21^st 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 !