Derby County had an early opportunity to bounce back from their home defeat against Sheffield United with a Tuesday evening home game against struggling Barnsley.

Manager Nigel Clough had no new injury concerns to contend with, though centre-half Shaun Barker only had bruised pride, after being admonished for needlessly giving away the free kick late in the game that led to the Blades’ winning goal.

With Derby’s trimmed-down squad, it’s imperative that the injury count is kind but it’s not working out that way yet for Derby County. Paul Green’s troublesome foot has put him out of action for another extended period and may require further surgery.

Defender Jake Buxton, having made the step up to the Championship is feeling the pace and will be ruled out with a suspected hernia. At least Clough has Barker and Leacock to step in and most fans expect these returning defenders to play a significant role this season.

The scene was set for a Rams recovery on Tuesday night with the visit of winless, bottom-of-the-table Barnsley to Pride Park Stadium. It really should have been a Derby victory but it didn’t work out that way, a ridiculous 3-2 defeat leaving Rams fans in a creditable 28,000 crowd frustrated and disappointed.

Kris Commons was drafted back into the starting line-up to play off Rob Hulse in a 4-4-1-1 formation and after a bright, attacking opening by Derby it seemed a matter of time before they put the game beyond the Tykes. However, Derby flattered to deceive and ultimately failed to carve out enough chances to turn their threat into enough of an advantage.

Quite how Derby contrived to lose the game is almost beyond me, given the possession and dominance they enjoyed, especially in the first half. After Rob Hulse had powered in Lee Croft’s wonderful cross, the writing was on the wall for Barnsley The turning point of the game came soon after with a good opportunity missed by Hulse from another inviting Croft cross.

This column is taking on the characteristics of a tape-loop but I can’t help repeating the observation that goals change games. Derby had failed to score at a crucial time when ahead and seemingly poised to score a hatful, as the manager later observed. Barnsley gained encouragement because Derby didn’t capitalise on their dominance and they grabbed an equaliser from Derby’s typically loose defensive play right near half time.

Barnsley managed to sustain an attack for once to put Derby under pressure and when the ball was fed up their left wing with Connolly missing in service, Adam Hamill took the invitation to advance and whack a 25-yard shot across Bywater and into the top corner. It was Barnsley’s only shot in the first half and yet another avoidable goal conceded by Derby.

The clueless officials attracted much criticism from the home crowd throughout the game and I’ve seldom heard the chant of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ used so much in one match.

Astonishingly, Barnsley grabbed the lead when they broke away to score a second after 58 minutes, when the dippy referee failed to award Derby a free kick for a clear foul on Commons. Derby defenders again failed to play to the whistle and were carved open for Gray to score.

Barnsley grew taller and Derby’s attack was blunted. The Tykes grabbed a third as Derby mounted attacks and characteristically left the back door open for Anderson to score with ease right near the end.

That was a signal for the stadium to empty and many Rams fans didn’t stop to see Shaun Barker nod home a Gary Teale corner during the 8 minutes of added time for his first goal for Derby. Fans want to see him stopping them at the other end instead, before they elect to walk out in frustration after such a ridiculous defeat as we saw last Tuesday night.

I’m sure our reporter Ole One Eye was at the game but his disgust at the evening’s proceedings and his work schedule seem to have militated against him posting his own match report!

Few Derby players had a consistent 90 (well, 98) minutes; Dean Moxey turned in his customarily competent performance and Jake Livermore worked hard in midfield. Derby conceded goals from almost every chance that Barnsley mustered and failed to create enough chances to trouble the bottom club’s goalie unduly. It left Rams fans worrying about the team’s forward power and with Kris Commons off form Hulse lacked proper support in attack.

Steve Davies is a few weeks away from returning and Chris Porter’s recurrent hip injury will rule him out until December. With Kris Commons blowing more cold than hot, manager Nigel Clough had directed yet more public criticism at him after the Barnsley defeat and stepped up his search for loan reinforcements.

The manager was therefore no doubt relieved to have added to his striking options by taking Everton starlet James Vaughan on loan until January 1st. Vaughan has had injury problems but came through a full pre-season at Goodison and is now fit and in need of first-team football.

The 21-year-old striker was the youngest player to score a Premier League goal and has represented England up to Under-21 level. The Rams beat Middlesbrough and Newcastle United to his signature and Vaughan said that Everton midfielder Russell ‘Ossie’ Osman and former Rams’ defender Alan Stubbs encouraged him to choose Derby. Vaughan can bring pace and purpose to the team and reinforce our goal threat.

The Rams’ reserves lost 3-0 at Burton Albion in midweek and didn’t impress our roving reporter, Rees Erve. The game gave Dean Leacock further much-needed match practice as he returns to the first-team scene. He certainly looked as if he needed the practice, according to Rees!

A couple of off-field news snippets arrived as several disciplinary issues developed. Robbie Savage and his agent (or former agent, or whatever) are under investigation by the football authorities for alleged irregularities concerning the negotiation of his Blackburn contracts.

The FA’s judgement of the post-match melee at Nothingham also trundled on, with Derby County accepting the charge of failing to control their players. The Rams will plead mitigation at a personal hearing soon.

The disgraced and convicted ex-Rams directors (Mackay, Keith and Mackenzie) and associate Mark Walters are appealing against the jail sentences they’re currently serving, though the appeals won’t be heard for some weeks. Few Derby fans would see any unfairness in the sentences given for those fraudulent capers and I personally hope their appeals are unsuccessful.

The Rams travelled to south London on Saturday (having a nightmare 6-hour journey to get there, by all accounts) hoping to put Tuesday’s disaster behind them as they faced Crystal Palace. Almost 1,000 Rams fans were in a crowd of less than 13,000 to witness the spectacle.

Sad Palace now have a transfer embargo imposed upon them through failure to pay due transfer instalments and even resorted to giving the awful Clod Davis a contract. The hapless ex-Rams’ defender was unable to assist Derby’s cause though, being absent from Neil Warnock’s squad through injury.

With 4-4-2 now an option for Clough, James Vaughan went straight into the Derby team to partner Rob Hulse up front with Kris Commons - ineffectual against Barnsley - left on the bench once more. Shaun Barker, a victim of the sickness bug that afflicted Rob Hulse last week, was a substitute with Dean Leacock joining Miles Addison in defence. Stephen Pearson was carrying his latest injury and was also kept to the bench.

It was a typically anonymous, scrappy and unrewarding event set in the less than salubrious surroundings of Selhurst Park and Derby contrived to lose 0-1. They failed to pull themselves out of their winless torpor and have now lost four League games in a row.

The Rams started brightly but nothing came of it. It was 0-0 at the interval but Palace clinched the game on 55 minutes when a poor clearance was headed back into the Derby area and Darren Ambrose reacted quicker than our defenders (surprise, surprise!) to rap the ball home.

Before that, Palace keeper Speroni had clawed away Gary Teale’s fine free kick strike and soon afterwards the Eagles’ goalkeeper was spared a red card after handling outside the area, receiving only a booking. With Vaughan poised to whisk the ball away and charge goalwards unchallenged, the referee did not deem that a goalscoring chance. Speroni survived to make good saves from other Derby efforts (notably from Hulse and Commons late in the game) so yet again, a marginal refereeing decision confounded the Rams’ management, players and fans.

Games are following a similar pattern, with Derby starting brightly before the opposition master them and eventually outfight and outwit them. A late but unsuccessful rally by the Rams then passes as a ‘fighting performance’ whilst the opposition protect their points. Further injury worries arose too, with Moxey and Commons being taken off. On the bright side, Vaughan and Livermore look able to make good contribution and perhaps Hendrie and Dickov will prove their worth. Clough is not out of options but he needs to reverse the poor trend soon.

Palace are a mediocre team and didn’t play well - but they managed to beat Derby and that’s the aim of the game. The Rams must raise their game to make any progress - and soon. Players and manager keep declaring that Derby are playing well and that we need a little more luck but that gives little comfort to fans who are now irritated by consistent disappointments and cannot stomach another relegation battle.

The manager puts on a brave face in his post-match interviews, playing down the crisis talk from some fans. It’s early season and there’s a long way to go but he must be getting frustrated at repeating his ‘there’s nothing in the games that we’re losing’ explanations. Narrow defeats still render the same points haul - zero - and truly good performances render productive results.

Nigel got into a war of words with Eagles’ boss Warnock over penalty claims for alleged fouls against Rob Hulse and Kris Commons, who was stretchered off after a late challenge. Bad luck, if onlys and maybes unfortunately don’t mask an uninspired and inadequate Rams display.

Some unfathomable refereeing performances and questionable decisions are compounding the frustrations but there’s a truism in football that good teams make their own luck and bad teams suffer bad luck. You often see successful teams getting the rub of the green and the strugglers suffering rotten luck. Derby are not a bad team (and Barnsley and Palace are not good teams!) but Clough’s men still aren’t getting the basics right and are often their own worst enemies.

Clough and his players will just have to turn a deaf ‘un to the extreme reaction from some supporters and stick together to work through the bad patch. We supporters can only try and suppress those extreme reactions and give the team our support!

Failing to beat the bottom club, then losing to a Palace team thrashed 4-0 by Scunthorpe in their last home game is simply not good enough. The performances aren’t good if we still can’t defend well and don’t cause the opposition enough trouble to ensure reward from games.

The Rams are gathering less than a point per game and with the team slipping to 17th place in the table a dramatic improvement is required. Sheffield United excepted, Derby have yet to play the best opposition so the games certainly won’t get any easier.

The defence still isn’t secure and commits elementary mistakes from which even mediocre opposition are profiting; the midfield combination doesn’t boss the game or provide adequate service to strikers. Better quality delivery is needed if enough goals are to come. The forwards aren’t sufficiently accurate or ruthless and they fluff too many of the chances we do make.

Derby do not capitalise on good periods of play by putting the ball into the net regularly enough to bury the opposition. Overall, we simply aren’t effective enough as a team to be able to battle it out for a point when necessary or to hold onto an advantage. I said last week that Rams fans require the patience of angels - and that’s how it stays for the time being, I’m afraid.

It’s Bristol City at home next Saturday, a game with ‘must win’ written on it if we are to avoid the likelihood of dropping into the Championship’s bottom three.

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RamsWeek 38 last season saw Derby basking in the rarity of a League win after they had beaten Sheffield United and recorded their first League victory for almost a year.

They visited promoted Swansea hoping to build on the progress, the transfer battle over the Swan’s highly-rated midfielder Ferrie Bodde still fresh in the minds of all. Derby snatched a second-half lead through Pearson, only for Williams to notch a headed equaliser for a 1-1 draw.

Miles Addison was showing well in midfield and Martin Albrechtsen was solid at centre back as the Rams embarked on a much-needed revival and they could look forward to entertaining Cardiff City at Pride Park Stadium the following Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

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