Derby County Barometer April 2018

As ever with Derby County the last few months have been a full-on, emotional rollercoaster, with a slump to test even the most rose-tinted Rams fans, the Forest/Cardiff banter period and then the recent upturn in fortunes.

What better way to pull it all together than with an all new Ramspace barometer on my birthday! Here we go….

Curtis Davies – A picture of professionalism and class through the good times and bad. An old skool no nonsense defender who loves defending and is really good at it! Brilliant signing by Rowett and now he has the armband, I can’t see him giving it up until the day he leaves DCFC.

Has “banter” saved our season? – With the Rams in a slump that was bordering on putting all our previous sorry collapses to shame, the atmosphere amongst Rams fans at Pride Park, Away games and online was reaching new levels of toxicity. Then we had Gaz attacking Forest players, V signing their fans and rinsing their fashion sense. All this was swiftly followed up by the Cardiff episode,  probably the funniest online DCFC day ever and the whole mood changed.  Even the Sunderland fiasco hasn’t knocked us back. “Banter” is an awful word, but it might just have helped to save our season.

Tom Lawrence is, literally, flying.

Win Ugly – Many of the Rams epic wins before Christmas were based on grinding it out, being hard to beat and being ruthless with the chances they had. Success breeds expectation and the limitations of the current Rams team were brutally shown up once they had to carry the favourites tag. Riding their luck at PNE and brutally efficient finishing against Bolton has the show back on the road. Don’t expect any Champagne Supernova football anytime soon. #vivalashithouse

Tom Lawrence – It’s fair to say our marquee signing has had an up and down season but recent criticism of him has been harsh in my view. Tom has a big fee but is a young guy with massive potential and should no way be compared to previous misguided recruitment. It’s great to see him hitting some form at the right time and it will be even better to see him next season when we will hopefully have other quality wide men to share the load.

Squeaky Bum Time – Regardless of the journey, the Rams are right in the play-off mix with an extreme set of fixtures exclusively including fellow promotion hopefuls or sides desperate to stay up. However it plays out, it’s going to be a cracking couple of weeks, so let’s get behind the lads and enjoy the ride.

Cardiff City – What a bunch of arseholes led by King Colin Wanker himself (brilliant manager, utter cock). The extreme reaction to the postponement was pathetic, the manager knowing the game was off at the hotel still chose to come to the ground and then we have Sean Morrison’s video. Based on Friday, it seems they are having a wobble at just the wrong time. The re-arranged game is going to be tasty to say the least and let’s not even consider the prospect of a play-off clash. Lordy.

Mel v Sam – Even based on the few details revealed to date, the clubs name is again being held up for ridicule. This isn’t going to end well for anyone and I dread to think what is going to come out when the mud really starts flying. Mel obviously wants his 5% back, so hopefully they can agree something out of court.

“Hi Gary, Andy from Chaddesden here. Can you tell me why you decided to let Bryson, Martin and Hughes leave the club?”

Team Selection – Up to Christmas, Gary Rowett hardly put a foot wrong at Derby but, on the back of a really poor January window, (admittedly not helped by injuries) his team selection and substitutions became more erratic as he seemed to be chasing a magic formula he already had. After Sunderland he went back to basics with a Huddz Ledley midfield and Vyds Nuge up front. Hey presto, two wins.

We’re just like Forest – Ok nobody is a bad as those pricks, but there are far too many Derby fans stuck in a 2014 time warp. Great days for sure, but it was 4 years ago and we ultimately didn’t actually achieve anything with that team. Online odes to Bryson, Chris Martin, George Thorne and especially Will Hughes serves no more purpose that yearning for Mark Wright or Bobby Davison. Come on people get with the here and now!

The February Slump – This blog said it wouldn’t happen with this group, Rowett himself said it was “bollocks” but this year’s slump was arguably our worst ever. After storming into 2nd spot, awful depressing defeats and draws against a series of shocking teams was as hard to take as anything since Wembley. How we have stayed in the top 6 is astonishing and we must make sure this never happens again for everyone’s sanity.