Jewell needs to restore Rams' pride

10:58am Friday 18th April 2008

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It's always amusing when the teleprinter spewing out the football results adds insult to injury by spelling out a big score in letters.

If the losers haven't suffered enough, their embarrassment is highlighted by bracketed capitals, just to make sure the viewer is not confused into thinking the silly scoreline is a typing error.

It works because of the shock value. If it happened every week, nobody would bat an eyelid.

But that is the way most people are viewing Derby's pathetic Premier League effort this season. It's Saturday, so of course the Rams have lost again. D'uh!

Last week was the third time they had been hit for six but even though this latest thumping at the hands of Aston Villa was inflicted at home, it barely warranted a flicker among the rest of the football public.

Throw in a couple of 5-0s for good measure and another spanking is hardly out of character in a campaign that has brought the top flight into disrepute.

Pride Park? Now there's an oxymoron.

Remember how it felt when City could manage only 26 points during their relegation campaign in 2001? Ten hours without a goal; four months without a win before Christmas; three months without one afterwards.

Grim, grim stuff. Yet compared with Derby's situation, it's almost Champions' League form.

Derby have won ONCE and that was way back in September. They have already set one Premier record for the longest run without a victory and can you seriously see them getting the five points needed to avoid the lowest tally ever set by Sunderland two years ago?

So where does this leave Paul Jewell?

A man who prided himself on a Red Adair reputation for beating the Premiership drop at Valley Parade and the JJB. Now he will be associated with undoubtedly the most embarrassing rabble ever to grace the so-called best club league in the world.

Is it really Jewell's fault? Not really. Even if a record before this weekend of only five points from 25 games would have guaranteed the sack in any other circumstances.

But his head is not on the block because Derby were seen as down and out well before he got the call from chairman Adam Pearson.

Not that it will be much consolation for the manager. Especially if he thinks back to that "money-no-object" offer to return to Wigan just before Christmas.

Jewell said at the time that his missus wasn't talking to him - I wonder, now, if he's not talking to himself.

The Derby squad that will start next season will be unrecognisable from this bunch. Jewell has made his feelings on that score pretty clear.

But his position will also be very different. The Derby public will be demanding success - so much so that they have already flogged 19,000 season tickets for the Championship campaign.

It may have been a horrible honeymoon but Jewell has been given these months to size up the task ahead. He has to come out firing from the first kick of the ball in August.

Derby, as Billy Davies later admitted, were not ready to go up - but his successor has had all the time in the world to prepare for going down.

Nobody round here needs reminding that Jewell has conquered the promotion challenge before. There were high hopes around Valley Parade - remember how close he came to jacking it in after losing heavily at Ipswich early in that season - but Derby's demands will be at another level altogether.

Jewell has said that he is willing to put up with the "humiliation, pain and abuse" if it means success 12 months from now.

Given what has already gone on, bringing Derby straight back up will be every bit as sweet as Jewell's previous achievements in keeping two so-called lesser lights in the Premiership.

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