Nigel is of course the son of the late great Brian Clough who also managed at Derby in a very different era. Nigel took over at Derby with the club in a similar position to where they were under his Dad but the chances of him winning promotion and then becoming champions of England are pretty slim. Clough began his managerial career in October
1998 as player manager of Burton Albion. In his fourth season, 2001/02, Clough's side
became champions of the Northern Premier League and gained promotion
to the Conference. In 2006 his side held Manchester United to a
0-0 draw, earning a replay at Old Trafford. Clough won the Conference National Manager
of the Month for December 2008, after completing 11 straight wins
in the division and guiding Burton to the top of the table before
his move to Derby. He has a huge shadow to step out of but he
is a good young manager and one who seems realistic in his ambitions
for the club.
Nigel Clough's first full season in charge was not a great one. Hopes were high going into it but a dreadful run of injuries meant they had to rely on back up players and found themselves well adrift of the playoffs from early on meaning mid table was always the best they would be able to manage. The goals of Rob Hulse along with the performances of the experienced Robbie Savage meant they were never in any real relegation danger and things may well have need different if they had managed to keep on loan DJ Campbell at the club before his move to Blackpool. In the end a final position of fourteenth was
an improvement for Clough and gives a good basis to build and improve
further in the coming years.
Miles Addison Miles Addison will be hoping he has a change of luck this year after an awful run of injuries over the last two years. The twenty one year old is hopeful that his injury troubles are behind him now and if that's the case he'll be a welcome addition to the Derby first team again. He can play in defence but prefers his central
midfield position where he has bundles of energy and is very useful
on the ball with a good range of passing. He injuries may well restrict
him in terms of pace now but he has a good football brain and with
a run of games in the side he should be an important player for
Derby next season.
Derby still have some good players and if they keep the first eleven fit they are a match for most sides with a reasonably strong defence plus Rob Hulse up front who always scores at this level. Clough will need to add more in attack if they
are to compete in the top half but with the experience they have
in the side along with a few decent young players they should have
more than enough about them to avoid any relegation worries.
Derby's mascot is a ram named Rammie. Rammie is a
full time employee of the club who also works to maintain the clubs
links with fans and the East Midlands in general, such as school
visits to promote literacy and charity events. Rammie originally
emerged as a more friendly option to the club's traditional links
with the British Army. Rammie was the first full-time mascot in football. Rammie's traditional activities include penalty shoot-outs with members of the crowd (from both the Home and Away ends) at half time, with Rammie as goalkeeper, and warming the crowd up before the match and encouraging them during it. Rammie is a very popular figure amongst Rams' fans
and, in 2005, released his first DVD, which features the character
reading from Aesop's Fables in the Derbyshire countryside.
Dexter Blackstock had a loan spell at Derby from Southampton and even scored against QPR duyring that spell before he signed for us in 2006. Rangers signed Lee Camp on loan from Derby in 2004 and he helped us to promotion before returning on loan in 2007 to help us stay up. he signed for QPR in 2007 for £300,000 and is still fondly remebered at Pride Park. The man who signed lee Camp was John Gregory who played for and managed both QPR and Derby with varying succsess. he was relegated with Derby from the Premiership and srtruggled to get word after being sacked before doing a decent job at QPR for just over a year. Other players to have played for
both clubs include Mikkel Beck, Idigo, Idiakez, Don Masson, Gary
Micklewhite and Stevie Wicks.
Both sides seem to have done well in
the away games between the two teams in recent years and you have
to go back to 1990 and a Sean Saunders goal of the season winner
for the last home win in this fixture. Derby were the second visitors to Loftus
Road after we won promotion in 2004 and the game saw QPR fans give
a great reception to lee Camp who was in goal for them that day.
Derby won 2-0 and left us feeling pretty worrie3d about what lay
ahead. The return game was very one sided with
Idiakez tearing us apart but Simon Royce had a great game and we
held on for a 0-0 draw. The return game was less eventful, a
1-1 draw with Nygaard scoring for Rangers as Scott Donnolly got
a rare chance in the first team. Derby won at Loftus Road in 2006. Jimmy
Smith scored a screamer to give us the lead but Billy Davies side
were well organised and fought back to win 2-1. At Pride Park Martin Rowlands gave QPR
the lead to win me some cash and we should have gone on to win the
game as we struggled to stay in the division. A late Darren Moore
goal gave Derby a point they didn't really deserve. In 2008/09 both games finished 2-0.
At Loftus Road a row over ticket prices over shadowed the game which
Derby won 2-0 thanks to late goals by Emmanuel Villa. At Pride Park
Rangers ran out easy winners with goals from Routledge and Leigterwood
in a very one sided contest. Last season the game at pride Park was
live on the BBC. Rangers fell behind and were two goals down before
half time due to goals from Hulse and Savage. Rangers fought back
though as Taarabt scored from a free kick and we ran riot after
the break playing Derby off the pitch and winning 4-2 thanks to
goals from Mahon, Simpson and Buzsaky. At Loftus Road it was a more tense game
with both sides in need of points to avoid being dragged into trouble.
Lee Cook scored his first goal at Loftus Road since 2007 to give
us a lead but the match ended all square thanks to a late equaliser
from Shaun Barker. Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
