Rams no soft touch - Paul Jewell
PAUL Jewell has warned Blues that Derby County are no longer everyone’s favourite fall guys.
Having gone three days short of a year without a league victory, the Rams are unbeaten in four games and recorded an impressive 2-0 victory at QPR on Saturday.
“It’s nice to go into a game looking forward to it,” he said.
“We’re nowhere near hitting our best yet though. We need to create more chances up front and be harder to beat.
“That’s where it all starts. But we played well against QPR although we’re not at Wolves’ level where they’re going into games thinking they will score a lot of goals, the confidence we lacked last season though is returning.
‘‘It’s changing and you can feel it when you come into the club. There’s more laughter instead of silence and doom and gloom.
“It’s still small steps, we haven’t quite turned the corner yet. Saturday’s gone now we have to prepare to play a very difficult team and one of the favourites for promotion.”
Meanwhile, Derby County were beaten by Blues for the signatures of Kevin Phillips and Lee Carsley in the summer, Jewell has revealed.
Both were Bosman free transfers, and both elected to move to St Andrew’s despite talks with the Rams boss.
“We were interested, we came close to signing Phillips and Carsley,” admitted Jewell.
“For different reasons it never happened. Phillips is a proven goalscorer and the biggest compliment I can pay to Carsley is that Everton are missing him.
“He may be 35 but he was still a big factor in Everton’s success over the last couple of seasons. Some things happen for the right reasons and Miles Addison might not have got his chance, he’s taken his chance really well.
“Carsley was coming here but things change in football, but he had ties in Birmingham and lived in the locality.
“He’d been travelling to Everton the last couple of years almost daily.
‘‘He’s a good player and a good sort of person you’d want in the dressing room.
“Phillips? It might have been the same, he didn’t have to move house. Life and family can be more of a factor than money at that stage of your career. Being settled is important, although we aren’t a million miles away. It definitely wasn’t down to money.”
