City attacked and totally dominated although there were few talking points of real note despite that dominance. Matt Piper managed a few good runs and held the ball up well, and Jamie Scowcroft troubled the keeper a few times.

And was penalised for it again and again. Yes, the card happy Mr Riley was in charge. The man who brandished on average the most cards last season is back aiming to beat that. He has obviously decided that football is a non contact sport and his overwhelming desire to protect the goalkeepers from the opposition even so much as breathing on them was pathetic.

Note: Going up fairly for the ball with the keeper and the keeper fumbling the ball, is not a free kick Mr Riley.

The one Derby chance all half saw Strupar put the ball in the back of the net, but only after Christie had completely taken Ian Walker out. (Yes, Mr Riley, that was a free kick because there was contact - got it yet?)

Ironically City then went up and did the same. James Scowcroft again went up for a high ball with Sheep goalie, Andy Oakes. The keeper fumbled the ball and Muzzy Izzet tucked it away beautifully to the delight of the City crowd. As the Sheep goalie lay absolutely still on the ground the ref looked to have pointed to say it was a goal, but then blew up and signalled for the physio to come on.

There was chaos as no-one knew whether the goal stood or not, and the City players surrounded Riley asking what he was doing. By their reactions it appeared he was not going to allow the goal.

The City fans were up in arms.

After a lot of time, and great difficulty in getting the injured keeper onto a stretcher without moving him, he was carried off, Those City fans booing should be ashamed. The poor guy could have been seriously hurt. It's not his fault Riley is a tw@t.

Whilst all this was going on, unbelievably John Gregory, the Sheep Shagger boss, came running on to the pitch to talk to the ref!! Since when have managers been allowed on the pitch??? Not only did he talk to the ref and check on his goalie, but as he left the pitch he talked to a couple of other Sheep too, until the linesman had the sense to escort him off the field.

The City fans behind the Kop end goal went ballistic and had a lengthy exchange with the stewards who tried to calm them down.

New Swiss signing Foletti came on to replace the injured keeper, shaking the ref's hand as he got there (What's that all about???!) and proceeded to take what we could only presume was a freekick. Still 0-0.

"Cheat cheat cheat" and "You've only got 12 men" predictably followed from the Kop.

Scowy missed a great chance as he put a header wide, and before half time Mr Riley decided he'd better start racking his card tally up booking both Rob Lee and Muzzy Izzet for challenges that were never bookable offences. Freekicks at the most. (Note to Mr Riley...tackling is allowed in football)

Halftime came and went with another dull penalty shoot out and Birch talking to an old Derby player who came on loan to us for a bit. Thrilling stuff. Yawn.

City started the second half ok, but then something happened. Derby started to fight back. They began to tackle and pressure us and win the ball. Then the buggers not only did that but managed to keep it. And then they started to go forward, create chances and shoot.

And it all went hopelessly wrong for City.

Our season was yet again summed up when a Christie pass from the edge of the box was laid off to Kinkladze. His rather weak shot, which was well covered by Walker, took a huge deflection.

1-0 to the Sheep.

All hell broke out in the South Stand Upper as half a dozen Shaggers jumped up to celebrate. They then proceeded to wind up the City fans and the Stewards had to forcibly remove them. Idiots.

City looked shellshocked. But instead of the fightback spirit shown against Arsenal and Leeds, they looked demoralised and resigned to defeat. They suddenly began to look slow too, as Derby lifted their game a notch with a win in sight.

Bassett threw on Deane to see if we could make an impact up front.

But Derby continued to press and Strupar, who hasn't played for nearly a year, curled a lovely shot in from 20 yards out past the diving Walker. He went off to the Derby fans waving his shirt over his head. They found their voices and the City fans lost theirs; resigned to defeat to the Sheep, and resigned to relegation.

"Savage, Savage, what's the score?" sang the Sheep from the East Stansd, and City fans willed Sav to stick two fingers up at them.

The game got a little heated with Christie barging into Walker, and a spat between a few players broke out, including Mad Frank flying in to shove people around.

& then Sav lost his cool. Went into Christie with the tackle of the game, two footed, sending Christie 10 foot into the air at great speed!

The obligatory yellow followed, which was a relief..he could have got a red. But at least it put some passion into his game and he continued to get well stuck in despite being on a yellow.

Bassett threw Dickov and Marshall on. Dickov is tiny a la Wisey, but immediately ran around with pace, and showed he could control a ball, shoot on target and tackle aggressively.

Mr Riley, determined to get his card waving average right up and win again this season, booked Deane and Dickov, probably for daring to come on as subs.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, a Christie (yes him again, the irritating little git) ball into the box found Morris whose shot was blocked by Sinclair. The damn ball seemed to stick in the mud, as it just stopped dead, and Morris was quickest to react, whipping the ball in the net.

The City fans left. In their thousands. The place was half empty by the final whistle, and the team were booed off the pitch to a chorus of "What a load of rubbish". Some "Bassett out" chants started up.

If City couldn't raise their game to relegation and East Midlands rivals the Sheep, when the opposition had four 1st teamers out through suspensions, who can they raise their game against?

Gregory managed to motivate his players at half time and tell them what to do to start taking control of the game. All Bassett can do is complain that our lot aint good enough. The Derby team is equally as crap, they surely deserve to go down with us, yet Gregory has managed to get a couple of wins out of them. He can motivate them and praises them. Maybe it's time Bassett stopped blaming bad luck, injuries and the players, and did what he was employed to do...win some games and keep us up.