For Those Who Could not Attend

For Those Who Could Not Attend. Saturday 22nd December 2018
Visitors - Bristol City
Referee :- Darren Bond.
Crowd :- 26,719
Weather/Conditions. Cloudy, moist and mild.
Pitch Condition - Immaculate, as ever.
Team:-
Carson, Bogle, Keogh, Tomori, Malone
Huddlestone, Wilson, Mount,
Josefzoon, Marriott, Waghorn.

Subs. Pearce, Roos, Holmes, Sibley,

The half-half-way point and if we are to see Derby’s season flourish we needed to win this game. I hardly know where to start the summary. For the first 30 minutes Derby completely dominated to the point where it was a question of how many we would score. However doubts were just beginning to creep in that we weren’t creating that much and when we did, chances were being missed. Nugent missed one at the near post - a header that he was not quite tall enough to keep it below the crossbar. And then - almost the first time Bristol had the ball in Derby’s half, Richard Keogh - under absolutely no pressure - headed the ball perfectly into the path of Patterson for him to easily lob Scott Carson to put us a goal behind. I’m afraid it was a typical Keogh error that so excites certain Derby fans and I confess to feeling quite a bit annoyed with him, though he was far from Derby’s worst performer on the day. In his after the match interview said "I will not hold it against him (Keogh) in the slightest because he's bailed us out many a time and he made a fantastic block in the second half. He’s our leader, he's a great bloke and a mistake is going to happen in the course of a season to the absolute best of them. So I have no qualms with Richard, he doesn't have to say or think about it“. And in the second half he put in a great shot that was heading for just under the bar until their goalie made yet another very fine save.

Of course this encouraged Bristol no end and from then on they looked a far more even match. Then, by a great effort by Mason Mount - he took the ball on the left before driving in a brilliant low cross which Martyn Waghorn neatly side footed fast Bristol’s huge goalkeeper, to bring a distinct feeling of relief for Derby fans and maybe Keogh in particular. The game then swung from end to end such the Derby fans were quite grateful to be going in at 1-1.

After the interval the game swung back and forth and Bristol looked more and more dangerous. Derby too had some good chances and both goalie’s had to be at their best, Bristol’s more so than Scott Carson I think.

The second half was both frustrating and scary. No Derby players were that great. Tomori was MOTM for me, Scott Carson saved tsingle point by a great save from Patterson again. Their goalie made some really excellent saves and for then saved their single point. Bogle was good but like all most Derby players made some pretty poor decisions, when better passes or a shot would have served the team better. Nugent ran his legs off again. Waghorn was one of our better players and thank goodness he took his goal well. Both Mount and Wilson tried very hard and were very good in parts. It was Mount’s cross that lead to our goal. Malone is improving. Huddlestone was on holiday - relaxed and at half pace most of the time and the cause of much frustration in my mind. There was too much preference for passing backwards rather forward. We are badly missing Curtis Davis.

The ref was fine most of the time. It was a very frustrating experience but I think Frank Lampard brought us back to earth with his most sensible analysis. Most fans were disappointed with our performance and the loss of two points. A small consolation was that Nottingham Forest lost to QPR. Now it is late and I have over consumed. We drank a 1975 Eiswein amongst other wines and it was in good condition. I am not capable of more summarising. Sorry.