A 50th Minute Report on Derby's season.

With just over half the season gone, Derby currently sit 10^th in the Championship, on the back of 5 wins out of 6 in all competitions. It has already resembled a rollercoaster of emotions for the club though; a rollercoaster that has showcased the fickle nature of football fans.

A great start to the season saw the Rams win their first 4 league matches. Fans were ringing up Radio Derby expressing their delight at having Brian Clough’s son in charge.  Fans relief at sticking with Nigel Clough through the previous 3 years of poor times poured on to the airwaves. People were even talking about the dreaded ‘P’ word, despite the fact it was early enough in the season to get a suntan on Blackpool beach.

Then, as with previous seasons, came the sticky patch. Five straight league defeats in November woke the moaners up from their hibernation. Anger and petulance replaced relief from fans on the airwaves.  “Nige isn’t his fathers son. Get rid of him before it’s too late” is the sort of phrase that wouldn’t look out of place on a Jeremy Kyle show, but it was in fact the view of one Derby fan. Others were equally as damning, but they stayed away from bringing genetics into it. A Tottenham fan even waded in to the Nigel Clough bashing. “I live in the area and I feel so sorry for Derby fans. They’ve put up with so much rubbish for so long now. It’s not fair. They’re great people and deserve so much better than the tripe they’re getting”.

Transport yourself to late December. Santa has been, and the rollercoaster is emerging from the lowest depth of its course so far. Back-to-back home wins against high flying Leeds and West Ham cause giddy excitement. An away win at Hull in the new year sends fans dizzy with delirium. A home win against Palace in the FA Cup delights the 10,000 that turned up to watch, but makes others wish it was a league match whilst the team are in good form.

The moaners returned to the burrows. The airwaves opened to those wanted to portray Nigel Clough as the next Jose Mourinho (for the record, that didn’t happen, but you get the point). The good form coincided with the return from injury of key players; something that Clough has been robbed of for so long during his spell as manager.

Shaun Barker has formed a solid partnership with Jason Shackell at centre back, and John Brayford and Gareth Roberts have been in impressive form in front of Frank Fielding. Other key players have returned, such as Paul Green and James Bailey. The emergence of young striker Callum Ball has also been a positive for the Rams, scoring against Bristol City and a cracker against West Ham.

So Derby look to be on the up again, but even the most optimistic of fans will have a handbook locked away in a drawer somewhere, informing them of how many Derby fans deal with disastrous runs. 1) Boo excessively 2) Shout obscenities at players when they misplaces a pass (don’t forget to tell them they’re not fit to wear the shirt, too). 3) Start calling for Clough to leave 4) Ring up Radio Derby and rant about everything bad in the world. To the best of my knowledge, this book has not been published, but it is an insight into how things work for the moaners.

Where can it go wrong then? Bottom side Coventry visit Pride Park on Saturday. Short of form, short of good players, and short of fans. Were this match taking place on Football Manager, the pre-match teamtalk would be ‘Don’t get complacent out there!’. The Rams need to keep playing as they are and hope for an injury free run to key players. Fans also need to stay calm and positive. Whilst at Derby, Robbie Savage remarked that it can be unpleasant playing at Pride Park when things are going wrong, because of the negativity of some fans. Derby are the second best supported team in the Championship - behind West Ham - with an average attendance of over 26,000. So when it goes wrong, as it has so often in recent years, there are plenty there to witness it. But when things are going right, there are even more there.

This season now should be one in which they do not flirt with relegation, but instead time they started on the road to becoming like their next FA Cup opponents, Stoke (without the long ball), rather than next league opponents, Coventry. The angry Tottenham fan has a point; Derby fans do deserve better, but you never know, that might be just around the corner...