For Those Who Did Not Attend

At the end, there were many in the 26,000 (+75 Ipswich supporters) in the crowd who booed The Rams. But there were more who gave them a standing ovation. I was one of the latter. Derby - every single member of the team - strained every sinew and actually played very well. It’s just that nothing went right and one critical thing went drastically wrong. I was in line with the Luke Varney shot. He certainly hit it well and the ball wobbled in it’s flight. Carson could only parry the shot and the ball bounced ever so slowly over the line. Perhaps he should have saved it but it seemed just typical of Derby’s fortunes at the moment. In this game and in the game v Newcastle, similar shots by Bryson and others had also been just parried by the opposition goalkeeper - but they fell safely to a defender. And then, the final irony. At the end of the game, from the left flank, Hughes emerged from a series of tussles and calmly threaded a beautiful cross all along the ground to Blackman who somehow, played his shot onto a defender when scoring would have been easier. The ball then fell very kindly for the prone goalkeeper, Such events summed up Derby’s game and Ipswich stole all three points.

There was however, one huge positive coming from this game. Alex Pearce, in for a very poor Shackell on Saturday, played superbly at centre back. He never put a foot wrong all evening and could now be regarded as the equivalent of a brilliant new signing at a time when such moves are banned. And this performance gave confidence to Hughes and Bryson to play further forward, meaning we looked much more threatening and created a lot of chances. I think more in total than the aggregate of the previous three games at home. How Pearce can have been ignored for so long is a complete mystery to me. He is an International who get’s picked for his country but not for Derby County. And in an interview afterwards, he sounded intelligent, coherent and with a good attitude. I expect to see more great performances from him.

In summary, Derby County performed very well though nothing went right on the night. Many desperate blocks and saves within a solid and well organised Ipswich defence. Without naming anybody, all Derby players put in their maximum effort and why we did not win I will never know.

Maybe I could criticise Carson for the goal and the many times he tried to find either right or left wing with his goal kicks and drop kicks only for them to go out of play (as he did v Newcastle). He is clearly under instruction to avoid the centre of the field. A tactic that should be tried however, is to make as if to play to the right wing, with most of the 20 players in their left corner of the park but to actually play it to the left wing with Anya - who is very quick - ready to collect the kick whilst in splendid isolation.

Whilst we have had a disastrous start I can see that NP is beginning to sort the wheat from the chaff. Anya links well with Olsson and looks to be a very positive addition. Vydra looks a bit Kevin Hectorish to me, and Wilson is getting stronger and fitter with each game. Plus we have a very solid Alex Pearce to strengthen the back 4 and marshal our back line to allow our midfield to advance and be in quick passing range of our forwards. There is no need to panic and I am hopeful of a recovery if the team just continues to play like they did last night. Perhaps to show a ray of new light on the situation, we matched and sometimes dominated Newcastle on Saturday, and they beat QPR 6-0 last night - at Loftus Road.

Finally the referee, Stewart Attwell, (he of Forest match notoriety). He actually had a good game, though I’d query his finicky insistence on taking free kicks and throw-ins from the exactly the right place. This is fine except for when the advantage should be given to the fouled, trailing team to avoid time-wasting which all teams resort to in such circumstances.