Although this wasn’t a great performance from Derby, and perhaps a bit disjointed, it’s worth remembering that we had the better chances and on another day the result could have been different. Not only that, the incessant whining noise coming from the supporters (something which is slowing getting to be a bad habit) shows a real lack of patience to the manager.

That’s right. A lack of patience. And don’t remind me about last season either. I was there – saw every home game and quite a few away ones too… Just remember how poor our squad was, how Billy Davies didn’t want to be within whistling distance of the team HE put together once he realised the team was woefully out of his depth – remember the lack of team spirit, the lack of professionalism and the downright lack of respect given to our great Club by certain individuals (most of who have been moved on)…

Look at the line up – the names in bold were signed in the summer:

Derby: Carroll, McEveley, Green, Kazmierczak (Savage 53), Commons, Ellington, Hulse, Mears, Stubbs (C) (Connolly 56), Albrechtsen, Pereplotkins (Davies 64).

Rome /literally/ wasn’t built in a day. Give the team a chance. Give the manager a chance – next time you fill your lungs with air to “boo” the team, or call for the managers head – remind yourself you are using oxygen which could be put to better use. Save your breath and cheer the team you love.

Yes, we lost… and yes, this was mainly down to us losing the battle in the midfield, and switching off for their goal – remember that Doncaster are a team who have been together for a long time, and that Paul Jewell has been performing open heart surgery on a team that was in a footballing coma.

This performance had it’s positives. It’s easy not to see them if you’re one of these people who judge everything on the scoreline (remember all those win’s we fluked under Billy?), the positives were there, you just had to want to see them, Commons showed flashes of brilliance, Ellington worked hard – often in the wrong half of the pitch, Hulse looked lively… In a few weeks this team, who have only played one competitive game together, will start to gel and the flowing football will start.

Note to Donny fans – Good luck to you – you play football the right way… It’s hard to tell anything from the opening day games (which is the main point of this article) – but if you keep playing football that way, you’ll win more than you lose.

I never imagined or intended this match report to be a sermon on the lack of patience of our supporters, anyone who followed this blog through last season will hopefully vouch for my happy go lucky/gallows humour – but I think everyone just needs to calm down and remember it IS just the first game of the season.

I leave you with a few facts:

* It took Manchester United four games to get a win last season. They did okay in the end…
* The season we got promoted under Billy, it took 3 games to get a win.
* The season we finished 2nd in the Championship, we opened the season with a 1-0 defeat to Oldham…
* We had 8 points from 4 games in 2005-2006 and finished 40 points away from 2nd place…

Statistics can be twisted to tell their own story, but seriously… get real… We’ll be back, Paul Jewell is the man! – just keep the faith. Get behind the team and the rest will fall into place.

- MoonPig.

Notice how I’ve completley glossed over the football. I guess I have to say something about it:

* Unlucky, Reading. I thought your fans were great. See you in a few weeks.

/ end

Highs: Newcastle United. If it wasn’t for them, we’d be 4 points worse off and in a season we’ve had, they really do all count.
Highs: Giving Manchester United a run for their money at Pride Park.
Highs: Scoring a late equaliser against Birmingham, after sitting on a train of birmingham fans ripping me about how “they’re going to get bags of goals” against us…

Now, the obvious lows (tragic losing run, getting relegated, etc, etc) have been left out – and I’ve chosen three from a raffle of 8 million to share with you.

Lows: Conceding last minute goals in numerous fixtures (Sunderland, Bolton, Liverpool, Newcastle)
but specifically Liverpool. They got out of jail and they knew it.
Lows: Missing a penalty and then conceding two goals in 2 minutes, to lose 2-1 to Blackburn.
Lows: Always being last on MOTD.

* We started better than Arsenal…
* Shot ourselves in the foot…
* We still can’t defend…
* Theirry Henry left Arsenal a while ago, move on, Arsenal fans!
* Earnie scored for Derby…
* And did a dance… (see pic)
* Roy Carroll saved about 98 one-on-ones…
* Passing Success: Derby: 70.4%, Arsenal 86.8. Says it all.

Audio/Video

* Paul Jewell (on BBC Radio Derby) after the match

Other

West Brom (the team we beat in the play-off finals) were promoted tonight – and spare a quick thought for Southampton…. this time last season we were playing them in the play-offs, they had a strong competitive team (Gareth Bale, Kenwyne Jones, among others)… and now they’re in the bottom three in serious danger of being relegated to League One.

Goals to follow…

At times there are really good signs of improvement and the style of football we’ll be playing next season. Anyway… here’s the aftermat(c)h:

* Paul Jewell talking to BBC Radio Derby (Real Audio)

* Paul Jewell on MOTD (Video)

Here are the goals/highlights:

Interviews: If 3 interviews saying the same thing is too much for you to take – then let me summarise. Jewell says we started well but fell apart as soon as something went against us , that his team are gutless and found out at every opportunity and some of them just don’t give a damn. Gotta love the honesty.

* Paul Jewell’s thoughts, via BBC Radio Derby: (Real Audio)

* Paul Jewell – BBC MOTD Interview

* Paul Jewell – SkySports

Here are the goals. Derby fans look away now. Seriously…

Next up is West Ham away. They beat us 5-0 at home in October. Mercifully I am on a stag-do on Saturday so I shall at least be “in a prepared state” for the result this time around.

/end

1. Our total lack of guts. After a really bright start (where we were the better team, not that any of the lazy TV pundits will acknowledge) the 2nd goal ended the game. You ask the 30,000 Derby fans who watched the game, not one of them would have disagreed. How can a team – irrespective of confidence – have so little fight.

2. Despite the fact I am 100% behind Paul Jewell and absolutely positive he is the man to take our club forwards it is totally unacceptable to field a team (5 of which were his own signings) that is so desperately short of competing… and not just that but woefully lacking in spirit. Jewell has been at the club since November and it’s not good enough. Nowhere near. I’m tired hearing about next season and how everyone wants the season to end… There are still games to play. I don’t want to hear about it. I want to hear about the next game.

The fans are all behind Jewell and we might have been singing until the end but I hope the irony of the chants “Let’s pretend we scored a goal” and “Easy, easy, easy…” weren’t lost on the players. We were singing because there was nothing else to do.

Whilst none of the players (OR MANAGEMENT) should escape from the sheer embarrassment of this sort of performance or result I would like to separate the few who tried for 90 minutes from the rest of the XI who clearly don’t give a shit. Savage, Ghaly, Villa, Miller… your efforts were not un-noticed. Some I’m not sure of, and some were just a god damn disgrace.

I’m not a fan of player fines but all we ask is 100% effort and it’s really not much to ask. Some of the players just aren’t putting in anything near that and they need to be weeded out. NOW. I’m comfortable with the fact we’re not having a great season and that we’re going to take the odd kicking but this sort of performance is utterly utterly unacceptable.

Ross Fletcher from BBC Radio Derby said “It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t such a regular occurrence.” So true. So true.
SORT IT OUT JEWELL. SORT IT OUT.
More when I’ve calmed down.
It might be a while…

Jewell said (audio link here): “If we’d played like that all season we probably wouldn’t be where we are. For passing and movement we were excellent, we just didn’t have the killer pass. We didn’t have the quality at times but I couldn’t ask for more from the players. We pushed Everton all the way and I’m pleased with the performance, just disappointed not to get something out of the game.”

Interviews, goals (singular, this time), pictures and other post-match articles to follow….

Click here for a dose of Paul Jewell post-match realism.

A draw snatched from the jaws of victory… relegation and humiliation snatched from the jaws of, um… survival, oh… and pride. We’re relegated. Finally…. and as some might say “put out of our misery” – but that will only be true if we can scrape 4 more points from games against Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn, West Ham and Reading. Doable but hardly easy.

Sometimes it’s just soul destroying supporting a football team, isn’t it? I had to listen to a friend of mine complain bitterly about how his team, Chelsea never have any luck. I cried in my beer. I know a few people who don’t support football teams and although I don’t understand that “crazy mentality” of not having a team – it probably does save a lot of pain and suffering in the long run… But we know the deal, we swap all these weeks of pain and suffering for the good times (aka “the few”).

It was Birmingham’s surprise 3-1 win at Manchester City which officially meant our 2-2 draw with Fulham wasn’t sufficient enough to postpone the inevitable and I got the confirmation that our fate was sealed from a friend whilst leaving the hotel I was staying in (heading for the nearest bar, I might add) and as luck would have it that was at the same time this taxi (see below) rolled up. …And I swear to god – it took the piss without even opening it’s doors… I took a photo of it to mark the occasion… much to my girlfriends confusion.

It could only have been more ironic if Billy Davies had stepped out of that taxi. I might not have been able to restrain myself.

Rather than tell you that it’s a season of “nearlys and maybe’s” or how it could almost have been so much different, so easily… I just wanted to write and say that we’ll be back – and this time we’ll be prepared because (our manager won’t be spending the summer getting a better contract) we’ve had bloody long enough to prepare!

It’s not easy to talk about positives when you’ve had the season we’ve had, nor is it easy to talk about any of the games (like I think I’m supposed to be doing here) but any clichés rolled out by managers and players tend to wear thin but I will say that some of Jewell’s signings are starting to look the business and are probably pieces of the puzzle for next season.

Tito Villa (pictured above) did really well… Mile Sterjovski on the wing showed some good skill – particularly in the 2nd half and Roy Carroll looked sharp too, and let’s be honest, the Championship aint a great division – and although I used to think getting out of that division was hard, getting promoted with the ability to be able to compete with the other teams is the real trick… and no disrespect to Stoke City or Hull City but I cant see them doing any better than us – especially as we’re a bigger club with a better reputation.

As for question of “the worst team ever”… I still maintain the Swindon’s and Barnsley’s were worse, just that the gap between Worse, Average and Excellent has got bigger…. Roll on August. The quicker the better… please…!