Paul Jewell has issued a message to Rams fans - including an amazing 19,000 who have already renewed their season tickets for 2008/09.

As his side went down at home to Aston Villa on the last day of price-freeze renewals, the Derby manager told RamsWorld: "It's embarrassing for me as a manager to see the supporters taking the mickey out of the team but they pay good money and they are entitled to do that because they turn up week after week and they are not getting value for money.

"Every supporter has a point of view and I don't think I will be flavour of the month at the moment, but my message to them is I'm sorry the results don't mirror their support right now - but it will be different in the Championship."

After being hit for six by Villa, Jewell said there was "a huge gap in quality" between the visitors and his team.

"I have never had a defeat like that at home as a manager and hope I never have one again because it's difficult to take with the support we get week in week out," he said.

"There's always something to play for because you learn about certain people in certain situations, but I'm trying to build for next season and there's a lot happening off the pitch to make that happen. The players we want to bring in will make us a different team, I will tell you that, but at the moment it's a hugely embarrassing situation for me."

Jewell added: "I'm more interested to see what happens when we go 1-0 down than when we are three or four behind. We are not bouncing back. The power and the energy and the technical ability that Villa had today we couldn't cope with. We have never been hard to beat since I came here. and to survive in your first season in the Premier League you have to have a bit of luck and be determined, but as a group we have a losing mentality that has crept in this season and I take my part of the responsibility.

"We can play when things are going our way as in the first part of today's game - what we can't do as a group is to react to adversity. We haven't got enough understanding of the game - nastiness if you like - to react to adversity.

"We won't win a game of football anywhere for the rest of this season if we play like we did for 70 minutes today. This season is a complete write-off and it's what happens next season that matters because this club deserves to be in the Premier League with the support and size of the club."

Season ticket price freeze applies ONLINE until midnight on April 12.

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