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Bill's Take: As Internationals End - The Rams Return To What's Important
Thursday, 16th Oct 2014 06:55 by Bill Riordan

Over the last week and a half we have experienced the season’s first international break; the question is - should we be interested?

If we needed to whet our appetite - we could have paid attention to a couple of England’s European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Estonia.

For me, these matches certainly did not begin to replicate the interest of Rams matches against the likes of Nottingham Forest; in fact, this has not even seemed like football season. But now we are back to the real thing with a match at Reading on Saturday.

There’s some good injury news for the Rams, with both Jake Buxton and long-term injury victim Paul Coutts having played significant time in a friendly against Burnley earlier in the week.

With the Rams not having conceded a goal in the last four competitive matches, it seems likely that Buxton will have to wait a while before getting back in the team.

It’s good to see Coutts back after not starting a match since August of last year. Pretty much all of his games for the Rams have been as a wide midfielder, but Coutts has consistently said he regards central midfield as his best position.

Much as I like Coutts as a player, it’s a bit hard to see where he fits in at the moment: he will do well to challenge Hughes, Hendrick or Bryson, and he may not offer enough of a goal threat to get a spot on the wing. Could Coutts fill the Eustace position, at least temporarily? I don’t know, but conceivably it could be his best bet.

Some more injury news of a positive nature is that George Thorne is hoping to be back playing early in the New Year. Of course, we would all be wise not to get our hopes up until Thorne is actually named in a Rams squad for a league match.

A final piece of squad news is that Mason Bennett has been recalled from his loan spell at Bradford City, rather than being there until January as originally agreed.

I don’t know why this has happened but as Bennett has only been used as a late-game substitute; it seems likely that either the Rams are unhappy with the playing time Mason is getting, or Bradford decided they don’t want him after all. In either case, it does not look like good news for the player and his future, so it will be interesting to see whether Mason gets a place on the bench for upcoming matches.

Might young Bennett be used as a substitute in place of Leon Best, as I suggested in last week’s column that I would like to see? That may well be seen by supporters as a positive move.

So what of Saturday’s match at Reading? Reading started the season well, but has not won in their last five matches including their two-nil League Cup defeat at Derby last month. They are having a bit of difficulty scoring, and are letting in goals with some consistency.

If the Rams can continue where they left off before the international break, there may well be a result to be had at Reading. With the Rams being only a point off the top of the table, and the three teams above us all being away — though not alas, all playing good teams — this weekend’s football promises to be more interesting than last weekend.

And with matches coming up against Blackpool, Wigan and Fulham, who knows where we could find ourselves come the end of October?




Photo: Action Images



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