For Those Who Could not Attend

For Those Who Could Not Attend
Sheffield Wednesday
Crowd. 28,574
Referee - Keith Stroud
Team :-
Carson, Bogle, Keogh, Tomori, Malone
Huddlestone
Johnson, Wilson
Holmes, Waghorn, Bennett
Subs :- Wisdom, Cole, Josefzoon, Marriott, Nugent, Bird. Roos
Conditions. Great looking pitch.
Weather, Wet, cold and unpleasant

Will the very welcome win on Tuesday revitalise The Rams? As long as they maintain the adventurous attitude it is quite likely. Well! They came out and carried on where they left off - being quite a bit better than the Wendies, at least to start with. And within 10 minutes, Derby scored from a corner by Dwayne Holmes from the left. It was headed on by a SW player at the near post for Bradley Johnson, cool as custard, to plant a precise header just inside the post. After that SW raised their game and finished the half much stronger with Scott Carson making a couple of fine saves to keep us in front at half-time. Waggy had a really great chance to increase the lead but he couldn’t sort out his feet to put in a shot. Sadly, after half an hour of good play, Mason Bennett was injured and had to be replaced. A great pity as he was looking sharp and causing no end of trouble to the visitors.

The break gave Bruce a chance to put his team in a better frame of mind and they were definitely the better side for most of the half. Barry Bannan was their mid-field general and he sprayed the ball around to great effect. I for one, would be pleased to have him back in our team. The game swung back and forth until Sheffield had the ball down our right wing when Jayden Bogle fouled their winger. The free kick (by Bannan) found Iorfa - all 6 and half feet of him completely unmarked and unhindered by any defender - to have the simplest of tasks to put it over the line and level the scores. To a certain extent this enlivened both teams. Derby pressed and started to look more dangerous and on occasions SW went close. They even had the ball in the net but it was after it had been kicked out of Carson's hands. Throughout Holmes had worried SW. He was very energetic, skilled and enterprising. Several time their huge defenders climbed all over, both him and Waghorn also Wilson) with not a whistle of discipline from Keith Stroud. I do not know what his visual handicap was but he should have stepped in several times.

It was an exciting game and to a neutral spectator it must have been interesting and enjoyable. For me and the Derby crowd, there was bitter disappointment that the lead had been allowed so tamely to slip away though in the last 10 minutes plus 5 minutes of added time Derby really pressed and with just a little more luck one or even two of their efforts could have gone In.

Both goalies were excellent. Westwood had to make 4 or 5 really excellent saves. Our MOTM was Bogle and he certainly had a great game and is still improving as a player. But for me Bannan was head and shoulders a fine example of a string pulling midfielder. Malone had a good game again. I thought Wilson was completely swamped by SW’s big defenders and the ref allowed them to simply knock him out of the way. Keogh and Tomori were also great. Johnson was very good in parts but displayed a lack of consistency that is really annoying though his goal was lovely to behold. Waggy tried and tried and spared no effort sometimes perhaps wastefully chasing down lost causes. But he certainly tried very hard to make something happen. Huddz played well enough but Josefzoon still hasn’t made it as far as I’m concerned. He always seems to disappoint. When Marriott came on he looked promising and for me, it would have been better for him to come on for Bennett. Nugent came on for Wilson after about 70 minutes, Wilson was pretty ineffective perhaps because of their huge defenders and their license to climb all over him. All in all, I suppose the draw was a fair result. You could see why Bruce has not lost a game in the last 9 outings.