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Daily Archives: October 28, 2014

21st October – Bloomin’ Lovely at Bloomfield Road

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by petekobryn in Championship

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3pts, blogging101, Jack Butland, Rams, Top of the League

21st October 2014

 

Blackpool 0                             Derby County   1

                                               Chris Martin 81 (pen)

Chris Martin with his tenth goal of the season fired the Rams to the top of the Championship for the first time this season.

Our terrific run goes on and whichever way you look at it will put a smile on your face if you are a Ram.

 1 defeat in 16 games in 2014/15 

12 games unbeaten 

6 clean sheets on the trot which, as Radio Derby informed, us was the first time we have done this since 1912.

By the way ….this was the set of results 102 years ago

Derby County 2 Chelsea 0

Derby County 1 Nottingham Forest 0

Leicester Fosse 0 Derby County 1

Fulham 0 Derby County 0

Derby County 4 Gainsborough Trinity 0

Barnsley 0 Derby County 2

How we miss Leicester Fosse and Gainsborough Trinity…..

Five changes for this game on a foul and windswept night as the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo washed over the country.

In came England U-21 keeper Jack Butland for his first game in goal since joining on loan from Stoke following the injury sustained by Lee Grant in the later stages of Saturday’s 3-0 win over Reading.

He was joined in the team by Johnny Russell who replaced the injured Jamie Ward, Jeff Hendrick who replaced Craig Bryson, Ryan Shotton who replaced Zak Whitbread and Omar Mascarell who started his first league game of the season as John Eustace joined Bryson and Whitbread on the bench.

The Rams played against the howling wind in the first half and Ishmael Miller again gave the Rams defence problems, this time in a Blackpool shirt rather than the Yeovil Town shirt we saw him in last season.

This is a Blackpool team trying to play catch up against the odds as the owners of the club have starved the team of investment and August 2014 opened with only eight players registered on the staff. Mid October finds the Tangerines not surprisingly bottom of the Championship but showing signs of life as their recent win over Cardiff showed.

Derby experienced a good test here but as the game wore on the Rams increasingly dominated both possession and play as Blackpool increasingly pulled players behind the ball.

Johnny Russell took his chance of a full 90 minutes well and was a busy and constant presence in attack, won the crucial penalty and also had a later chance to press home the margin of victory but was unable to convert. The popular Russell has created a number of goals so far this season but found the net himself only once. Clearly in the box seat to replace the injured Jamie Ward in games to come a regular start may see him recovering his scoring touch.

Cyrus Christie added to his growing list of impressive performances particularly going forward, and is proving to be an excellent addition to the team. To see how comfortably he has stepped into the gap left by Andre Wisdom is to see a difficult problem solved very well.

The selection of Omar Mascarell to start this game which may have understandably been considered to be much more of a “John Eustace” kind of game was interesting and points to his acclimatisation to the English game since his arrival from Real Madrid. He did well and had a tidy game with flashes of his eye for a killer pass.

The raucous and consistently loud 1800 Derby fans were a constant backdrop to the game as the Rams came through a potentially tricky test very well with the reward of being able to top the table tonight.

It is only October and no medals are handed out now, but it is great to be top !

 

18th October – Reading the runes on another 3pts

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by petekobryn in Championship

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Tags

3pts, blogging101, Chris Martin, Derby County Football Club, Rams

18th October 2014

 Reading 0                                 Derby County 3

                                                 Chris Martin 18 & 79

                                                 Jordan Ibe 38

 Experience tells us that a trip to play Reading at the Madjeski Stadium is rarely a pleasant experience – our last seven visits have ended as follows

D 0-0

D 2-2

L 1-2

L 1-4

L 0-3

L 0-1

L 0-5

Indeed, previous to this game we had won only 9 of our total 36 games against the Royals so to come away from one of our more bogier of bogey grounds as we did today with 3 points in a 3-0 win is particularly pleasing.

The season continues to develop well – now unbeaten in 11 games since that 2-3 defeat to Charlton this win saw us move up into second place in the table and try out one of the automatic promotion places for comfort….it feels just our size don’t you think ?

Indeed, after Chris Martin put us into the lead early on with a rare headed goal for the Rams, one of such untroubled simplicity as he escaped some non existent marking that it would have had us raging with frustration had we conceded it, the Rams sat at the top of the table for approximately four minutes until Watford took the lead at Hillsborough and took top spot.

I was so tempted to take a screen shot of that league table but it really doesn’t matter after eleven and a quarter games does it ?

This was a good away performance that yet again underlined the importance of Chris Martin to our team moving, as he did, onto 9 goals for the season with his brace. A couple of other decent chances were also spurned by him but although Lee Grant was kept busy and Pavel Pogrebnyak really should have scored to pull the score back to 1-2 (which could have seen the jitters that were starting to show really go into overdrive) our ability to put away our chances, and Jordan Ibe’s goal was a lovely piece of skill it should be noted, helped keep the underpowered Royals at arm’s length throughout.

A feature of this season has been our improving defensive record and this game saw us keep a clean sheet for the fifth successive game an impressive achievement, particularly when the central defence has seen changing partnerships of ;

Keogh & Shotton vs Reading in the League Cup

Keogh & Whitbread vs Bolton

Keogh & Shotton vs Bournemouth

Keogh & Whitbread vs Millwall

Keogh & Whitbread then Shotton & Whitbread vs Reading today

Keogh’s departure with what seems to be a head injury would call into question his place in the side to play Blackpool on Tuesday but with Jake Buxton back on the bench and Jake Whitbread and Ryan Shotton having been part of the team this season we have available a depth of choice that has not always been the case in previous seasons – just what is needed if a promotion push is to become a reality.

It looks like Jamie Ward will be missing for sure against Blackpool and there are questions also about the fitness of Lee Grant after he took a knock late on and also Craig Bryson. The depth of choice in the squad at central defence is also visible in other positions though and it is good to see the Rams with a choice and depth of players.

More of the same against a Blackpool team fighting against the odds of sever under investment and bizarre ownership decisions (that takes us back doesn’t it ? ) on Tuesday night would be very welcomed

 

 

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