Not for the first time this season I've come away from Pride Park after seeing Derby win and thought "that was rubbish".

Derby County 2-1 Leeds United
Villa 6, Ellington 18; Becchio 40

The facts; we won this game, we scored more goals and therefore we are in the quarter finals of the League Cup for the first time since 1990.

The reality; we were played off our own pitch by a team from a lower division (albeit not for long) and were embarrassed by their footballing display which made a mockery of our own, shall-we-say more direct approach.

Yes we didn't look good when faced with a team that came to Pride Park with the intention of playing their way through us and whilst not having Martin Albrechtsen doesn't help it is getting pretty obvious that this Derby County is plagued by a severe inability to keep the ball which will continue to cost us and keep us firmly entrenched in midtable mediocrity unless Paul Jewell finds a way to fix it.

Little Fabien Delph did much to show why he's so highly regarded but it hurts not a little that we allowed past it Paul Telfer, perhaps the smallest central defender on the planet, to bring the ball forward unchallenged time after time, giving Leeds a clear path forward without having to hoof the ball every which way a la Claude Davies.

At least Tito and Ellington continue to find the net, at least in this competition, although it would be nice to see the pair aid Rob Hulse more in the Championship. The service has got to be right though and on the two occasions we actually scored it was; clever football results in goals, surely that must be starting to filter through to the players. I've said before that the first thing Jewell had to do was make us difficult to beat, which he has; now we have to start to go out and look to beat teams which requires us as a team to play a more intelligent, patient game of football, ignoring the calls from the crowd to get it forward quickly.

Composure is the key word for me and that is what I want to see from this team; some might not but then this is just my opinion. We all saw in the Premier League what a relatively simple, straightforward passing system can achieve if it's done right; maintaining possession on a consistent basis will be rewarded with wins.

We know it can be done; Albrechtsen, Green, Commons et al are all capable of putting their foot on the ball and finding the time and the space to move it forward without launching it sixty yards in the general direction of the strikers. Now we need to see more of it; obviously I cannot guarantee that it will work all the time and there are success stories among the more direct teams but I've seen good football played at Pride Park under George Burley and by most of the teams that faced us last season and as a result I want to see it again from Paul Jewell's Derby County.

That way we won't be embarrassed by Leeds United.

Rams: Carroll 7; Connolly 7; Stewart 6; Nyatanga 6; Davies 5; Green 6; Commons 5, Kazmierczak 5; Teale 4 (Zadkovich 6); Villa 6 (Hulse 5); Ellington 6 (Sterjovski 5).

Leeds: Ankergren; Richardson; Telfer; Michalik; Barker (White); Snodgrass; Kilkenny (Howson); Douglas; Robinson (Beckford); Delph; Becchio.

Referee: G Laws.

Attendance: 18,540.

See picture gallery from the match here!

Photo: Action Images

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