Tag Archives: Stephen Warnock

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This saw Stephen Warnock line up as defensive midfielder in a move that did not make it to half time as he was withdrawn on 37 minutes with the Rams chasing the game.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

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

06 Monday Apr 2015

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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

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