Derby County could look forward to a full week’s preparation for their next Championship match away at Ipswich Town, having recorded their biggest League win of the season against Sheffield Wednesday.

Manager Paul Jewell was still working to secure loan reinforcements in defence but a young Irish forward had also caught the club’s eye.

James O’Shea, (20) is already a young Eire international and some reports said that Derby had already agreed a fee in excess of £300k with his club, Galway United. They are managed by ex-Ram Jeff McKenna, who fully expects O’Shea to make the grade in England.

The Rams played a ‘closed doors’ Moor Farm training game with Notts County last Tuesday - and O’Shea obliged with two goals in Derby’s 5-2 win.

Jewell fielded a strong side, with Bywater, Ellington, Liam Dickinson (back from his loan spell at Huddersfield Town) and Jay McEveley included, as well as Kazmierczak, who scored twice, and Zadkovich, who got the other Derby goal.

Paul Jewell had contact from the F.A. asking him to ‘be aware of his responsibilities’ following his comments about the incompetent rookie referee Stuart Attwell. The authorities had separately acknowledged that Attwell had made erroneous decisions in the recent Rams’ vs. Forest game to cost Derby County goals and points against their closest rivals.

Let’s hope the F.A. is also working just as diligently to ensure that referees can discharge their own responsibilities properly. Attwell’s reward for his disaster show has been to officiate at subsequent Premier League fixtures.

The F.A. seem to favour allocating him to Hull City games; it would be most interesting to observe the aftermath of a similar Attwell performance at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or The Emirates Stadium! Somehow, Fergie or Wenger wouldn’t be too much into ‘respect’, I’d guess…

Faced with another heavy schedule of games during November, the manager was keen to strengthen his squad and signed defensive cover in Ex-Southampton centre half Darren Powell (32). He’s been training with Charlton Athletic, but as a free agent was keen to get the chance of first-team football in a two-month deal at Pride Park Stadium.

Powell went straight into the squad that travelled to Ipswich Town; Jewell hoped to secure more reinforcements before the emergency loan deadline next Thursday. The manager hoped that Powell would impress, saying that the defender had an opportunity to win himself a contract until the end of the season.

One loanee who would be happy to remain at Derby is Nacer Barazite, currently on loan from Arsenal until the end of December. "Playing in the Championship every week is a huge experience for me," said the Dutch Under-19 forward, and in the continuing absence of Giles Barnes, Baracite adds the width and balance to Derby’s attacking thrust.

The five defendants in the ongoing Derby County fraud case relating to ex-chairman John Sleightholme’s failed regime all pleaded not guilty to their charges. Messrs. Lowe, Keith, Walters, Mackay and McKenzie appeared in Northampton Crown Court last week - the case goes to trial in February 2009. The charges centre on the £15m loan arranged in 2003 via the ABC Corporation of Panama.

Lowe had a charge against him of concealing criminal property dropped, though is charged with facilitating the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property, specifically a sum of £81,895 on behalf of Murdo Mackay and Andrew McKenzie.

The five had been bailed on various allegations of conspiracy to defraud Derby County Football Club by concealing criminal property, false accounting and money laundering. This involved the sum of £440,625 in December 2003, via a financial company known as Streamline Management. Sleightholme resigned in April 2006, his board having left Derby County £56m in debt.

A much more valuable and loyal contribution to Derby County should be acknowledged though, regarding Marian McMinn, whose role at the club has come to an end after 24 very eventful years. Apart from seeing many regimes and several promotions and relegations during her time as secretary and administrator at both Baseball Ground and Pride Park Stadium, she collected the “Tin Man” as a husband along the way! We all send our best wishes to the McMinns for the future.

The Rams have sold out their 4,000-ticket allocation for the Carling Cup quarterfinal at Stoke City on December 2nd. and have requested a further 600 tickets.

Only goal difference separated Ipswich Town and Derby County in the Championship table prior to the match at Portman Road on Saturday. Town’s hopes of reaching the Premier League have faded as each season has worn on, flattering to deceive. They seem forever labelled with the ‘attractive but not good enough’ tag when it comes to the run-in and it is currently Jim Magilton’s task to overturn that pattern.

Jewell named an unchanged side after the encouraging win against Sheffield Wednesday and the return of several players from midweek international duty. New signing Darren Powell was named as a substitute.

The first half proceeded as an unremarkable spectacle, honours even without much danger at either end of the park, until a routine ball down the centre after 26 minutes was missed by Claude Davis, who was then brushed aside by the diminutive Pablo Counago, who rattled the ball past an exposed Roy Carroll to put the Tractor Boys ahead. “Calamity Claude” had returned to gift the opposition a goal - very disappointing, given his solid performance against Sheffield Wednesday.

Davis suffered a hamstring injury minutes later and was replaced by newcomer Darren Powell. The Rams had shown nothing of note up front in the game so far, the poor service to the strikers resulting in little impact upon the Ipswich goalmouth. More positivity was needed for Derby to salvage anything from the fixture. There was some brighter play from Derby on the resumption, but Kris Commons was withdrawn after only 55 minutes with a thigh strain, Kazmierczak taking over.

A further dreadful defensive lapse gifted Ipswich a second goal on 65 minutes however. Darren Powell air-kicked right in front of goal to enable Jonathan Walters to happily stuff the loose ball home from 3 yards: 2-0. Ipswich wound down the game comfortably, Derby failing to trouble Town goalie Richard Wright, apart from a close-range Kaz header that was palmed away.

It had been an unremarkable Rams performance, with two defensive howlers gifting Ipswich the points. Claude Davis only returned from international duty last Friday, whilst Darren Powell hadn’t played this season. Derby’s defensive woes were also compounded by an utter lack of punch up front.

Manager Jewell was smarting after his side’s meek surrender, saying it was unacceptable and ‘a kick in the teeth’. He felt that recent progress had been undone and some poor habits, which he thought his squad had overcome, had returned. There was nothing of the verve and purpose shown against Wednesday.

Tuesday’s home Championship game against Preston North End is an early chance for Derby to get back on track. At present, The Rams have 'no particular place to go' - a familiar observation borne of their current inconsistency.

They’re traversing the moribund corridor between top 10 and bottom 10 of the table, so Jewell’s next moves into the loan and transfer market will be critical in terms of this season’s aspirations. I hope we get far more value from squad additions than in the previous two January transfer windows.

In RamsWeek 47 last year, trouble was brewing at t’mill: there was certainly a “bad moon rising” at the weekend! The week had some rare bright spots - Steve Howard made a scoring debut for Scotland’s B Team against the Republic of Ireland.

A fifth man, Mark Walters, was charged in ongoing criminal proceedings regarding Derby County’s affairs during the Three Amigos’ dreadful tenure.

Chelsea came to Derby and wrested three points in a 2-0 win, the Rams showed more battling spirit than usual and suffered from some cruel and crucial refereeing decisions. It was the after-match interviews that attracted the banner headlines though, as Billy Davies spoke well and truly out of turn.

He riled new Chairman Adam Pearson by saying he’d had no communication with him, then demanded squad investment. Pearson refuted the claims and set up a meeting with Davies at 9 o’clock on Monday. Billy had a rather over-inflated view of his own stock - and perhaps one eye on a fat pay-off?

Photo: Action Images

Colchester United Polls