With Derby flying high at the moment, looking to be top contenders for promotion to the Premiership next season, it seems that Sky Sports are interested in making sure they get full coverage of the Rams progress.

Through Feburary and March, Derby will have three games shown in concession on Sky Sports.

• Starting on Monday 26th February with Sunderland v Derby at the Stadium of Light, coverage will start on Sky Sports 1 at 7.30pm.
• The run continues on Friday 2nd March when it’s Derby v Colchester at Pride Park.
• Finally, the run finishes against fellow promotion rivals when the Birmingham City v Derby game has been bought forward to Friday 9th March with the Rams travelling to St. Andrews, potentially stealing them of their current Championship crown.

All in all, it should be an exciting second half to the season for the Rams, one that could see us gain automatic promotion to the “Big League”. Even if we’re not getting many Saturday matches, prime time TV coverage can only gain a higher profile for the Derby boys, preparing them for all those visits from the BBC cameramen next season.

Filed by Si at 12:22 pm under Fixtures
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It was the last match of the season and Derby were mathematically safe from relegation. It had also been a very busy week for the club with Pete Gadsby and Co taking over ownership at Pride Park. But this wasn’t a game to remember.

Ex-Ram Marcus Tudgay opened the score line for Sheffield Wednesday early on in the game connecting with a free kick from Jon-Paul McGovern in the 5th minute. While Tommy Smith missed a great opportunity later on, he couldn’t finish it off. It all came to an end in the 85th minute when the Owls’ Leon Best managed to lob Lee Camp with a deflected shot. End result: 2-0 to the travellers.

With the season all wrapped up for the Rams and new owners running the camp, it seems like a good time to reflect on what has been quite a hectic season for Derby and not necessarily for the better. Burley leaving at the end of last season gave the team some serious doubts and the first half of the season didn’t go to plan when Phil Brown took over. We lost a lot of our key players to other teams having to try and make money where possible. When Westley came in, he took on numerous loan players from around the League trying to create a stronger and more robust team. It worked in our favour at times and some of the latest additions have given the Rams some confidence but unfortunately, that doesn’t reflect our final position in the table (20th).

Hopefully, next season will see better times for Derby. Terry Westley has got his hands full with training and getting the team up to scratch to take on the new Midlands rivals with Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion getting relegated from the Premiership. Come on Derby - you can do it! Just look at last season…

Match Report: BBC | DCFC

Filed by Si at 12:17 pm under Fixtures
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With our relegation battle mathematically over, things had calmed down in the Rams camp. But it didn’t do anything for our confidence during the trip to Suffolk for our second-to-last game.

The first half was pretty quiet although Derby seemed like the better side. There were no major attempts on goal but with Peschisolido, El Hamdaoui and Kevin Lisbie out on injury, it was going to be a pretty defensive game on our part, especially considering our away form of late.

It was only a minute into the second half when Ipswich’s Nicky Forster put one past Lee Camp to give the home side the lead. Darren Currie secured the three points for Ipswich in the 63rd minute from his half-volley into the bottom corner.

Next week sees our last game of the season at home to Sheffield Wednesday. We can hardly say this season’s campaign has been great but we can take a lot from it and, hopefully, Mr Westley can sort out the team for the 2006/7 season.

Match Reports: BBC | DCFC

Filed by Si at 5:58 pm under Fixtures
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Yet another single goal draw secured our campaign against relegation when Hull travelled to Pride Park for Easter Bank Holiday.

Hull took the lead in the 33rd minute due to a lack of communication and decision in the Ram’s defence when Stuart Green thrashed an impressive 20-yard half volley into the back of our net. But it took the rest of the game for the Rams to get the goal they deserved. It was a definite late foul from Scott Wiseman on Peschy which opened up a penalty chance for the home side and it was our current hero Tommy Smith who converted from the spot to give Derby the point they needed in the dying minutes.

With two games left, Derby look to be safe from relegation but this does not mean a relaxing summer for the boys. They need to train hard and push themselves to put Derby back where they belong next season - at the top!

Match Reports: BBC | DCFC

Filed by Si at 11:01 pm under Fixtures
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Considering our away performance hasn’t been great, our match at Loftus Road could have been a lot worse!

The first half showed neither side were capable of creating goals and it was only a late shot from QPR’s Gareth Ainsworth that showed any potential of breaking the deadlock.

It was in the second half when the majority of the action happened. Soon into the second half, Marc Nygaard nodded in a cross from Paul Furlong for the home side. It was less than 10 minutes later when Ram Tommy Smith knocked in a superb left-footed shot which finished the goals for the game.

Match Reports: BBC | DCFC

Filed by Si at 11:01 pm under Fixtures
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It was Tommy Smith who secured 3 vital points against fellow relegation potential’s Milwall this weekend and lifted our chances of steering clear of the dropzone.

While Milwall dominated the majority of the match, they just didn’t have the ability to create any real chances to threaten the Rams. Thanks to Tommy Smith’s low shot in the 31st minute, we managed to clinch the game and add another 3 points to our campaign.

With 4 games left of the season and Crewe needing 12 points to jump above is, things are looking comfortable. It doesn’t mean we can sit back and relax. Our away performance hasn’t exactly been perfect so we need to travel to QPR and take at least a point next week. On the positive side, that’s our 4th home win in a row. It shows we do have something!

Match Reports: BBC | DCFC

Filed by Si at 8:52 am under Fixtures
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