Stuart says, “We just need enough fit players who know where the back of the net is.”
Well it’s been a real Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde week for Derby County.
Let’s start with the Dr Jekyll, the good, and a fine opening day win for the Rams against Peterborough United. A full house at Pride Park Stadium saw a Derby County team win their opening game of a season for the first time in seven attempts and in some style. The passing was cultured and breathtaking and the Rams created many chances – if the finishing had been sharper, the game would’ve been out of sight before Posh’s penalty made for a nail biting and dramatic last few minutes. Still, a win is a win, more importantly it’s three points, and it was an excellent start to the season.
That was followed on Tuesday night by the bad, a real Mr Hyde performance against Rotherham United at the Don Valley Stadium. Quite frankly, Derby County never turned up and certainly never got out of the starting blocks. The Millers wanted it more, were hungry for the giant killing and, despite going a goal behind as early as the 11th minute, Rotherham never stopped believing and eventually claimed the Championship scalp they thoroughly deserved.
It’s rather ironic that after Nigel Clough said he wanted a smaller squad of senior players, and that he was happy with the five strikers at his disposal, he found himself with only one striker available to play against Rotherham in fifth choice Luke Varney. Rob Hulse (groin), Chris Porter (hip) and Steve Davies (hamstring) were all injured and Kris Commons was away on international duty with Scotland.
The foot injury to Paul Green also highlighted how short of numbers we are in the central midfield area with the inexperienced Ben Pringle given his full debut alongside Robbie Savage and Stephen Pearson.
And fingers crossed nothing untoward happens to Stephen Bywater because that will mean Saul Deeney playing in goal. No offence to our back-up goalie, but last season he was back-up at Burton Albion to 45-year old veteran Kevin Poole.
The gaffer spoke last week about the need to bring in a goalkeeper, a defender (probably a right-back) and a central midfielder. Jake Livermore has joined on loan from Tottenham Hotspur as the midfielder and Jimmy Walker is training at Moor Farm and looking to impress enough to be signed as the back-up goalkeeper. It looks like an emergency loan for a striker needs to be added to that list as well.
Our next three games are against Scunthorpe United (away), Blackpool (away) and Plymouth Argyle (home). Without wanting to sound disrespectful to those clubs, not many pundits expect any of them to finish in the top half of the Coca-Cola Championship, so Derby County have an excellent opportunity to build on their opening day victory and make a very good start to the 2009/10 season.
We just need enough fit players who know where the back of the net is...