Those who read my weekly CFU emails will know that I had very little hope of getting anything from this game as Derby had not won away this season, and had a new manager. I hadn’t realised they were yet to score an away goal, so like in the Burton game, Christmas came early for the visitors. At least they didn’t have a player sent off or it would have been a 4-0 defeat!
We all know Derby are one of the “big” teams in this league, and their relegation from the Championship was due to points deducted due to financial issues, but this season we are playing them as equals.
Unfortunately from the start we appeared overawed, and unable to find any rhythm. An early scare saw Derby shoot wide from an angle, but apart from that there was little to trouble Mitov for most of the first half as both teams cancelled each other out, despite Derby having the greater possession.
The referee seemed to miss a lot of fouls, or maybe he wanted to get the game finished without overuse of his whistle! What looked to me an obvious foul on one of their players by I think Dunk a few yards outside our penalty area was waved away, then as Ironside looked to run through on goal before being bought down was again not deemed to be a foul!
A minute before half time saw the deadlock broken. A long ball looked to be easily covered by Ibsen-Rossi, but with Collins behind him he missed his kick back to Mitov to give Collins an easy run on goal and score.
A poor half and a silly mistake, surely the second half would be better. And it was a little better as U’s pressed a little higher and got into better positions, but no real chances were made.
Bringing on Brophy, Knibbs, Okinabirhie made little difference, and following some weak tackling in the centre circle the ball fell nicely for Derby to break, and Collins was in lots of space to shoot from an angle and the ball beat Mitov at the near post. 2-0 down after 82.
More huffing and puffing from U’s, but still no real chance on goal, and the game ended with the away fans singing loudly.
The stats show we had 1 shot on target (I can’t remember it!) to their 3, so not much in it, but their quality and work ethic shone through. We looked out fought and outthought!
Our midfield seemed overrun, despite the wide players being very narrow. This left spaces down the wings so our fullbacks often had to deal with overloads. When we did get the ball to Tracey he seemed reluctant to take on a defender, and when he did he lost the ball! Smith didn’t see much of the ball. All too often a long ball to Ironside was our forward play, and he did quite well trying to hold up play but had very little support. Lankester buzzed around a lot but was marked out of the game.
When Brophy and Okenabirhie came on we looked a little more dangerous, but the final ball was missing from good positions.
Who gets to partner Jones in our defence is interesting. There are times when you need 2 big centre halves, then there are times when you need some pace. Last week Okedina played when maybe Ibsen-Rossi could have used his height, this week against mobile forwards maybe Okedina would have been the better choice? Good job I am not the manager!
This game was designated as “Retro Shirt Day”, so instead of wearing my “lucky” shirt I wore an old one (a Toffs version of the 70 white shirt). So this is why we lost!
Nice to see Subbuteo players on the front of the programme. I suppose there are younger generations who do not know about “flick to kick”. They should be quite good with all the training their fingers get using mobile devices!