Derby’s performance in December has been quite ropey having only beaten Watford 1-0 at home but losing most our away games so a game on home turf was in much need, hopefully giving the Rams some much needed Pride Park support against Ipswich.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t start too well.

Within 9 minutes, Nathan Ellington went off with an injury to his leg forcing Paul Jewell to replace him with Luke Varney.

Things went from bad to worse just seven minutes later when Ipswich’s Jonathan Walters managed to head in a goal for the Tractor Boys giving Ipswich the only goal of the game.

There were many long range attempts from Derby with Miles Addison, Jordan Stewart and Kris Commons all taking shots at Richard Wright but none were good enough to meet the back of the net.

This was Paul Jewell‘s 50th league game as manager at Derby and probably not what he was hoping for at such a milestone. Speculation of Jewell leaving the club will really hit Derby hard with such big games coming up in the Carling Cup and FA Cup and while we’re sitting so low in the Championship table. Any manager who gives up at this stage is just not up to the job.

Here’s hoping it’s just rumours…

Still on a high from the League Cup win over Stoke in the week, Derby had to come back to reality quickly with a clash against Crystal Palace on home turf. As mentioned previously, our home run was quite impressive but away performances not as much. Derby had to maintain that streak.

Things didn’t really pan out that way though.

Crystal Palace took the lead when Paddy McCarthy whacked in a blinding shot from 40 yards, giving Palace the edge.

Controversy came though when Luke Varney was rewarded an equaliser after Palace keeper Julian Speroni appealed to have kept the ball over the line. The referee didn’t agree – it was 1-1.

After much protesting, Palace managed to squander Derby’s chances when Shefki Kuqi connected with Craig Beattie‘s cross, putting the travellers ahead 2-1 and taking all three points.