Next Game – Derby County (home)

Tom Huddlestone

Thinking of Derby always takes my back to those memorable cup ties in the 1990s that will never be forgotten by any Claret who saw them. The defeat in 1992, the day with the most incredible support, and that win there at Pride Park in late 1999.

They were a Premiership club then under Jim Smith and whilst Smith is back in the top division at Portsmouth the Rams now find themselves down in the bottom group of the First Division.

They have never been able to cope financially with life outside the Premiership and during last season looked to be heading out of business.

John Gregory was manager when they went down but he was suspended during last season and has only recently settled out of court following his dismissal. His replacement was George Burley who had previously been sacked at Ipswich.

There was a season of struggle forecast for both clubs and nothing that was seen in our clash at Pride Park would have changed that. They beat us 2-0 with the second goal coming in true Ricardo Fuller style from a penalty won by a diving Lee Morris.

Derby were poor on the day but poor is better than inept and they deserved all three points after the Clarets turned in one of their worst displays of the season.

It was Derby’s first win in nine league games but it didn’t improve things for them and they won only one more in the next seven. The win took them up to 19^th but they slipped down again the week after and did not reach such a high position again until they beat Preston last week. Our win against Franchise on Tuesday saw them drop back to 20^th.

It is something of a different looking Derby side than the one we played back in November and there are seven players currently at the club who were not there when we last met.

Five of those have been brought in on a permanent basis whilst Burley still has two players available to him on loan.

Burley made three signings in January. He strengthened his forward line with two foreign imports in Manel from Espanyol and Werder Bremen’s Marco Reich and also signed defender Jamie Vincent from Portsmouth.

To add to that were two loan signings who remain with them. Rob Edwards from Aston Villa and he is there until the end of the season. Everton forward Leon Osman will be playing his last game against the Clarets. His three month loan, like Neil Wood’s at Burnley is completed after the weekend games.

In March they added some experience with two signings on the same day. Republic of Ireland defender Jeff Kenna was signed from Birmingham and he can expect to receive a special welcome from the Turf Moor crowd given that he includes Blackburn in his list of former clubs.

Just hours later in a surprise move Mr. Karren Brady arrived from Sheffield United in a swap deal. The Canadian was, according to Neil Warnock, offered a deal that in monetary terms Sheffield United couldn’t come close to and he arrived at Pride Park with youngster Izale McLeod going in the opposite direction on a loan deal. He scored four goals in his first three games too.

They have just taken seven points from their last three fixtures starting with a 0-0 draw at West Ham. Since they have beaten already relegated BRBC and followed that up with a 5-1 pasting of Preston last Saturday.

Manel and Marcus Tudgay both scored twice in the big win against North End and they were 4-0 up with only 37 minutes gone. They even scored Preston’s goal for them.

The win was not as convincing as the scoreline suggest according to one of the managers but it is fact that Derby did have some good fortune in front of goal.

It took them out of the bottom three and George Burley said after the game, "I have said that we will need 52 or more points so we need at least one more win if not two. It's still going to be touch and go."

Derby lined up:

Lee Grant, Richard Jackson, Youl Mawene, Michael Johnson, Ian Taylor (Marco Reich 66), Tom Huddlestone, Adam Bolder, Manel (Junior 66), Marcus Tudgay (Nathan Doyle 88), Paul Peschisolido, Leon Osman. Subs not used: Andy Oakes, Pablo Mills.

It’s a vital game and one that really should see the Clarets almost there to safety should we be able to pick up the three points.

Click HERE to see all Derby's results this season.

Past Results in the last 20 years

Click HERE to see more results against Derby going back to a 1-0 Turf Moor win in 1889.