Derby County’s blank weekend left us with the FA Cup to watch in envy.

It saw only more fixture alteration, with the Chelsea Premier League away match on Saturday 8th March postponed due to the Londoners’ Cup progress. The Chelsea game has now been rearranged for Wednesday, March 12th.

On his first day in office at Pride Park Stadium, new Derby County President Tom Glick is looking for instant promotion next season and has promised Paul Jewell ‘a ton of support’ to ‘build a great side’.

Only 4 of the last 15 sides relegated from the Premier League have bounced straight back. Regarding those who have foundered (like Derby did half a dozen years ago) and even sunk further, there are many substantial clubs whose fans would advise Mr Glick to be more circumspect in his declarations!

Now, I do think that Derby County are a bigger and better club than them all by dint of their management, infrastructure, facilities, fanbase - but supporters of such as the two Sheffield clubs, Wolves, Crystal Palace, WBA, Southampton, Ipswich and those third division flops, Leeds and Forest will point at their own moribund fate as an indication of how recovery is often gradual not spectacular.

Add to that some concern over the Rams finances in that their Premier League riches won’t be received until late 2008 and the requirement that some of GSE’s investment must go towards current debts, and it’s clear that Paul Jewell won’t have a bottomless pit of money.

The manager has a formidable task to reverse the slide and transform the squad’s mentality. That doesn’t appear to be possible without a complete overhaul of the squad; it will certainly take a ton of money and a fair bit of time for the manager to blend and bed in a large number of new players.

In my opinion, at least a dozen new faces are needed for Derby County to try and hit the ground running next August.

Anyway, we won’t know until May when the dust has settled on this season which players will be retained, which current Derby players may be attracted by Premier League offers and so on. Mr Jewell wouldn’t lack help from fans if he needed it to compose a list of players to be shown the door ASAP.

In the context of the Championship, the Rams will be a ‘big fish’ and an attractive outfit for players to join. The manager and his staff have been out scouting far and wide, apparently and are already preparing deals for targeted players.

Derby will be installed as one of the promotion favourites and no one anticipates a further slide. Once promotion is on the horizon, it will then be critical for the club to have the funds and ability to attract better players than they did over the last year, as yo-yoing with high debt is an unpalatable option.

Well, it’s a sign of the disappointment and ‘forgetability’ of season 2007-08 that I’m already speculating many months into the future, so I’d better return to the week in hand!

Mr Jewell continued to move unwanted players out of his hair as Gary Teale was sent to Plymouth Argyle on loan. Teale is another player that Billy Davies acquired a year ago to boost the squad and, with over 2 years of his Derby contract remaining, it is hard to see Gary making any more of an impression upon the team, the fans and the results than he has thus far.

Jewell also fired off a warning shot regarding the commitment and efforts of his players, stating that the club did not want any players that did not accept that they would have to knuckle down and fight a Championship season in 2008-09 to win back our Premier League status.

The five defendants in the Sleightholme regime’s fraud and money laundering court case managed another deferral, after initially displacing the 14th February date with the judge to last Thursday, 21st. Lawyers applied for a change of venue citing the possibility that a Derby jury may not be impartial. So the case has been moved to the West Midlands’ circuit and probably won’t be heard until this November.

The Rams’ penultimate home game of the season against Arsenal home has been switched for a traditional 3 pm Saturday (26th April) has been switched to Mon April 28th for TV. It’s a sold-out match but hey, there’s more TV money on offer, so who would care about the convenience of the home fans?

So an emotional return to the JJB was Paul Jewell’s latest chance to wring something from his players, still comprising a handful of definites for next season, some no-hopers and other temporary make-weights that the manager has to work with to bring some relief from a disastrous string of results.

His new goalkeeper, Roy Carroll is ex-Wigan too and shared good times there with Jewell and has agreed a long-term contract (3 years) with Derby County, so is earmarked to be our No. 1 between the sticks.

Jay McEveley returned to left back after several weeks’ absence, Leacock took the right back slot and Ghaly restored to the midfield. Jewell opted for a 4-5-1 with Miller on his own up front.

Jewell was afforded an affectionate welcome by Latics’ fans on his return to Wigan but his players forgot to remember that Steve Bruce’s team were not about to be as charitable and (unlike Derby) can sense their very real chances for Premier League survival.

Despite our hopes for a turn-around and the realistic opportunity for points against another struggling team, Derby could not muster a half-decent performance for the umpteenth time this season and were comfortably beaten 2-0 in the end after hanging on grimly for an hour.

It was another feeble, ramshackle performance with all the usual Derby County hallmarks - a retreating defence that can’t mark and tackle, a patchy midfield that is overpowered by a busier and hungrier opposition, and a lone forager in Kenny Miller without adequate service and support from his teammates.

By losing at Wigan Derby County duly recorded the worst sequence of results in the club’s 124-year history at 21 games without a win and manager and fans desperately want to avoid our season ending in the ignominy of the worst-ever Premier League record. Do the players want the same; are they bothered?

Pearson and Miller missed first half chances for Derby, who didn’t manage to win their first corner until 89 minutes of the game had elapsed. Alan Stubbs among very few came out of the game with any credit.

Jewell blasted the Derby players saying it was "the worst performance I've ever seen from a so-called Premier League team". He said his team: “had some fraudsters in it”, smarting from another feeble surrender by his Rams. It’s a strong step for a boss to declare that some of his players are faking it but it seems that the team forever needs a kick in the rear to shake some action!

Asked what the team would look like in the coming weeks & months he vowed: “there will be changes, make no mistake about that”.

He said it was a disgrace and that he’d told the players that they should be embarrassed about that performance. Condemning them for showing no belief or desire, he snarled that certain players seem to tell everyone they are good players but they only they will believe their own publicity. Ouch!

He promised his players “an uncomfortable week” as they’d made his life uncomfortable. For me, it’s unforgivable that a well-rewarded bunch of supposedly highly rehearsed athletes - who after all are training at some of the best facilities in the country - should put out the kind of performances we’ve seen all season.

There’s the rub - Rams players are seemingly in a cosy comfort zone with the splendid training venue they enjoy and Jewell refers to how different they become when they must perform as Premier League players on a matchday after apparently good weeks in training up there on Morley Road.

About 90% of the country’s players would revel in the facilities and appointments of Moor Farm and Pride Park Stadium as their training base and main stage - this club and the fans are getting no return from the environment and support that these players are afforded. Nor did a 2-week break do them any good!

Perhaps Mr Jewell should arrange some ‘swap for a day’ for upcoming training sessions with a smaller club like Chesterfield taking over Moor Farm and Derby County’s squad making do with local sports fields, rather that 9 different practice pitches, portakabins for changing rooms and so on that many lesser clubs have to utilise - because the majority of these Rams players obviously require a rude reality check.

Add in some army training regimes and a hypnotherapist or two and we might have a chance of approaching the ‘magic 16 points’ that we’ve been reduced to hoping for from a programme of 38 games.

Jewell himself has not escaped the wrath of the fans, judging by the immediate phone-in and messageboard reaction to the Wigan debacle. There is disquiet about the sheer scale of incompetence still evident on the pitch, for which the manager is responsible.

Apart from individual carelessness and lack of teamwork, there is currently a lack of leadership (Savage is struggling whilst Stubbs is trying to set a good example), an unadventurous formation (at least 4-4-2 might bring some threat to the opposition), several headless chickens running about (non-stop effort but no effectiveness) and a few ‘want-aways’ (Miller and Barnes), who on performances appear to be pacing it out until the end of the season in expectation of a big-money exit from Derby.

Those questioning Jewell’s suitability for the Rams’ hot seat do need to show patience even though most fans share their exasperation and diminishing patience for improvement. Certainly by August fans will expect a totally different squad and mindset from those who currently pull on the black and white to represent our club.

Hopefully, the team’s attitude will alter very soon - one wonders what else Jewell can say about the team’s parlous state? They can start their rehabilitation by beating the likes of Sunderland next week.

They dominated Derby early on and scored two quick goals as Dean Leacock lost it. Deano wasn’t fully fit but collected an early booking and then gave away a daft penalty with an unnecessary handball. Billy Davies withdrew him and the Rams battled but could not recover the position.

They were still top of the Championship, by a single point, but events of the next weekend saw Derby’s mini-slump continue.

The Rams lost 1-2 away at Sunderland in front of 36,000. Derby suffered an injury time defeat and a fantastic goal fit to grace any game by Giles Barnes - which had levelled the game at 1-1 - was rendered irrelevant as Roy Keane’s team rolled relentlessly on.

West Brom took over (temporarily) at the top of the Championship. Remember them?

Photo: Action Images

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