OK we lost as we expected. Nigel Clough has been welcomed at Pride Park almost as enthusiastically as Barack Obama was welcomed in America. He has a huge job because frankly many of the players signed by Paul Jewell cannot play in the Championship.
Our first half performance was symptomatic of the problems that we have faced for almost two years. We are weak at the back. Every time that Lewin Nyatanga plays then we seem to be quite solid but drop him and we leak goals. He is a young man who has already gained a lot of international caps for Wales and yet successive managers drop him at the first sign of a challenge.
How any professional coach/manager can rate Gary Teale ahead of Nacer Barazite is a mystery to me. Teale tonight cost us two goals and has been anonymous match after match. He must be a helluva talker in the bar!
I still believe that Bywater is better than Roy Carroll but there are also 'green shoots' to coin a phrase. Giles Barnes is gradually returning, Barazite and Davies are promising and Addison has had a good season so far. We need a leader at the back and predator at the front.
I don't think that we will go down but Nigel has a huge challenge to turn us into a promotion team. The fans deserve so much better and if the owners of the club cannot deliver then they should step aside and allow someone else the chance.
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