The festive season is truly upon us with the nights drawing in and the traditional chill in the air, as well as a referee posing as Santa at Pride Park last Saturday.

Now, this isn't sour grapes but Derby won't get many better presents this Christmas. And to make it worse, that decision was the only thing that divided the teams.

It was an evenly contested game with the Rams reduced to shooting from distance and neatly keeping possession without breaching our rearguard. We, however, had the better of the second half and thoroughly deserved something from the match. After the ridiculous penalty decision we were forced to chase the game and change our game plan, but they were the ones desperate for the final whistle. It's just a shame a refereeing error robbed us of another good result.

We spent this week looking forward to last night's clash with our former mentor and Albion legend Micky Adams. I had to write this column before the game but I hope Micky was given an excellent ovation from our fans. What he did for this club was monumental.

This time last year we were second in Division Two and went on to win the league. Now we're second from bottom of Division One and set to embark on an important journey in our history. I'll ask you all where would you rather be, where we are now or where we were last year? As a squad, we would say where we are now. As footballers you want to play in the bigger games and the better the challenge, the sweeter the reward. And there would be no sweeter reward than the Albion still being in Division One come May. Above all, we would know that we had been through the mill, tested on all fronts, competed with the odd giant and come through as gold.

Last Monday saw the Albion host their annual Christmas party at The Grand Hotel and a good night was had by all. All the players turned up, with everybody smartly dressed. All except Graham Barrett, who turned up looking like a skateboarder and was duly fined. He complained, saying he thought it was 'smart casual' but the committee got him on a couple of technicalities, one being it was casual, but not smart and two, the committee are always right.

The committee is there to rule on any breach of discipline and it's made up of Harty because he's honest, Charlie being the muscle, Pethick so he can agree with everything Charlie tells him and myself being the nerd representative (a sort of the voice of the week), with the book-keeper Paul Watson having the deciding vote in any dispute. And you won't believe how many decisions have gone to the wire with the accused just losing 3-2, about 100 per cent of them. Another special mention from the party was Bob Booker's Essex Girl joke which went down like a lead balloon. Apparently, someone almost laughed but thought better of it.

It has also come to my attention that the youth team's psycho centre half Adam El-Abd reported to the physio with a bruised foot, obtained while doing free kicks. Apparently, one of the mannequins in the wall was staring at him so he smashed him and dragged him round the training ground. Adam should be back by the weekend but the mannequin has just sent for a C.I.C.A. claim form.

The Brazilians were back to winning ways with a 2-1 result at Peterborough, but only after a half-time rollicking from Dean 'Wenger' White. Apparently, Dave Lee and John Piercy, aka the technique boys, weren't pulling their weight so Deano got a few things off his chest (prawn bhaji, two naans and the odd bit of crackling) and in the second half they came out victorious with the aforementioned technique boys on target.

And finally, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and let's not forget those less fortunate than ourselves.