Questions answered on Saturday - play with a back four and play Collins with a fit Didzy. Simple.
Firsttime in a long time that I have relaxed in the first 30 mins only for the Derby way to contrive conceding a sloppy goal and yes, you've guessed, giving away a penalty.
Trip to the seaside on Tuesday -and an away sell out. Derby should continue the momentum built up on Saturday and start making gains towards the play-offs.
Lets see and if we can stay on topic.......unless its something interesting....
Hourihane is out after his 5 s - just hoping that the older players can keep up with the pace. Injuries are starting to become a slight issue with this punishing schedule.
Another solid result and a step closer to the play-offs.
Despite previous posts / thoughts I do hope you manage to get back to the Championship this season. More than that, I hope we don't have to play you next season!
Fair play to not bombarding us with messages after the Arsenal game...although I am sure the truce won't last long should we lose this weekend!
Heb has set a challenge! Can I rise to the occasion? After a poor night's sleep maybe not but here goes.
Did we miss penalties through poor kicks or did the goalie do really well? I think his first save was brilliant to be fair - low and right in the corner. Not sure Collins did anything wrong except maybe it needed a bit more umph. For some reason I did not think McG would get his. He had seemed off it up til then and I was starting to feel this would not be our night. He definitely did not hit it hard enough or wide enough but, hey, these things happen.
I had been asking myself how many penalties we had been awarded so far this season and concluded it was none and then we end up with two (and it should have been three as there was a much worse foul on M-L which went unpunished.)
Another contentious point was whether Cashin should have been sent off. I suspect the ref felt other Derby players could have put in later challenges especially as the offence was virtually on the half-way line. Why on earth Cash cannot serve his time out against Torquay I do not know. Time for Stearman and Rooney to be given games methinks.
Yet another game reinforcing the feeling that M-L should always play as a winger, not a WB. Although he faded a bit second half he was our most dangerous outlet first half.
I wonder why Dobbin does not seem to be a fan favourite whereas Osula clearly is. I suppose it's the two Accie goals and the fact that Dobbin has yet to get a league goal. I feel he is just as threatening as M-L but without the final touch which will surely come.
Finally a question. Do others feel a slight lack of balance with two lefties as CBs? I know this pairing will be interrupted for at least one game but I don't think we are seeing the best of Cash on the right side.
I thought we generally played very well, certainly when we went forward. Both wide players were full of threat. Dobbin had his best game for us and had plenty of effective forward runs, one of which led to the first penalty. We put a lot of decent crosses into the box which might easily have been converted on another day. McGoldrick was very quiet though.
I thought the midfield two also did very well, especially considering this was a new role for Sibley to play as one of a midfield pair. I thought he was very disciplined. In fact he started the move that led to his goal by tracking back to win the ball. His set-piece delivery was very good indeed.
We did look a bit vulnerable defensively though, despite being very dominant. We seemed to struggle a bit with the long ball in the first half, and when we gave the ball away in midfield once or twice we looked short of numbers.
Ordinarily we would have won comfortably with the chances we created and the corners we won. Even with two missed penalties we could have had four or five. If Osula had put away his easy chance we would probably have seen it out comfortably. If Thompson had hit is shot properly at the death we would have said it was the least we deserved. We can blame the penalty-takers a bit - if the keeper dives the wrong way a penalty always looks masterful in its execution but if they don't hit it very hard it becomes a 50-50 chance, and last night the coin came down the wrong way both times. Unless they are very good at finding the corner I wish they would just give the ball a bit of violence.
You have to accept the occasional night when you dominate but the ball just won't go in, but that's three away games where we have had one point rather than three and it's really frustrating.
I’m sure the ideal centre back pairing is a righty and a lefty but needs must. It’s to Cashin’s great credit that he has played so well on the wrong side. Warne was refreshingly honest when he said of Cashin’s yellow card that he thought we might have “got away with one”. I reckon he will bring Stearman in for the MK Dons match unless Davies or Chester have had a trip to Lourdes in the meanwhile. He alluded to having a few players on the bench who he says will have good careers but are not yet ready for the full fray, and Rooney is one of those I expect. If so we will need to defend deeper so may need an extra midfielder for that one to fill the space.
