a go’ until January to then draw up prospective squad addition lists for a big consolidation push - or otherwise, in the event of relegation, to prepare squad changes for a renewed Championship assault next season.

History however is littered with accounts about clubs expecting to bounce straight back after relegation – and some of those chapters were written by Derby County.

Derbyshire police investigating the affairs of the previous DCFC administration under the chairmanship of John Sleightholme announced that the CPS Fraud Unit have charged former Derby County Finance Director Andrew Mackenzie with conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to conceal criminal property. Four other unnamed men remain on police bail and have yet to be charged.

On the commercial front at Pride Park, a new yellow Adidas kit was launched, just when everyone hankered after yet another £42 football shirt. It must be getting near Christmas again! Of greater interest (though still very nebulous in terms of its effect on team building and Premier League results) was the news that outline planning permission had been granted by the council for the £20m Pride Plaza project.

There will be a 165-bed hotel, bars, cafes and facilities for the near - 8,000 local population of the commercial park in which the stadium is situated and for the anticipated growing tourist throughput.

Wigan Athletic sacked their manager Chris Hutchings after 6 consecutive defeats and just 6 months in charge - so that’s fellow-strugglers Bolton, Spurs and Wigan who now have dispensed with failing bosses…. and Wigan supreme Dave Whelan has made ex-boss Paul Jewell his No. 1 choice as a replacement, 6 months after Jewell walked away from the club for a break!

In the latest ra-ra pre-match media turn, midfielder Stephen Pearson had given us the usual bullish sound-byte: “We're playing with a lot of belief in ourselves. The players are confident going into the games,” he said. “Journalists and all these people are entitled to their opinion, but it's up to us to try and prove them wrong. It's a big incentive when people are writing us off.” OK right, Stephen; go on, then!

He didn’t cut the mustard. Plenty has been written and said about Saturday’s 0-5 home defeat to West Ham; surely one of the most abject displays in the club’s history - and thoroughly alarming given West Ham’s injury list and their anticipated modest residency in the middle stratum of the Premier League.

Yes, Derby were without Leacock and Davis at the heart of defence and the full-backs were second-string too but regardless of whose names were on the back of those white shirts, the output was well short of the mark required. Derby were thrashed senseless well before the end; they simply gave up before half time. Players’ perfunctory performances and weak resolve truly deserved the rout that they invited.

It is 1920 since the Rams failed to score in five consecutive games. It is up to this group of players and the management to regroup and avoid setting more of the wrong kind of club and Premier League records this season.

Davies’ stated that it was ‘men against boys’ which was true enough but he alone has the task of drawing more commitment, effort, teamwork and athleticism from his players if Derby fans are not to revolt against the prospect of another seven months of such feeble capitulation.

Derby were so poor it was rather a surprise that West Ham didn’t increase their margin of victory having the last 20 minutes of the game so to do. However, as thousands of Rams fans streamed out of Pride Park Stadium, the Hammers were content to keep a solid grip of the game and cruise to a remarkably emphatic victory.

The belated introduction of Rob Earnshaw, and appearances of Howard and Fagan failed to provide a real threat to West Ham’s comfort zone or disturb their control in any way.

Birmingham lost again; Sunderland, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Fulham drew their games and high-spending Tottenham woke up to thrash managerless Wigan – though the net result of this weekend’s fixtures was that Derby County cannot now escape the bottom three of the Premier League with a single victory even if allied to favourable results elsewhere.

Bolton attracted well under 18,000 to their fixture against Middlesbrough, their lowest ever Premier League gate; the West Midlands ‘derby’, Blues vs. Villa, though televised was watched by 26,600, well under capacity. There were almost 32,500 at Pride Park and the depth of the Derby fanbase and their loyalty is being badly short-changed by such dreadfully inept and careless displays of surrender.

Supporters are demanding more energy, passion, commitment and cohesion from the players Derby have. Even the rest of the Premier League basement strugglers will otherwise soon cut Derby adrift and this will curtail the Derby board’s spending plans in terms of January 2008 as they cut the cloth according to expectations of an immediate Championship future.

Money available for squad investment in the short to medium term will be subject to the position of the club when the January transfer window arrives.

If, as Adam Pearson says in the West Ham RAM matchday programme that the club is looking for any possible advantage over immediate rivals - that our enthusiastic vocal support and loyalty to the club is key - I suggest he visits Moor Farm or the dressing rooms to tell the players to actually earn the loyalty and support of the sell-out crowds by putting in enough effort to convey that they care even a fraction as much about our club as the fans have shown. The squad and management have seemingly lost the plot.

Adam Pearson suggests that fans won’t care where the money comes from or who is Chairman if the club is successful. That’s rather glib and presumptive given Derby’s recent history of upheaval and activism.

The Amigos were vanquished and of course the club’s security has been attained but now the Rams’ faithful are becoming split on the issue of Billy Davies’ competence and continuity however the club might be funded, and Davies’ failure to arrest the slide will add to Mr Pearson’s urgent decision agenda.

Will the new Executive Chairman sit in the Director’s Box and happily endure that tripe every fixture and spend the season reminding us how safe and secure the club now is once the TV money starts to arrive and that big investment is just around the corner? Will that be enough to sustain the fans’ loyalty and interest?

Fans do now have high expectations and the majority may well be passive or dismissive of off-field matters but the vision of a glittering end of the rainbow and that pot of gold seems distant indeed when there’s only the prospect of a winter and spring of utter humiliation, setting more and more negative records – how long can all this go on?

The as yet intangible prospect of a big investor is little comfort to an embarrassed fandom. On field, we look like a club in crisis and a lack of belief is sadly contagious.

The best-paid squad and most comprehensive management entourage in the club’s 123-year history is set to produce easily the worst season in our history and conversely, many fans won’t care whether we have £3m £30m or £300 million in the bank if the product is so abject and unrewarding as it is at the moment.

I look forward to Mr Pearson ensuring that Billy, his staff and the Board soon make themselves available for fans’ forums in person and on such as Radio Derby’s Sportscene Phone-in to tell us exactly how they are going to better the current forlorn performances.

Telling us (again) how we are two years ahead of schedule and that you’ll continue to work with the players is spin, faux-information not communication and it is deeds not words that will impress an ever more disillusioned fanbase.

Mercifully, there is an international break now where time permits the fans and club alike to gather their senses and garner their spirits for the next challenge. That happens to be the ultra-rich and star-studded Chelsea FC.

Even though they are light years away from Derby’s current stage of development, a repeat of last Saturday’s scoreline is not likely to be meekly accepted by a loyal but beleaguered Rams faithful.

In RamsWeek 45 last year, Billy Davies was getting another ‘monkey off our back’ as we won at Coventry after a string of embarrassing heavy defeats there in recent seasons. Steve Howard was proving his worth with goals and his trademark battling focal performances. Loanee Jon Stead scored too.

The Rams had won seven, drawn two and lost two of the eleven games since their last defeat and stood fifth in the Championship table. If only the current squad could muster a run half as good as that to push us up the Premier League table!

Photo: Action Images

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