For Those Who Did Not Attend

30000 Rams fans and 3 bus loads of MK Dons fans turned up to see what Darren would make of things under the new regime. In the end it was the busloads who made more noise. And it has not been long for the DW out brigade to bring their knives to bear.

It was a very even game in many ways. A top championship going downwards met a bottom side moving upwards with the predictable result. If Shackell had headed in rather than just wide of the post after about 30 minutes, the outcome would have been very different. But as it was, The Dons were allowed to waste time without any input from the ref and as time went by Derby’s frustrations and impatience began to show. Frantic is the word that best describes Darren’s first game. Derby were hasty and desperate to score but the more they tried the more they failed. He had motivated his newly shaped team well and there was no lack of effort but as in past weeks there was no end product. Wassell picked a different team to the one I would have picked but that’s what he gets paid for. Ince and Martin were ineffectual – again – but he now needs to keep a settled side and so should not change personnel just because fans think he should. Some selections worked. The back 4 were sound as usual and Olsson was more penetrative down the left although he had no-one to interchange with. Johnson hustled and bustled and won the ball as often as he gave it away. Russell put his usual busy shift in but couldn’t generate much in the way of goals or chances. Christie and Ince seem to be developing a partnership though it has come a bit late imo.

Ten men behind the ball, as much time wasting as the ref allowed them (a lot) and the desperate Rams predicament, inevitable led to crowd and player frustration and some late attacks by the visitors. A free kick was awarded just outside Derby’s penalty area. In my opinion there was no contact from our player but it was the ref’s opinion which counted. I was directly in line with the free-kick and Carson was careless in positioning his wall. Lo and behold, the striker saw the gap and slotted his ball just over the wall and Carson was too late to make the save. With 10 minutes to go, many fans started to leave, thus making plain their feelings about the new manager. As predicted by me (and castigated by one 606 poster at least) Darren Wassell came in for a lot of Manager Out calls. This was NOT DW’s fault. There is a sickness within the club caused by something unknown to fans –which explains the lack of objective rationalism emanating from Mel Morris’s various comments.

Wassell's Radio Derby summary was interesting though it drew a lot of criticism, I think it showed there is a lot of subtlety in his make up. He was criticised for saying it was difficult to play in front of 30,000 fans. And of course we are right to point out that every team in the division would love to play in front of such a crowd. But he is right in that, if this game had been Away, with only 4 short days of preparation, it would have meant less pressure to achieve. This pressure undoubtedly added to the frantic football they served up. He also quite rightly said there was no lack of effort and the performance was generally good. He acknowledged Olsson's role and thinks, as I do that he will prove to be a great signing. It seems to me DW will motivate his team better than PC did.

Darren now has to settle on his best eleven plus subs and give them time to develop into a real team. Whether he can do it and preserve our play-off place remains to be seen. I hope so and I for one will be supporting and shouting for The Rams and Darren Wassell.