Tag Archives: Richard Keogh

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

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

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

21st August – Johnny on the spot again for Rams at Blues

22 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

21st August

Birmingham City     1       Stephen Gleeson 45

Derby County          1          Johnny Russell 61

This was an exciting game with quality on show from both sides but the wait for a first win for Paul Clement’s Rams goes on.

The game statistics confirm that this was more of the same for Derby in that the Rams had;

63% of the possession

20 attempts on goal

Hit the woodwork four times

But only had Johnny Russell’s superb finish to show for it at the end.

Disappointment at not having won put aside, we looked better again in this game and there were long periods of the game where we attacked with tempo and created a lot of problems for the home team.

Tom Ince had his best game of the season so far, was involved throughout and hit the woodwork.

Birmingham played well and are a good side under Gary Rowett, and they will also be rueing the chances they had. Scott Carson had an excellent game in goal for us and made two great saves in the first ten minutes to keep the Blues at bay.

Richard Keogh had another good game and even a change of full backs for this game, with Cyrus Christie and Craig Forsyth brought into the team for this game, did not disturb that.

The swaps at full back were two of four changes made for this game. Johnny Russell started after his goal against Middlesbrough and Darren Bent made his first start of the season.

Chris Baird moved from right back to accompany George Thorne in the centre of midfield, Stephen Warnock and Andi Weimann dropped to the bench and the injured Jeff Hendrick and Jamie Hanson missed out.

We lined up in a 4-4-2 for this game and perhaps that determined the choice of full backs.

Stephen Warnock had a good game against Boro and Cyrus Christie was not even on the bench on Tuesday night but perhaps the mobility of Craig Forsyth and Christie determined their selection with more required from those positions to support the midfield.

Fozzie had a decent game all over the pitch, providing his usual threat going forward. Christie looked better going forward than defensively at times but this was an improvement from him.

After the home team’s energetic start the Rams hit a purple patch from the quarter hour onwards with opportunities in short order falling to Russell, Darren Bent, Bent (again), Tom Ince, Bent (again) and Ince (again)

The woodwork, good Blues defending, a fatal delay in shooting when the opportunity presented itself and rank bad luck all took their turn in preventing us from capitalising on these chances.

While the build up play was good there was a creeping sense of unease about not taking the chances when we had them in this most competitive of leagues.

The game quietened down towards half time but the Rams failure to close down on Stephen Gleeson as the ball was cleared from a corner cost us as his shot from distance took a deflection and found its way into the net to put the hosts ahead just before the break.

Birmingham made a strong start to the second half and came close to taking what may have been a decisive two goal lead heading a chance over and putting a shot wide – the Rams recovered though and hit another lengthy purple patch that lasted for a good twenty minutes.

Craig Forsyth hit a fine shot that Tomasz Kuszczak somehow managed to keep out and away from Darren Bent.

The pressure told for us just after the hour when George Thorne won a terrific tackle to regain possession in our half which in turn led to Tom Ince playing the lurking Johnny Russell in on the left of the Blues area.

With great power and precision JR fired into the roof of the net and we were level.

For a moment on 68 minutes it looked as if referee Lee Mason had awarded the Rams a penalty when Chris Martin went down in the area but, countering the old cliché that refs never change their minds, Mason then booked Martin for diving.

Was it a pen? – Seen them given….. Was it a booking? – Probably not.

It struck me as a Premier League ref in a Championship game feeling the need to make a “big” decision

Andi Weimann was brought on with twenty minutes to go replacing Darren Bent, but not before Bent had hit the woodwork again just after the equalising goal. On another night Bent would have personally bagged four.

The game closed with both sides still eager but both tiring to an extent.

Still unbeaten in the league but no wins for the Rams then.

The evidence on the pitch looks promising with development in each game – we are looking more threatening and our attacking game seems to be moving into gear.

We look particularly good when we move with high tempo.

Our old friends from Yorkshire next then.

                                                                   Played GD    Pts

  1. Wolves                                                       3       0       4
  2. Derby County                                           4       0       4
  3. Nottingham Forest                              3       0       4
  4. QPR                                                               3      -1      4
  5. Cardiff City                                               3       0       3
  6. Leeds United                                            3       0       3

18th August – Rams battle it out for a point against Boro

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

18th August

Derby County          1          Johnny Russell 88

Middlesbrough       1          Kike 16

It was nearly déjà-vu all over again as Middlesbrough rocked up to the iPro and nearly repeated the suffocation job they delivered in March.

The Boro have in recent games shown an annoying ability to stifle our attacking moves without so much as breaking a sweat.

When they took the lead in this game, against the run of play, they looked every bit the team headed for better things this year.

But after having grabbed the initiative they seemed largely content to pull the team behind the ball and, particularly in the second half, look to hit us on the break as we dominated possession.

Unlike that dispiriting game in March though we smuggled a point out of this one with Johnny Russell’s emphatic finish with just over a minute of normal time to go.

In the build up to this game I was thinking about the potential threat posed by Stewart Downing to us but he had a quiet game and I was delighted that perennial pain in the arse David Nugent never made it off the bench.

Two changes for the Rams as Stephen Warnock and Andreas Weimann came in for Craig Forsyth and Johnny Russell. While I had expected Johnny to be stepped down for this one the change at left back was a surprise.

Warnock had one of his best games for the Rams though and was more of a presence in the attacking half of the pitch throughout.

We started with verve and tempo, we looked good. The atmosphere was loud and raucous and the evening had the feel of a contest between two top teams.

Despite the feeling afterwards that we had not created much Boro’s excellent keeper, Dimi Konstantopoulos, pulled off three top class saves in this match, the first of which was to deny Jeff Hendrick’s shot in the opening assault.

And then out of nothing Boro were ahead. George Friend was given too much room with the ball on our right flank, found himself in our area, shanked his shot, the ball fell to Kike who put the ball away.

We lost our energy after that goal and for much of the rest of the first half the visitors looked comfortable, creating a couple of half chances and not allowing us to build any real momentum.

Before the half was out our appalling run of midfield injuries continued apace. Both Jamie Hanson and Jeff Hendrick were forced off before the half time oranges, both from fouls that resulted in Hanson being concussed and Hendrick picking up a dead leg.

Our midfield is going to be a case of rounding up the willing and able for the game against Birmingham and even if Jeff Hendrick recovers we found out today he might have other matters weighing on his mind.

The public outing of our bid for Jacob Butterfield by the Huddersfield chairman during the game showed that the club is trying to resolve matters but it is clear that we are the moneybags club (at least in other clubs’ view) as the price quoted for Butterfield is said to be £5m.

The resulting shuffle saw Ryan Shotton and Johnny Russell on and a change of formation to a 4-2-3-1.

The last few minutes of the half saw the Rams get a bit fiery and it certainly served to get the crowd revving again. Tom Ince arrowed in a free kick that was heading for the bottom corner before Dimi just got to it.

The second half proved to be an extended defence vs. attack session as Boro seemed content to hold what they had. It is not difficult to see the influence of Aitor Karanka’s mentor Mourinho in the way they play, squeezing the life out of the game and looking to overload on the break.

It is clearly successful but I could not help wondering that with such a range of good players in the team they were selling themselves a little short?

Darren Bent came on for Andy Weimann and we moved to the third formation of the night – 4-4-2.

Another superb save from the Boro keeper denied Chris Martin’s glancing header from a corner.

Then with hope and expectation ebbing away Ryan Shotton launched one into the area, Chris Martin got something on it – the ball fell just right for Johnny Russell surging unmarked into the area and with obvious relish he slotted the ball home.

This was an important point and would have been an awful game to lose. The fighting spirit the Rams showed under difficult circumstances was good to see.

Richard Keogh had another good game and Scott Carson is looking well set in goal.

Our attacking game is stuttering but the loss of Hughes (particularly) and Bryson has hurt us.

A trip to Birmingham on Friday night next up.

Played GD Pts
13. QPR 3 -1 4
14. Cardiff City 3 0 3
15. Leeds United 3 0 3
16. Derby County 3 0 3
17. Blackburn Rovers 3 -1 2
18. Reading 3 -1 2

15th August – Chances galore but just the point for Rams

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

15th August

Derby County          1          Chris Martin 68

Charlton Athletic    1          Tony Watt 48

The first home league game of the season saw the Rams create numerous chances in a game they dominated against the visiting Charlton.

There was only Chris Martin’s first goal of the season to show for it though and a single point was the outcome after the Addicks had taken the lead early in the second half by way of Tony Watt’s deflected strike.

Disappointment at the result is tempered though by the Rams performance. A little slow at the outset, the Rams controlled long periods of the game and played with the precision and skill we have become used to over the last two seasons.

Control through the midfield was down to George Thorne and Jamie Hanson who both had excellent games.

Home grown Hanson was one of three changes to the team from the one that drew at Bolton last week along with Jeff Hendrick and Craig Forsyth replacing the injured Will Hughes and Craig Bryson, Stephen Warnock stepping down to the bench.

Unlike last Saturday we lined up in the old familiar 4-3-3 and I was interested to see how Hanson would flourish in the more creative role in midfield as opposed to the holding role.

Well he shone.

This fella can really pass a ball and his repertoire of long and short passes was superb. He was also tigerish in the tackle and put himself about well.

Understandably he seemed to fade towards the end of the game, not helped by a heavy tackle he was on the receiving end of, but his assist for Chris Martin’s goal was neat and incisive and he can be well pleased with his performance.

George Thorne was even more impressive. Starts circulating in the twittersphere after the game point out that he was the only player to make more than a 100 passes in the Championship and all at a success rate of 97%.

The bare stats don’t tell the whole story though; Thorne bossed the midfield, was always available to accept the ball, set the attacking tempo with some superb passes and also snuffed out any number of Charlton moves.

He is one hell of a player and it is great to see him playing.

The only thing he should desist from are tackles like the one on the edge of the Addicks area with 15 minutes to go that left him on the turf and had most of the crowd ignoring the game and watching him gingerly get to his feet and get moving again…..we just do not need that kind of stress…

Charlton are a decent side and will do well this season. Despite our dominance they also had a couple of chances, Simon Makienok heading over from a corner when well placed and also pulling a shot wide of goal from 12 yards out.

For much of the game though they were on the back foot as the Rams probed and created, moving the ball around with ease. In the first half Chris Martin missed a decent chance after a piece of trickery from Tom Ince and Jeff Hendrick (having a busy game) shot just wide from the edge of the area.

The Rams could easily have scored twice within the first minute of the second half but then found themselves a goal down when a shot from the lively Tony Watt spiralled off Richard Keogh past a wrong footed Scott Carson.

Derby responded well and keeper Nick Pope made excellent saves from Thorne, Martin and Ince around the equaliser which Martin finished well, turning and shooting into the corner following Hanson’s precise pass.

The goal seemed to perk Martin up, he had looked a little off his normal best in the first half but was much more involved afterwards.

We could have won, would have won on other days but the performance was good.

Charlton deserve credit for a dogged defensive performance, I lost count of the number of our shots from in and around the area that they blocked.

Our defence looks so much better with Shackell, Carson and Baird; Richard Keogh had an excellent game and looks much more settled next to Shackell, reminding us of the good defender he is.

Baird and Forsyth got forward well from the full back positions and there was even time for a cameo from Cyrus Christie, providing an attacking threat when Hanson was substituted in the last five minutes.

I thought the flags in the South Stand (as promoted and organised by @DCFC1884Support) looked great and I do prefer us shooting towards the South Stand in the second half as we did in this game.

A big test next game as Middlesbrough come to town on Tuesday night. We owe them a result.

                                                        P       GD    Pts

13     Burnley                                    2       0       2

14    Cardiff City                                2       0       2

15     Derby County                          2       0       2

16     Leeds United                           1       0       1

6th April – Relief as Rams back to winning ways at Wigan

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

6th April

Wigan Athletic    0

Derby County      2        Chris Martin 51, Darren Bent 81

Chris Martin’s 20th goal of the season and his inspiring performance after coming on as a half time substitute lead the Rams to our first win in eight at the DW Stadium.

There is no doubting the contribution our number 9 makes to our success and the difference he made to a poor and lethargic first half performance was a clear indication of the value he adds to the team.

The prospect of facing a poor and disjointed Wigan team heading for the Third Division (as it should be called…none of this League One nonsense) on a very poor pitch had the makings of a banana skin for a team as lacking in confidence as we were entering this game.

The first half was a poor spectacle that we allowed Wigan to increasingly dominate with their physical approach but the introduction of Martin at half time changed our approach and as soon as we took the lead Wigan’s threat receded.

The Rams made four changes for this game with Raul Albentosa, Stephen Warnock, Jeff Hendrick and Jamie Ward coming into the starting eleven replacing the injured Ryan Shotton, George Thorne and Craig Bryson as well as the struggling Cyrus Christie who dropped to the bench.

There was lots of puzzlement amongst the fans when looking at the defence  Richard Keogh at right back, Craig Forsyth at centre half.

It felt like a gambler’s throw of the dice to me and not the kind of experimentation you indulge in with six games of a season to go and all to play for….but I am delighted to be proved wrong as the new defence delivered the first clean sheet since our last win on 24th February when we beat Charlton 2-0.

Steve McClaren spoke after the game about having two “talkers” in the full back positions in Keogh & Warnock and also about how they had identified left centre half as being a position that Craig Forsyth could play.

Having seen Keogh & Shotton and also Keogh & Albentosa, both right footed combinations, sometimes struggle as a central partnership, it was no surprise that a lefty was being thought of but it was definitely a surprise to see us go for it with Fozzy today.

The back five had a good game, Granty making two excellent saves and the skipper and Fozzy coping well with their new positions. Raul started slowly but Warnock had a good game, as did the unit as a whole, albeit against a team that had not won a home match since August.

The Rams should have been ahead on 11 minutes when Darren Bent played Tom Ince in following a break lead by Craig Forsyth but Ince could only tamely shoot straight at keeper Ali Al Habsi.

Without ever really threatening in the first quarter hour the hosts forced five corners which tested the new look Rams back line. All were coped with competently if not always comfortably.

It was truly a dull and lifeless first half – we struggled to make any impact upon the Wigan goal and the only real moment of note after the Tom Ince chance was a great save from Lee Grant as the game moved beyond 35 minutes keeping out a McLean header.

The talismanic Chris Martin replaced Jamie Ward at half time who, like most other Rams, had had a very quiet first half.

There was a feeling of being back on the right track when a couple of minutes into ths second half we saw our first Chrissy Martin “wardrobe” free kick. – How we have missed those….

Joy two minutes later as Chris Martin started and finished a move with the assistance of Johnny Russell, the lively Scot finding Martin with a precise pass from the edge of the area which Martin put away with a clinical finish to put the Rams 1-0 up and send the 4,000 plus Rams fans into loud raptures of delight.

Without wishing to labour the point there was such a change of mood and performance as soon as Chris Martin was back on the pitch.

We have sorely lacked leadership on the pitch and this is something that Martin gives us, of all our players he appears to be the one with the greatest will to win.

Steve McLaren spoke after the game about Martin having 45 minutes in him today. For our prospects for the rest of the season it is to be hoped his journey back to full match fitness is rapid.

The crucial second goal came for the Rams on 81 minutes with a move started by Will Hughes and again involving Johnny Russell, the chance fell to Chris Martin who missed his attempt but Darren Bent was on the spot to fire in his ninth goal of his loan spell.

Lee Grant rounded off his excellent game making another vital save, this time from Kim-Bo Kyung as we moved into five minutes of injury time.

One downside of today was Will Hughes’ 10th booking of the season which will see him miss the games against Brentford and Blackpool.

As good a player as he is, and by god he is, it is frustrating that so many of Will’s bookings are silly niggly ones – just as today’s was.

Yet more changes in the leadership of the league that no-one wants to win as the leaders coming into today, Middlesbrough, were beaten 2-0 at Watford and dropped back to 4th allowing Bournemouth to return to the top with a 4-2 win against Birmingham.

Norwich City rose into the second automatic spot with a 2-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday.

The automatic places may seem a long shot for us now but we have a real opportunity to push on with the two home games coming up against Brentford and Blackpool.

We have already seen this season what a good and resilient team Brentford are but this is crunch time now and the early kick off on Saturday is our chance to build on the excellent second half performance today.

Played GD Pts
1. AFC Bournemouth 41 +44 77
2. Norwich City 41 +36 76
3. Watford 41 +34 76
4. Middlesbrough 41 +28 75
5. Derby County 41 +28 71
6. Brentford 41 +15 70

3rd April – Shaky Rams let it slip against 10 man Hornets

04 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

3rd April

Derby County       2        Darren Bent (pen) 45, Tom Ince 57

Watford                2        Matej Vydra 23, Marco Motta sent off 44, Odion Ighalo 75

The Rams winless streak stretched to seven games after a frustrating night at the iPro.

Down to an opportunistic goal after another defensive error, the Rams hit back to take the lead through a Darren Bent penalty and a fine finish from Tom Ince.

Yet again though Derby failed to close the game out despite the visitors being down to ten men, Watford equalising with a quarter of an hour to go.

Thanks to wins for Wolves and Brentford earlier in the day we kicked off in eighth place and out of the playoffs for the first time since September.

The only real consolation for me as I left the ground last night was that the point we gained lifted us back up into the top six but that feels like scant consolation indeed.

Uncertainty over the team sheet added hung over this game – it was great to see George Thorne back in the starting eleven the presence of Chris Martin on the bench raised a few more questions – fit enough to play part of the game but not the 90 minutes ??.

The boost of seeing our midfield linchpin back in the side only lasted half an hour though as he was replaced by Jeff Hendrick and left the field a downcast figure.

As I write this there is no update as to the nature of any injury for Thorne but I did see him gingerly stretch his right thigh barely five minutes into the game so it would be no surprise were this to be a reoccurrence of his most recent injury.

Along with Thorne’s reintroduction into the team (with Jesse Lingard dropping to the bench) Raul Albentosa was replaced in central defence by Ryan Shotton in what looked like the regular “horses for courses” approach we seem to take to our defence with Shotton’s greater pace being preferred to negate Watford’s attacking threat presumably.

We started brightly keeping possession well as Watford seemed content to sit back. Will Hughes had another good game and seemed to be trying to push the team over the line through sheer force of will at times with Johnny Russell being as energetic as ever and proving a potential threat throughout, though his control was sometimes a little lacking. Richard Keogh also had a good game, looking to drive us forward regularly as well as keeping tabs on the dangerous Watford strikers.

We could (and should?) have been 2-0 up before Watford’s sucker punch of a goal Darren Bent having two decent chances both of which he did not quite connect with – one being created by a superbly worked short corner involving Tom Ince and George Thorne that Heurelho Gomes in the Hornets goal managed to keep out with his legs.

Another in a long sequence of avoidable defensive mistakes handed Watford a chance which Vydra took clinically on 23 minutes.

Cyrus Christie was heading away from goal with the ball but turned back towards our area and lost the ball. Even then we had a chance to deal with the threat but two weak tackles saw the ball at the dangerous Vydra’s feet and the ball was past Lee Grant in a heartbeat.

Will Hughes flashed a shot just wide in response but just before half time a superb ball from Tom Ince gave the Rams a chance to square the game finding Johnny Russell in the Hornets area.

Russell was brought down by Marco Motta and it was no surprise to see a penalty awarded and the Italian defender sent off.

Darren Bent’s penalty was emphatic and we were going in at the break with a great chance to give our season some renewed impetus.

The substitution of Cyrus Christie at half time saw the introduction of Jesse Lingard as well as giving Jeff Hendrick a chance to brush up on his right wing back experience.

The Rams started at pace and forced a number of corners. A lovely piece of skill from Tom Ince put us ahead just before the hour, finding space in the area and curling in a sweet left foot shot.

The Rams were ahead, the large crowd was loud and boisterous and the game was there for the taking but as has so often been the case we seemed to stop pressing forward, stop taking the initiative and increasingly Watford had more of the ball and did not necessarily look like they were one player down.

Troy Deeney was a constant threat throughout keeping our defenders busy but it was from the flanks again that we conceded the deflating equaliser. We did not clear our lines and the ball came back enabling Odion Ighalo to finish from a Guediora pass with a quarter of an hour to go.

This was the signal for the return of Chris Martin as we desperately pushed for a winner. In his limited time on the pitch it was clear to see how much we had missed our centre forward, his link up play immediately giving us momentum. He also played a superb ball that released Darren Bent into the area but he was unable to finish Gomes again saving his strike.

There was no lack of effort from the Rams in the search for a winner but apart from that saved Darren Bent effort, a Richard Keogh header clawed away by Gomes and a last gasp scramble in the area we could not regain the lead. Another winning position at the iPro had been let slip.

We play with a lack of confidence that leaks off the players and our defence is unrecognisable from that which kept six consecutive clean sheets earlier in the season.

We must get a win, any kind of win from our visit to Wigan on Monday to halt this damaging run of form and start rebuilding the fragile confidence of the team.

Played GD Pts
1. Middlesbrough 40 +30 75
2. AFC Bournemouth 40 +42 74
3. Norwich City 40 +34 73
4. Watford 40 +32 73
5. Brentford 40 +15 69
6. Derby County 40 +26 68

27th January – Rams up to 2nd as Bent double downs Blackburn

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

27th January

Derby County                         2                 Darren Bent 68, 90+2      

Blackburn Rovers                 0

This day may, in retrospect, turn out to be a pivotal one for the Rams in this important season.

Not only did we gather a crucial three points from this hard fought win over Blackburn to lift ourselves back up to 2nd, but George Thorne made his competitive comeback with 45 minutes for the U-21 side who thrashed Stoke City 7-1.

The continued return to fitness of the midfielder, who is so important to the way we play, is a boost to everyone involved with the club and while there is some way to go before he is orchestrating our play it is a relief to see him playing again after the crushing blow of that pre-season injury.

Compared to the team that started against Forest Ryan Shotton replaced Cyrus Christie, Simon Dawkins replaced the injured Johnny Russell and Jeff Hendrick replaced Craig Bryson.

After the experimentation against Chesterfield in the FA Cup it was back to plan A formation wise with the 4-3-3 facing up to Blackburn’s well organised and drilled two banks of four with Tom Cairney playing behind the nippy Josh King.

It was a surprise, though not a disappointment, to see Rovers lining up without either Jordan Rhodes or Rudy Gestede, both of them on the bench. Was this a bit of asset protection in advance of a sale by the Venky’s – difficult to say and unsuccessful, if so, as Gestede appeared before half time to replace the injured Tom Cairney but he himself had to be replaced when injured in the second half.

This was a gritty win for the Rams featuring some good performances from a number of players. Will Hughes was again excellent, always looking for the ball, always providing a threat with his skill and there were two particularly impressive examples of twinkle toed skill from him in the first half as he manoeuvred the ball away from defenders snapping around his heels.

Omar Mascarell had his best game of the season combining his usual ease on the ball with more bite and disruption of Blackburn’s play and looking the part as the defensive midfield pivot.

Richard Keogh was closer to his best than has been the case for a while, some excellent positioning and interceptions allied to a number of shuddering blocks with a few barnstorming charges forward thrown in for good measure. It has been suggested that he was benefitting from a more disciplined right back performance from Ryan Shotton and I think there is merit in that. Shotts was composed on his return to the team and exhibited more positional awareness than Cyrus Christie has done in recent games. And that long throw of his is quite an option for us.

We held the ball well in the first half without ever really carving out a clear chance. The good work of that first half was nearly lost when a misplaced pass from Jeff Hendrick just before the break almost led to a goal with Josh King, fortunately, blazing over.

While never in the brutal class of the Mark Hughes era Blackeye Rovers this generation of Rovers were physical and, more than any team I have seen for a while, looked to hit the long ball to try and exploit their pace up front.

The second half was proving to be more of the same, Jamie Ward and Simon Dawkins labouring on the flanks, both appearing to lack some sharpness and inevitably generating a few what might have beens were it not for the absence of Johnny Russell and Jordan Ibe.

The signing of Darren Bent, though, has given us another option and he had only been on the pitch for five minutes before bundling the ball into the net after another of Ryan Shotton’s long throws

The win was not seen out with ease. Blackburn threw Jordan Rhodes on and started launching the ball into our box and one superb tackle from Omar Mascarell and one even more superb save from Lee Grant were needed to keep us in front.

 It was good to see Mason Bennett appearing as a substitute late on and he was instrumental in the second goal that took the pressure off – breaking down the left wing and putting in an excellent cross for Chris Martin who saw his shot well saved by Jason Steele but there in the right place, at the right time was our new penalty area predator Darren Bent to put the game away.

 This was such an important three points against a good Championship side.

To be back up to second with 19 games to go means our fate is in our hands and if we can ensure that remains the case as the number of games dwindle away this season may yet have a very happy ending.

24th January – Formation rotation as Rams prevail in Derbyshire Derby

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in FA Cup

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

24th January

Derby County 2    Darren Bent 20, Will Hughes 82

Chesterfield 0

The FA Cup provided some relief for the Rams after last Saturday’s disappointments though this game was never as straightforward as the 2-0 scoreline may suggest.

It was not so much as rotation of players that Steve McClaren employed as a rotation of formations. We set up in a 3-5-2 arrangement in the first half, changed to a 4-4-2 diamond in the second half initially and then reverted to a 4-3-3 later in the game.

The Boss explained after the game that the experimentation was very much part of the game plan to see how we performed away from our normal 4-3-3 structure.

When you think about it this was quite a risk to our involvement in the FA Cup considering that Chesterfield proved themselves to be a very capable side, but the chance to work on that much demanded “Plan B” proved to be both useful and successful.

Personnel wise Raul Albentosa came in for his debut, Kelle Roos was in goal, Jeff Hendrick started and Darren Bent made his first start with Johnny Russell, Lee Grant, Jamie Ward & Craig Bryson missing out.

The prospect of using Albentosa, Keogh & Buxton in a back three had been suggested by a number of fans in forums and social media and it was interesting to see it being put into practice – it felt very late 1990’s and Jim Smith all over again.

The new system almost came unstuck immediately though with only a good block from Cyrus Christie preventing Armand Gnanduillet getting a shot on target from inside the six yard box in the first couple of minutes.

Chesterfield were composed and impressive opponents, looking comfortable on the ball and pressing us when had possession.

The right side of our defence with Christie and Richard Keogh in place looked shaky and Chesterfield obviously thought so too as their attack tended to focus on that flank.

Keogh missed a routine header on the quarter hour that almost let in the troublesome Gnanduillet who could not take advantage and that let off was compounded shortly afterwards when we took the lead.

Jake Buxton won a towering header from an Omar Mascarell corner and there poaching from inside the six yard box Darren Bent planted a header into the net for his first Rams goal.

The Rams created little else in the first half and did not look totally secure at the back. Having said that I was impressed with our first look at Raul Albentosa, the big centre half winning a number of defensive headers and looking composed on the ball.

Early days I know, but he looks powerful and skilled and I think he will be challenging for a start very soon.

More experimenting after the break with Johnny Russell replacing Albentosa and the team shuffling into a 4-4-2 diamond shape with Russell partnering Darren Bent up top with Chris Martin at the advanced point of the diamond.

For me this set up worked well. It showed that Darren Bent provides a different threat for us, playing on the edge of the defence and looking to break on a through ball. As well as his first half goal the Villa loanee could have, and should have, bagged two more.

A superb through ball from Chris Martin sprang Bent and although Tommy Lee in the Spirites goal made a fine save he should have scored. 

A similar chance later for Bent in the half was again saved by Lee and while it was disappointing not to see him score more than his first goal it was promising to see his eye for position that puts him in the right place.

Chris Martin is an intelligent footballer and playing in a different position in the second half gave him the chance to show this in a different way. His through ball for the missed Darren Bent chance was superb and while I would not want him playing in that position on a more permanent basis ( Will Hughes since you ask ) he fitted in smoothly and created space and opportunities for Bent and Russell to feed upon.

Will Hughes was our best player throughout the game, creative, bright and hard working and it was him that put the game beyond doubt, stealing the ball just outside the Spireite area, gliding on and smoothly firing home.

Our young midfield talent is on a good run of form at the moment and with others injured or off form we are very reliant upon him.

Talking of injuries it was worrying to see Johnny Russell only last 19 minutes before being replaced in some distress. It was a surprise to many to see him appear considering the tight hamstring Simmo confirmed he was suffering from and if he is out for a few weeks we will miss him badly.

Next up is Blackburn on Tuesday and will we revert to 4-3-3 with the two wingers left standing (and not training with Burton or on loan to Notts County) Jamie Ward and Simon Dawkins ? – or will we be tempted to polish the diamond with Martin & Bent upfront and Will Hughes pulling the strings?

My money is on the diamond….

 

 

 

10th January – Resilient Rams topple the Tractor Boys and move up to 2nd

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Championship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

10th January 2015

Ipswich Town               0                 Derby County    1

                                                            Chris Martin 57

                                                            John Eustace sent off 90

A committed and impressive performance saw the Rams win this crucial Championship match against Ipswich Town, replacing the home team in 2nd place and inflicting upon the Tractor Boys their first defeat in twelve matches.

This felt like a vital and possibly pivotal game in the build up and so it may well prove.

Ipswich were two points ahead of the Rams at kick off. The statement we made in winning at Portman Road sends a message out about our intentions for the rest of the season and was very encouraging following the defeats against Middlesbrough and Leeds United in away games before Christmas.

Being involved in yet another lunch time kick off meant that we could sit back and enjoy the afternoon results which pretty much all fell in our favour as Bournemouth lost for the first time since we beat them in September, Middlesbrough drew and Watford lost making our win even more valuable.

The Rams were unchanged from the last league game, the 2-0 win over Leeds United with Darren Bent taking the place of the now returned to Blackburn Leon Best on the bench.

There were few chances in the whole game but Derby started nervously and presented Ipswich with an opportunity within five minutes as the offside trap broke down but fortunately, for us, Jay Tabb missed.

Our first hint of a chance came on the quarter hour as Jeff Hendrick had a shot blocked and Cyrus Christie fired over. A few minutes later Johnny Russell came close with a free kick he had himself won through his own efforts.

The game settled down after the early nervousness and the Rams showed admirable composure and control for much of the rest of the match with the back four well lead and marshalled by Richard Keogh and Craig Forsyth also having a good game. Cyrus Christie struggled at times though and was put under some pressure defensively.

John Eustace received an early yellow card but continued to discharge his defensive duties well and his presence in the team has a good balancing effect on our midfield with Will Hughes particularly having a good game influencing our play and prompting creatively.

Eustace got away with a sly barge on David McGoldrick just before the break however, which if the referee had seen otherwise might have lead to big trouble for the veteran midfielder and us. McGoldrick was booked for his responding foul and the half soon came to an end with Mick McCarthy doing his usual angry bullying act towards the officials as they left the pitch.

Having seen McCarthy pull off this trick before there were a few murmurs of concern about whether Ipswich would subsequently get every decision in the second half, but due credit to referee Kevin Wright who had a good game, including not awarding a penalty to Ipswich when the ball struck Keogh on the chest early in the second half despite howls of protest from the home players and crowd.

Shortly afterwards came the key moment of the game, Cyrus Christie cleared the ball and Ipswich centre half Tommy Smith misjudged the ball allowing Chris Martin to nip in and clinically put away his 18th goal of the season, and also the 100th goal of his career in his 303rd game. (Interesting to note that in the last season and a half our number 9 has scored 43 goals in 82 games underlining his importance to us yet again)

After our goal we continued on the front foot and carved out a number of half chances. Jordan Ibe worked hard and showed a pleasing appetite for tracking back and Johnny Russell gave his all as ever for the cause.

Despite the high stakes involved Ipswich never really upped the ante and threatened after we scored. Inevitably as the clock wore down there was an element of increased pressure on our goal but few if any clear chances were carved out and Lee Grant was calm and in control of his area.

This reflects well on the professional job that we did in winning this game, Steve McClaren spoke after the game of our “maturity” in seeing the game out and that seemed spot on.

Because of a clash of heads that took Jeff Hendrick out of the game we had 6 minutes of injury time to navigate and navigate with ten men after John Eustace received his marching orders for pulling back McGoldrick as he threatened to break clear. But the 6 minutes passed without further alarm and an important away win was banked.

As well as all the positive points already mentioned it is great to see the return of the clean sheets that so underpinned our best run earlier in the season – today was our fourth in a row and is another reason to be optimistic as we prepare to face the noisy neighbours in a week.