WE met in the Fanzone, full of optimism after our creditable performance at Chelsea.

The bets were on at least a point against one of the favourites for promotion.

And for the first half hour, we gave as good as we got and even survived a dubious penalty when Andy Lonergan confirmed his hero status.

But after Chris Martin made amends for his penalty miss and put Derby one up, there was only going to be one winner.

We fell apart. The effort levels were there but the passes went astray and any semblance of team work disappeared.

It was as if going one down wasn’t in the script and therefore we didn’t have a response. Headless chickens spring to mind. We got it wrong again.

The highlight of the day was the Zorb football at half-time and the only positive was the club’s adoption of Blesma, who support limbless veterans, as this season’s charity.

Dougie Freedman and the players have all made appeals to the fans to stick with them. The silence from the boardroom has been deafening.

We want Dougie to succeed but it is getting very difficult to maintain that belief.

The fans’ frustrations are growing as shown by the pitch invasions and the competition between the ‘Freedman Out’ and ‘Gartside Out’ supporters.

Things have to change and change quickly. Everyone at the club has to take responsibility for our current plight and do something about it or it’s time to consider their positions.

The club might have won the court case last week but we didn’t come out of it with any honour after the judge’s comments.

We are being poorly led from the top. It’s hard being a Wanderers fan these days. It’s like death by a thousand cuts. Another nail goes in the coffin every week. Failure is not in getting knocked down but in not getting up again.