RamZone Wrap - McClaren Will Work To Wipe Out Derby's Defensive Errors
Sunday, 3rd Nov 2013 14:16 by Daniel J Sewart

It was a case of one part, being outclassed by a team with more genuine quality, and two parts the Rams once again undoing themselves with school boy defending.

Derby continually self destructs their unquestionable work rate by leaking soft goals at the back. After escaping at Watford with a win and having to settle for a point against Birmingham, it was only a matter of time until the Rams did not get out of jail, especially when they so easily hand over the key to the opposition.

As Derby headed home, all they had to show from the day was Steve McClaren’s unbeaten start coming to an end and the Rams lost their 700th match in the second tier of English football.

Positive way to start a report… sigh.

McClaren returned to Loftus Road, his last place of employ before heading to Pride Park, with Rams fans hoping his inside knowledge may help the visitors undo the QPR defence, which had been as good as impenetrable so far this season.

The game started with QPR flying out of the blocks and the Rams were under massive pressure from the first whistle. In some respects Derby did well to hang on for 11 minutes, which was when the Hoops took the lead.

Matt Phillips found Charlie Austin with a pin point cross who shot only to be denied by Lee Grant. Unfortunately the ball spilled into the path of Jermaine Jenas who made no mistake from close range.

Slowly but surely the Rams worked their way into the match but it still felt against the run of play when Jamie Ward’s free kick was converted by Simon Dawkins on 23 minutes.

Despite protests from players and fans that Buxton had fouled two defenders, the on loan attacking midfielder produced a superb volley which the large travelling contingent hoped would kick start the Rams.

The remainder of the first half was a slog as both teams tried to play football but neither could finish any good work they produced to take a lead into half time.

QPR started the second half brighter with Austin heading wide from a Faurlin corner and Junior Hoilett firing over as Rangers looked to regain the lead.

The near misses sparked Derby into life as the lively Dawkins mugged Danny Simpson on the edge of the penalty area, setting up Ward who shot only for QPR keeper Rob Green to keep the ball out. Unfortunately for Chris Martin he was unable to take advantage of the rebound as he ran out of room and was forced to fire from a tight angle.

Just as they looked like pushing the home team all the way, the Rams comical capers at the back continued when Faurlin’s fabulous free kick into the danger area was met by the oncoming bonce of Clint Hill on 63 minutes.

Phillips could have had a third when he cut in from the right, making Rams players look like witches hats as he danced through traffic and fired a shot into the underside of the bar.

Jamie Ward nearly gave the Rams a point when his on target free kick produced a fabulous fingertip save from the Hoops keeper, to ultimately secure all three points for the home team.

QPR are a team with genuine quality on the books and a budget to match. The Rams are building and their new management team have the job ahead of them but on the balance of play, the visitors were not far off the mark but progression will depend on one important thing.

Defence.

The Rams scored at the hardest place to score in the League but were let down by their defensive efforts. So much hard work only to have your heart torn out by very poor defending, that most amateur teams would be ashamed of. It breaks even the strongest players spirits.

After the match McClaren admitted as much and has identified it as an area that needs work before the Rams can take the next step.

If I were a Derby player, I would take that as a warning that if they cannot apply the message the new coaching team are trying to implement, then sooner rather than later, Wisdom won’t be the only new face in the Rams back four.

All at the back, watch your back!

We Said:

Steve McClaren was proud of the Rams despite defensive frailties:

“It’s disappointing to lose and we all hate that feeling of being on the side that gets beat; but I’m proud of the players for the way they performed today. They went toe-to-toe with the best side in the league today and on another afternoon we could have got a point.”

“QPR have the best players and have the best team as well in the Championship, so I’ve just told the players if we perform like we did today week-in-week-out we will be just fine.”

“We made it hard for them and set our stall out to stop them playing, which we achieved for large parts of the game. For any neutral watching that game of football today they’d have thought it was a good game between two decent sides with chances at both ends, and we certainly played our part in it.”

“We weren’t quite how we wanted to be performance wise in the first half on the ball and we gave it away a few too many times, but we responded well to going behind and grew in confidence a little bit.”

“On one occasion being sloppy on the ball cost us a goal but the players responded brilliantly in the second half and gave us a great performance, but maybe we just need to see that little bit more belief — especially against the top sides in the league.”

“Conceding from set-pieces has been a bit of an issue. It’s frustrating to lose a goal in the manner that we did and it’s something we have been working on. We’ve kind of got to grips with it lately but today it came back to haunt us. It’s about concentration and doing your jobs and if you don’t do that, it can cost you.”

“We’ve found that out so it’ll be a case of working on that again this week on the training ground and wiping it out of our game.”

They Said:

Harry was delighted with the Hoops victory:

“We were unlucky to come in 1-1 at half-time, I felt there was a foul for their goal, but I thought if we could go again in the second half we would win the game, and that’s what we did. I’ve been delighted with us. Every week we put a great effort in. We’ve had three games in the last week and the players have been excellent.”

”Prior to this afternoon’s fixture, Rangers had suffered defeat at Burnley before drawing with Wigan on Wednesday night, but the manager was keen to stress his team are in good form, having lost once all season.”

“I don’t think we’ve been through a blip,” he added. “We played Burnley away who are top of the league and then we went to Wigan who are an excellent team and won the FA Cup last year. We played well there and I thought we were the better side on the night.”

“We’ve come back home against a tough Derby side today and deserved the win. It was a good all-round performance, we were excellent all over the park.”

Match Stats:

Crowd: 18,178

Possession: QPR 57% - Derby 43%

Corners: QPR 6 — Derby 5

Shots (On Target): QPR 18 (5) — Derby 8 (4)

Fouls: QPR 18 — Derby 15

Official / Teams:

Ref: Jon Moss

QPR : Green; Simpson, Dunne, Hill, Assou-Ekotto; Jenas, Barton; Phillips, Faurlin (Henry 76), Hoilett (Traore 80); Austin.

Unused Subs Murphy, Johnson, Wright-Phllips, Onyewu, Chevanton

Goals: Jenas (11), Hill (63)

Derby (Player Rating) : Grant 5; Wisdom 6 (Bennett 90), Keogh 5, Buxton 6, Forsyth 4; Eustace 5, Bryson 8; Dawkins 7 (Sammon 73), Hughes 5, Ward 6; Martin 5

Unused Subs: Morch, Smith, Jacobs, Freeman, Ball

Goal: Dawkins (23)