Tag Archives: Reading

15th September – Ince off the mark as solid Rams win again

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

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15th September

Reading                    0         Orlando Sa sent off 45+2

Derby County         1          Tom Ince 69

Games at Reading have proved difficult for Derby County over the years so this hard earned win is particularly pleasing.

An organised and solid Rams team took the points thanks to Tom Ince’s first goal of the season moving up to 10th place in the process.

This was a game of few thrills and spills, Ince’s neatly taken goal being our best chance, the only other incident of note being the dismissal of Reading’s Orlanda Sa just before the break for head butting Jason Shackell.

Paul Clement talked of surprising people in an interview before this game and made three changes to the team to keep both us and the players on their toes.

Lee Grant found himself back on the bench after his good performance at Preston with Scott Carson restored to the starting XI.

The rotating of keepers does bother me, the position more than most others demands stability but at the moment we seem to be recreating the era of England of c.1978 where Peter Shilton & Ray Clemence were selected in turn by Ron Greenwood.

Carson played well when called into action, pulling off one notable save from Oliver Norwood

Two other changes to the team that beat Preston saw the injured Chris Baird missing out and Stephen Warnock move to the bench to be replaced by Jeff Hendrick and Craig Forsyth with Bradley Johnson playing the pivotal defensive midfielder role in a 4-3-3.

Chris Martin took the captain’s armband in the absence of Baird in a move that appropriately reflects his importance to the team.

It was an energetic start to the game with the hosts winning a couple of corners in the first minute, but without causing any problems for the Rams.

Derby responded with a good move inspired by Johnny Russell’s good work, Russell found Chris Martin on the edge of the area but our No.9 wasn’t able to get the ball out of his feet and Jeff Hendrick’s shot, after picking up the ball, was deflected wide, though the referee did not award the corner it warranted.

The Rams were content to hold their shape and the game moved along without much incident. Jacob Butterfield unleashed a couple of powerful shots from distance, both blocked well by the Reading defence and just past the half hour Scott Carson pulled off an excellent save from a Oliver Norwood looper.

An increasingly quiet and uneventful half came to life just before the end of added time when Royals striker Orlanda Sa, fresh from a hat-trick against Ipswich Town last time out, head butted Jason Shackell (surely not a good idea?) following a niggle between the two players and was given a red card for his trouble.

The Rams were well organised in the first half without ever really threatening the home team consistently. Equally the Royals had not dominated though they flickered with more attacking threat and intent.

Derby made a good start to the second half, an early move culminating in Cyrus Christie firing a shot towards goal.

Just past the hour the Rams made a change, showing some aggressive intent, Darren Bent coming on in place of Jeff Hendrick.

In a quiet second half Bradley Johnson again showed well, putting himself about, playing some good passes and adding a physical presence to our midfield.

The Rams took the lead on 69 minutes with a well worked goal.

Jacob Butterfield played the ball to Chris Martin on the edge of the area and Tom Ince, who’d had a quiet game up to that point, popped up in the area to get on the end of a neat pass from Martin and poke in his first goal of the season.

The rest of the game played out without too much anxiety, Reading, despite being a player down, did press as the game came to its end, but without ever really carving out a clear chance.

Both of our full backs had a decent game with Cyrus Christie showing more of the form and confidence of early last season and Craig Forsyth galloping forward regularly; Fozzie also came close with a late chance blazing a first time volley just over.

Richard Keogh continued his impressive start to the season, composed and organised, his partnership with Jason Shackell increasingly the bedrock of our team.

Reading are a useful team with a habit of turning us over so this is an excellent three points won in a professional and workmanlike way.

Two away wins sets us up nicely for the visit of Burnley next Monday –  what price a nice 1-0 win courtesy of a goal from one J.Shackell ?

Played GD Pts
8 Nottingham Forest 7 1 11
9 QPR 6 1 10
10 Derby County 7 1 10
11 Reading 7 4 9
12 Charlton Athletic 7 1 9
13 Fulham 6 1 8

2nd May – Season over after miserable Rams surrender

03 Sunday May 2015

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2nd May

Derby County     0

Reading              3     Appiah 2, Hector 72, McCleary 85 (pen)

Looking forward to this game some months ago I was hoping that it would be a promotion party – how wrong that turned out to be.

Needing a point to secure a place in the playoffs the Rams folded against a Reading team with nothing to play for, the final margin of victory not being flattering to the Royals

Yet another 30,000 plus attendance at the iPro was loud and urgent in its support for the team but, after a first half burst that saw a Darren Bent shot saved by Adam Federici, a corner nearly turned into his own net by Nathan Chalobah, a Richard Keogh effort cleared off the line and, most damagingly, a Darren Bent penalty saved on the stroke of half time we offered nothing in the second half and meekly fell out of the top six.

Something has gone very wrong at this club of ours over the last eight weeks – certainly injuries have damaged the team but the lack of defensive organisation and leadership from the team over this period has been painful to see.

I’m as sick as everyone is with the talk swirling around Steve McClaren’s future but he has handled this situation very badly with his evasive answers and insistence on legal type phrases such as

“I am contracted to Derby County”

With talk this morning (Sunday) of his imminent departure to the wreckage that is Newcastle United to rescue them from relegation I hope that one way or another we can get some certainty at Derby soon and start to plan for next season.

In possibly his last selection as Rams Head Coach McClaren made three changes, Raul Albentosa, Johnny Russell and Darren Bent returning to the starting line up in place of Conor Sammon and Jesse Lingard who dropped to the bench and Simon Dawkins who was absent owing to a personal situation.

This saw Stephen Warnock line up as defensive midfielder in a move that did not make it to half time as he was withdrawn on 37 minutes with the Rams chasing the game.

He struggled to make an impact and seemed to wander from his station – at one point I noticed with some alarm that he was our furthest forward player chasing down a Reading defender.

You had to feel for the player as he trudged off to be replaced by Jesse Lingard but his signing has been a strange one and his impact has been limited.

We were chasing the game at this point because of a characteristic self inflicted catastrophe on 2 minutes.

To calm frayed nerves we needed an early goal in this game and we surely got one – but in the wrong net.

Working the ball around the Reading half Will Hughes turned and played a pass back over half way directly to Kwesi Appiah who raced away from Raul Albentosa, evaded Craig Forsyth, sidestepped Richard Keogh’s sliding block and slotted the ball easily past Lee Grant.

Deflating and disappointing but sadly not at all surprising after recent weeks.

When our player of the season and one of the finest players at this level is making such an error it is yet another symptom of a team in trouble.

We huffed and puffed for the rest of the first half knowing that despite everything a point would still be good enough to get us into the playoffs but Darren Bent’s tentative saved penalty was another disappointment in a long recent list.

The second half saw the last throw of the dice, the emergence of a clearly below par Chris Martin in place of Johnny Russell.

Subsequent to this game more information has come out about the injury he is carrying – not so much a recovering hamstring but also a problem with tendons around his knee which explains the length of time it has been taking for him to recover.

In truth by even playing the parts of games that he has our Number 9 has been playing above and beyond the call of duty and potentially worsening the injury.

We posed little if any threat in the second half and gave away a second goal on 72 minutes failing to take two opportunities to clear a corner allowing Michael Hector to stab home and bring an end to our season.

Time was then marked as the game drew down, Reading, a team who had not won in nine games and had lost to Rotherham last Tuesday, were enjoying themselves enormously and to the unknowing observer looked like the play off team.

The final indignity came on 85 minutes when Reading cult hero Jem Karacan found himself all alone with the ball on the six yard line and was brought down by Lee Grant. Gareth McCleary put the penalty away and the scoring was complete.

Not that it mattered, but I thought that Karacan was offside and that Grant may have got a hand onto the ball. Having watched it back this morning I see that he wasn’t and he didn’t, so fair play to the officials for those decisions.

Walking away after the final whistle I felt less bothered than I thought I would be and less angry – just deeply disappointed that we have missed out on such a good opportunity as this season was.

In amongst all of the gloom that was yesterday it must be noted that the minute’s applause for Colin Bloomfield prior to the match was a genuinely moving affair and very fitting.

A big well done to Sam Rush for very quickly stating that the club would do this.

The Rams’ season ends then in failure and no little turmoil. We’ve all been here before.

What comfort I can draw when I think ahead is that the club is run well and that in Sam Rush we have someone with the ability to take us on.

It is going to be an interesting summer (again)

1. AFC Bournemouth 46 +53 90
2. Watford 46 +41 89
3. Norwich City 46 +40 86
4. Middlesbrough 46 +31 85
5. Brentford 46 +19 78
6. Ipswich Town 46 +18 78
7. Wolves 46 +14 78
8. Derby County 46 +29 77

14th February – Ten man Rams run it close but bow out to Royals

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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14th February

Derby County 1 Stephen Warnock sent off 39, Darren Bent 61
Reading 2 Hal Robson-Kanu 53, Yakubu Aiyegbeni 82

Derby County are out of the FA Cup at the Fifth Round stage beaten by a late goal from substitute Yakubu after a performance that was both entertaining and admirable playing, as we did, against the odds for 50 minutes.

Steve McClaren made seven changes from the team that drew 2-2 at Bournemouth, two of them enforced, with Kelle Roos, Ryan Shotton, Stephen Warnock, Craig Bryson, Simon Dawkins, Jesse Lingard and Darren Bent coming in for the injured Chris Martin, the cup-tied Tom Ince and the rested Lee Grant, Jake Buxton, Craig Forsyth, Will Hughes and Jamie Ward.

On the bench for the first time this season was George Thorne who received an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd both when he first appeared pre-match and also whenever he warmed up throughout the game. Unfortunately the way the game panned out our returning midfield linchpin never got the chance to play but his presence in the match day squad is a big boost.

The team selection meant Rams debuts for Warnock and Lingard after their arrival in the January transfer window though they were debuts of contrasting fortunes for the two players.

Warnock never made it to his half time orange (or gel sachet, to be more modern) as he collected his second yellow card on 39 minutes and left us down to ten men for the remainder of the game.

There were howls of outrage from around the ground when Craig Pawson dismissed Warnock but, in truth, our full back had left the referee little option as he went barrelling into ex Red Dog Jamie Mackie (as he himself acknowledged in a post match Tweet).

That is not to say that the referee had a good game – he reached for the yellow cards too quickly and this created a tension the game did not warrant.

It was interesting to see both teams substituting players who had been booked which felt like a defensive response to a refereeing performance that verged into “look at me” territory (In marked comparison to the performance of Mark Clattenburg on Tuesday night it should be noted)

The Rams were always up against it in this game from the moment that Warnock was dismissed but it was a brave and sterling effort and hard to see the evidence for which team had ten men as the game went on.

Steve McClaren explained afterwards that a replay was the last thing we wanted in a crowded fixture schedule and rather than try and close the game out after we equalised we continued on the attack which made for an exciting game but also left the door open for Reading to counter attack.

This was a Reading team much changed in performance if not personnel since Steve Clarke was appointed manager and their fielding of a first choice eleven reflected the fact that, drifting in mid table as they are, this game was a much higher priority for them than us.

We started the game well and a lovely move involving Lingard, Dawkins and Bent in the first two minutes played in Craig Bryson who forced a good save from Adam Federici.

The Reading keeper also made a superb instinctive save from Darren Bent in the first half when the striker turned and shot sharply as well as a great save from substitute Jamie Ward in the second half as we made a number of chances.

We were fortunate though that the other former Forest player on the pitch for the Royals, Simon Cox, is such a poor finisher as he missed two golden chances in the first half alone.

Reading took the lead from a neat finish from Hal Robson-Kanu early in the second half but we took only eight minutes to equalise.

Craig Forsyth (brought on for Omar Mascarell after Warnock’s dismissal) ranged forward and his cross was received by Jesse Lingard, who looked sharp, quick and creative on debut, and his shot hit Darren Bent and deflected in. Very much right man in the right place at the right time for our loan striker with his fifth goal for us.

We continued to push on for what would have been a gutsy winner but were caught on the break late in the game as Yakubu, on as a substitute after signing this week for the Royals as a free agent, was played in between Shotton & Forsyth and held off our left back to fire past Roos from the edge of the area.

Yakubu is one of those players (akin to Billy Sharp & David Nugent) who have a bad habit of scoring against us and those Rams with particularly long memories will remember John Gregory trying to sign him as a 19yr old for Derby back in the day but being unable to do so because of work permit issues.

Away from the iPro the most significant result for us was Bournemouth’s 1-1 home draw with Huddersfield which put them back top but must have felt like a disappointment for them.

 Elsewhere Ipswich, Watford and Norwich all won which leaves the top six looking tighter again. We travel to Rotherham on Tuesday night to play a team hitting some form but with a big incentive to come back with the three points. – COYR.

 

    Played GD Pts
1. AFC Bournemouth 31 +33 59
2. Middlesbrough 30 +28 59
3. Derby County 30 +30 58
4. Ipswich Town 31 +19 57
5. Watford 31 +26 56
6. Norwich City 31 +23 53