Saturdays draw against Crystal Palace was almost a perfect microcosm of the Rams season at large. We started with three of our key players missing (Hulse and Pearson joining the ubiquitous Commons on the unavailable list) against opposition who were average at best and definitely beatable.
 
We started off well enough with an early goal and our now cast iron defence not giving Palace a sniff at the other end. Indeed going into half time, with Wigan loanee Tomasz Cywka threatening to run riot, it all looked good for a comfortable win in the sunshine.  Then it all just downhill. Whether it was negative tactics, whether it was fatigue, whether it was nervousness as Palace upped their game, I don't know. What I do know is that we didn't turn up for the second half and despite Palaces goal being late, in truth it was the least they deserved. In the end everyone was glad when the game finished and we at least had a point. As I said, very much like being glad when this season finishes and counting our blessings that we are at least still in the Championship.
 
Our target for this season was simply an improvement on last year. It was always stated that this wasn't going to be an easy ride and much of the football served up by the Rams has been tough to watch this year. However if you look at the stats (which I now do constantly following a recent football stats epiphany), there are significantly more reasons for optimism that were on show at Pride Park on Saturday. Firstly lets cut to the chase; last season we finished 18th with 54 points. At the moment the Rams stand in 15th with 53 points and 2 games to play (the second of which will presumably be against Cardiff's youth team pending their play off campaign).

If you drill down to our home and away form there's also some interesting points to consider. In our promotion season 06/07, the Rams won 13 home games. This season we have won 11, with a sitter to come. Our away form this season has been almost bizarre. Up to Christmas, it was catastrophic with our return of 2 points out of the first 33 available being the worst in all four divisions. However with the return from injury of Shaun Barker, the emergence of Jake Buxton and the recent signing of Russell Anderson, we now have more away clean sheets than anyone in the league bar Swansea (9 each up to yesterday). 

Whilst Rams fans (including me) have several times this season bemoaned apparent negative tactics, if the first part of building a good team is to become difficult to beat, Derby have definitely achieved that. The challenge now is to add some firepower and creativity to the mix and make us genuine contenders.  
 
Both our frontline strikers (Hulse and Commons) are approaching the last year of their contract and I would be surprised if either of them was still a Rams player come next season. Rumours of £750k / £1m bids for Mackie of Plymouth and Hooper of Scunthorpe would suggest that Clough thinks the same.
 
With the teams coming down from the Premier League not looking anything to worry about at all, the Championship will be as wide open as ever next year. Despite the usual fan moans about transfer funds, I believe only Boro and perhaps Forest will have a comparable budget to us next season so there's every chance that we can move forward again and at last see some proper progress. 

C Spaceram