IT WASN’T meant to be this way. For all the goodwill engendered by Nigel Clough’s arrival at the white-shirted end of the A52, Brian Clough Way, his new charges hover perilously above the relegation places this morning. Should he have harboured any foolish notions of instant regeneration, they were dismissed by a swaggering Rangers, whose manager Paulo Sousa celebrated his first away victory by announcing: “Today Derby played a team with personality.”

In contrast, Clough was understandably downbeat. “I’d seen glimpses of this in training, but I’m bitterly disappointed. We knew we had a job on when we came here. This afternoon confirmed everything.”

His Burton Albion decade accustomed Clough to the low-key approach. No surprise, then, that this unflamboyant son of a flamboyant father scampered into the Pride Park dugout, pausing only to share a manly cuddle with Sousa.

Buoyed by the new regime, Clough’s charges began eagerly and visiting captain Martin Rowlands was stretchered off with a serious knee injury.

B u t s u b s t i t u t e H o g a n Ephraim trundled down the middle and found Heidar Helgu-son, who miscontrolled, but the ball bounced off Martin Albrechtsen into Wayne Routledge’s path and he gleefully tapped into the open goal.

Rangers had secured their three points by half-time. Routledge sidestepped Mo Camara’s feeble challenge and crossed low for Mikele Leigertwood to drive home.

Whatever Clough said at half-time almost reaped immediate dividends when Radek Cerny clawed Miles Addison’s flying header aside. Just after the hour, a Rob Hulse header saw Cerny finally beaten, but Ephraim headed off the line and another huge Pride Park crowd began to slope home. Only a Roy Carroll save from Ephraim prevented the third, which would have added realism as well as pain to Clough’s maiden scoreline.

Star man:Wayne Routledge (QPR)

DERBY:Carroll 6, Albrechtsen 5, Nyatanga 5, Todd 5, Camara 4, Commons 5, Addison 6, Green 5, Barnes 5 (Barazite 70min), Hulse 5, Varney 4 (Davies 59min, 5)

QPR:Cerny 7, Delaney 6, Gorkss 6, Mahon 7, Stewart 6, Routledge 8, Rowlands 5 (Ephraim 12min, 8), Con-nolly 6, Leigertwood 8, Cook 6 (Alberti 90min), Helguson 5 (Di Carmine 64min)

Yellow cards: Derby:Todd, Camara

Referee:K Wright Attendance:28,390