More than 33,000 turned out at Pride Park yesterday hoping to witness Paul Jewell win his first competitive game in charge of the Rams.
But newly-promoted Donacaster Rovers had not read the script and a goal from Lewis Guy in the 59th minute means Jewell is still searching for his first league win as Derby boss.
No fewer than seven players made their debuts for the Rams, a fact which may have contributed to Derby?s defeat. Jewell knows that his side came up against a team who know each other very well, but admits that his team are already under pressure to click together.
He said: ?Seven debutants in a league game, you are lucky if everything goes to plan. They were a better team than us, I am not taking that away from them and we did look a new team. am aware that we need to gel pretty quickly. You could see as a team they [Doncaster] were more comfortable playing with each other than we were.?
While admitting that his side need to convert their chances, he seems to be buoyed be the fact that they are at least carving out opportunities, remarking: ?We should be doing better, of course we should be, but we will get better. ‘It’s one game we have had. We’ve got 45 left. I guess if one of the chances we had early on had gone in, may be it would have been different.?
Although new strikers Rob Hulse and Nathan Ellington failed to score yesterday it appears that they have already gained the backing of the gaffer. The strike duo remained on the pitch for the entire game even though Tito Villa was on the bench. Fellow new forward Liam Dickinson could be on his way out of the club on loan in order to give him confidence and match fitness.
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