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RamsWeek 49 - Whatever It Takes
RamsWeek 49 - Whatever It Takes
Sunday, 4th Dec 2011 19:01 by Paul Mortimer

Derby County had two Championship matches in the space of three days in which to reverse their current losing streak.

RamsWeek usually has to start with an injury bulletin so why should this week be any different? Several experienced players are still battling their way back to match fitness and their availability will be crucial if the Rams are to return to a challenging rather than a survival mentality.

Paul Green and James Bailey came through the West Ham match satisfactorily, whilst Shaun Barker looked rusty and John Brayford struggled badly. It seemed he was drafted back in urgently at West Ham; perhaps too early? The first duty of a full-back is to halt attacks from the flank and prevent crosses pressuring the penalty area; if the full-back is unfit, he becomes a weakness and a target for the opposition.

Brayford’s thigh muscle problem persists and it Clough would pick Paul Green or rookie loanee Tom Naylor at right-back in Brayford’s stead. I cannot see the point of ‘playing him on one leg’, to paraphrase Clough’s description of his condition. What happened to the manager’s declaration that no player would be rushed back, so as to ensure they were fully fit before being thrown back into the fray?

I guess that intention got displaced due to the lengthening injury list and the ultimate failure of the club to sign sufficient players with Championship experience to cover such eventualities. So much for the latest broken promises, then!

One player who is no longer available is 34 year-old loanee utility man Kevin Kilbane. He’s been absent with a back injury for several weeks and has returned to parent club Hull City for assessment. As his loan spell ends at New Year, we may have seen the last of him for the time being.

Derby took on Brighton & Hove Albion at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday night keen to end their damaging losing streak. After a flying start to their Championship campaign since promotion last season, the Seagulls have fallen away to suffer a similarly torrid run of results as Derby County.

Rams’ manager Nigel Clough replaced the injured John Brayford at full-back with Paul Green and brought back Jeff Hendrick into midfield. Tamas Priskin made his home debut and the Rams’ forward compliment on the bench was schoolboy Mason Bennett and Callum Ball.

Cold, crisp November evening, perhaps the first fixture with a real ‘winter’ feel about it, attracted Derby’s lowest gate of the season 22,040 - but all Rams fans and the 750 Seagulls followers present joined together before the kick-off to remember Gary Speed with an enthusiastic 1 minutes’ applause. The Rams then came out of the traps in spirited fashion, looking determined to turn the result their way - but were promptly undone by appalling defending after only 13 minutes.

Gareth Roberts abandoned his full-back job for some reason and was upfield stranded; Brighton took full advantage as Inigo Calderon romped unchecked down the right wing and slashed the ball into the box. From the indecision in Derby’s defence, the ball was half-cleared to fall to the feet of the waiting Craig Makail-Smith, 16 yards out. He promptly thrashed the ball into the top corner of the net and Brighton then fought hard to protect their precious lead.

There was no lack of endeavour or fight from Derby afterwards; however, despite having almost 80 minutes to recover the situation, they lost the game 1-0 to that early strike from £3m Seagulls’ forward Makail-Smith, one of those proven but expensive strikers that Derby County simply won’t buy. The striker also hit the post with a late header, so it wasn’t all bad luck for Derby!

Derby could well have won the game. Unlike recent tepid displays, they did create many promising positions and a few clear-cut chances - but they didn’t put any of them away. Hendrick, Shackell, Bryson went close; misfortune, the run of the ball, desperate saves from Seagulls’ goalkeeper Ankergren, deflections and bad bounces just don’t count for anything if you can’t score. Try as they might, Derby didn’t find a cutting edge with which to alter the game and salvage a result.

The early fatal lapse apart - which led to Brighton’s winner - Derby’s defence restricted Brighton’s chances and Paul Green battled well at right-back. Ball-specialist Ben Davies was inaccurate and often frustrated the crowd. For all his effort, he is a weak link if he cannot deliver good service consistently. Hendrick was hit and miss and Bryson patchy; although Brighton were often shaky passing the ball around in defence, their approach play further up the park showed purpose.

Priskin did reasonably well, Ward figured in some bursts without quite being the consistent threat he has been, and close to the end, both the young substitutes Callum Ball and Mason Bennett could - should - have scored. The youngsters did creditably well and pepped up Derby’s attack late on, but they could not provide the clinical finish required.

Ball had a shot blocked and Bennett skied an inviting rebound, with the crowd expecting the boy to register his first goal and become the youngest-ever League goalscorer. With a dozen deflections, blocks and near misses, it was another hard luck story but Derby’s improved performance ultimately fell short because composure and clinical finishing deserted them at critical moments.

Those moments demonstrated what Derby were missing, both through injuries to their forwards Robinson, Davies and Tyson and the lack of a top-class hit-man in attack: experience, a cool head and a sure finish were required. That’s precisely what Brighton invested in when they paid Peterborough the going rate for Makail-Smith. The Rams’ passing quality also often fell well short.

There is no substitute for quality, Mr Glick - because ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ come a shabby second, don’t they? My suggestion to Derby’s CEO is to go and sign Nicky Maynard - we need the goals, Bristol City needs the money! Then go and sign a regular target man to go with him, if you want the team to punch its weight at the top of the division. We do not have either asset in our squad.

Brighton were robust when needed, too, regularly adding a touch of gamesmanship and time-wasting to frustrate the Derby players and the Pride Park faithful. The officials were lenient and typically myopic in the face of those spoiling tactics - but that’s just another aspect of a predictable hard luck story which is fast characterising another Derby County season.

Nigel Clough talked up Derby’s performance, saying it was ‘one of those nights’. The Rams tried hard but needed to score after conceding a bad early goal. However the recent run of defeats is viewed, the fact is that the rot has set in earlier than last season, the ‘bubble bursting’ when after a great early run of results, a series of defeats has sent the club plummeting down the table.

Still, the Rams aren’t in the financial do-do that Portsmouth are; the Trees got thrashed 0-4 at home by Leeds, and Paul Jewell’s Ipswich Town suffering a similar reversal at Burnley. The hapless Tractor Boys’ manager received his board’s backing after a sixth successive defeat.

“If anyone can do it, Paul Jewell can”, said Town chief exec Simon Clegg, expecting Jewell to turn things around. Yeah, right…what price the Ipswich Town vs. Derby County fixture costing either Paul Jewell - or Nigel Clough - their job? I doubt if GSE have the nous, funds or stomach to recruit.

Southampton and West Ham marched on at the top of the table with midweek wins; Derby dropped a place to 16th in the Championship table and no doubt travelled to Selhurst Park on Friday night hoping that Crystal Palace’s Wednesday night Carling Cup quarter-final clash with Manchester United, which went to extra-time, had taken its toll on the Eagles.

Palace had one of those nights to remember as they unexpectedly won 2-1 at Old Trafford to reach the CC semi-finals. They received a big boost in knocking United out and face Cardiff City in the semi-final, assuring the Championship of a representative in the Wembley final next year. Liverpool and Manchester City will contest the other semi-final match.

Palace, like Derby, were on a bad run in the League with no wins in five games and having played over eight hours without scoring a Championship goal. The Eagles’ last three home games have ended in 0-0 draws. The Rams could move up five Championship places if they won.

The Rams needed to defend better and take the chances they create, as both the Peterborough and Brighton defeats came about by poor quality play by Derby at either end of the pitch. Nigel Clough selected an unchanged team for the game at Selhurst Park - though Palace boss Dougie Freedman made 10 changes to the team that beat Manchester United.

It didn’t take the Eagles long to end their goal drought - 14 minutes in fact. Derby’s defence obligingly opened up and Chris Martin - a striker on loan from Premier League Norwich City - struck home to give Palace the lead. This time it was Jamie Ward who dithered and was dispossessed 25 yards out; the ball came to Martin, who steadied himself and put it into the net to punish yet more inadequate Derby defending.

There wasn’t much going right for Derby once again and their only efforts in response to the reversal were token long-range attempts. It was a tepid, forgettable first half and Derby had looked as threatening as the Andrex puppy.

There was no width, no penetration, no response - it had been feeble stuff from Derby and Clough’s comment that his team’s display looking like a practice match was a kind description. Quite how the Rams’ players believed they could end a bad run with that kind of toothless ‘phoned in’ performance, only they knew.

The second half began with a flurry of attacking activity from the Rams. They showed more menace and forced some corners but did not break through the Palace defence. It seemed apparent that Clough had peeled off the dressing-room paint with a volley to his players at half-time, as they responded well to take the game to the Eagles.

For all Derby’s increasing dominance Palace ‘keeper Julian Speroni hadn’t made a save. In one spell, the Rams forced 4 successive corners but had only a header wide from Tamas Priskin to show for their efforts. Palace weathered the storm and slowed the game to a more leisurely pace.

Mason Bennett replaced the ineffectual Ben Davies as Clough discovered the 4-4-2 system, and Callum Ball replaced the tired James Bailey. Derby were rewarded for an improved 2nd-half showing with 15 minutes to go, when McCarthy turned a Paul Green centre into his own net; 1-1.

The Rams gave as good as they got to battle through for their draw, which mercifully stopped the rot and put an end to their awful losing sequence. As with the Brighton match, the lack of a quality finisher prevented Derby from capitalising on the chances they created - and as it was, they were reliant on a slice of luck from an own goal to avoid extending the sequence of defeats.

That’s how it is - whatever it takes to end a losing run is acceptable. Now the players and manager need to build on the result. Republic of Ireland international Paul Green was Derby’s man of the match with an excellent all-round performance. He might well have won the game too, but for a last-minute Speroni save. It’s good to have the energetic Green back on top form so soon.

He will now be working towards a new contract with Derby - and a Euro 2010 place with the Republic. As the sole survivor of the Paul Jewell era in the Rams’ team, it’s to be hoped that Derby values his abilities and experience. If they instead see the end of his contract as an opportunity to economise on wages and let him drift off and sign a pre-contract agreement in January, they will be wrongly discarding Green’s Championship experience and his international-class abilities.

With the draw achieved at Palace, Mr Clough avoided the ignominy of sharing the worst losing run in the Championship this season - that six-on-the-bounce sequence that Paul Jewell notched up when Ipswich lost at Burnley. The Rams moved up to 13th in the table overnight.

Saturday’s results meant that the Rams slipped back to 15th place, whilst Mr Jewell made it 7 defeats in a row as the Tractor Boys lost at home to Watford. Quelle dommage! Now Derby must repair their home record and they play improving Bristol City at Pride Park Stadium next Saturday.

Derby don’t play the return League game with Crystal Palace until late March - but the FA Cup draw provided the Rams with an early chance to defeat the Eagles this season, as they will play them at Pride Park Stadium in the third round in January.

Fans will hope that the Rams can improve upon their poor form in the cups and advance in the competition after embarrassing early exits at the hands of lower league - and non-league - opposition in recent seasons. The FA Cup draw threw up several tasty ties - Manchester United vs. Manchester City, Arsenal vs. DirtyLeeds, Spurs vs. Cheltenham, Everton vs. Tamworth, the Trees vs. Foxes and Brum vs. Wolves.

The 2012 European Championships draw placed England with France, Sweden and Ukraine in the Group stages of the competition. It’s not a bad draw, the pundits say - so we will have to see whether the players can live up to their potential or handle the hype that always accompanies them to major tournaments. The Republic of Ireland must face Spain, Italy and Croatia.

__________________________________________________________________

In RamsWeek last season, England had the ‘cold shoulder’ in the early-winter freeze-up in the World Cup bid fiasco, the voting turning into embarrassment and defeat for the England bid team with their 2018 losing out to Russia and the assembled officials incredulously awarding Qatar the 2022 tournament.

The whole caper hardly helped heal the negative perceptions of football’s governing body FIFA amid all the allegations of deceit and corruption at the top of the game. English football administration, as well as the national team, also had plenty of room for reform and improvement.

Rams’ boss Nigel Clough commented that 70 Championship points was a feasible play-off target after his team’s good run - but instead of course, he watched his team labour to reach the safety-first 50 points barrier for the rest of the season as injuries and loss of form took hold of the club.

Promotion contenders Norwich City came to Derby and took a 2-0 lead in 12 minutes, with Derby’s attack - lacking loanee centre-forward Shefki Kuqi, left out by Clough - making little impression on the Canaries’ defence. Norwich took the points and Derby slipped to 7th in the table.

Photo: Action Images



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