Motorway miles, water and ice beginning to create chaos, Tarmac lifting, repairs overdue, sat-nav says “six miles queues on M4” we ignore. We arrive in time.
Canton, Cowbridge Road, Calabrisella, a 14” crisp Italian base pizza and a Peroni for a tenner, a local café run by real Italians, worth the trip alone. Trip advisor rates it 16/958, I rate it higher.
Cardiff City Stadium, park up, part with £8, little option. Turnstiles open, friendly greeting, posters welcome our 310 mile round journey, catering staff wear Rams tops. Cardiff won an award last year for going that "extra mile” in welcoming away fans, it's appreciated guys - you did well.
Pitch side, unchanged team, we control the game without conviction but without concern. The Bluebirds give us time to play; it's our type of game.
Eight minutes in we have a penalty, an innocuous challenge in the box Chris Martin goes down, ref Paul Tierney points to the spot. Martin shuffles, shoots left and Simon Moore saves, we've been here before.
Jamie Ward right hand side, his cross deflected into the net, 1-0 up, we've been here before (Notts Forest).
Jake Buxton goes down, after treatment he continues, he hobbles… it won't be long.
It's not.
Minutes before half time Cyrus Christie takes over and with almost his first touch of the ball he floats a cross over and Martin on the back post makes it Derby 2 Cardiff 0.
Second half and Cardiff comes out stronger, they close us down, we struggle. Mason Bennett replaces Simon Dawkins, and Bennett gets booked within seconds for a challenge on Lee Peltaire, as harsh as the penalty given earlier.
Kenwyne Jones a substitute for the Bluebirds forces a great save out of Lee Grant after Shotton loses his man. At the other end Bennett almost scores fed by Will Hughes, his attempt is turned away for a corner.
Craig Bryson is the Rams last substitution replacing Ward and leaving Darren Bent (3 goals in 1 and a bit games) welded to the bench.
We see the victory out, three good points, overall not a great performance but we did what was required and that's the mark of a good team in my eyes.
187 miles later, my eyes needed a rest.
Grant 7 - Earned his corn with a great save from Jones.
Shotton 6 - More convincing as a full back than when he moved inside.
Buxton 7 - Forced off with an ankle injury.
Keogh 7 - The odd mistake, the brilliant block to recover.
Forsyth 7 - Keeping Warnock out of the side, upped his game since the Leeds Captain’s arrival.
Dawkins 6 - Made a positive contribution yet has a long way to reach his best form.
Hughes 7 - Played in different positions throughout, sometimes behind Forsyth, sometimes behind Martin, a good game Will.
Hendrick 4 - You know the drill, picking teams, the last boy chosen and you still wonder wether you'd be better without. Jeff had that type of game.
Mascarell 6 - He needs players offering options to shine, he had to carry at least one other midfielder yesterday.
Ward 6 - Promises so much, will claim the goal, it's wasn't going in until the deflection.
Martin 6 - A quiet game for Chris, scored a goal missed a penalty and his distribution was lacking at times.
Christie 6 - Made our second goal.
Bennett 6 - Had a couple of good chances which he was unlucky with.
Bryson 5 - Better than Hendrick.
Ref: Paul Tierney
Crowd: 22,287
Derby: Grant, Shotton, Keogh, Buxton (Christie 41’), Forsyth, Hendrick, Mascarell, Hughes, Dawkins (Bennett 58’), Martin, Ward (Bryson 77’).
Unused Subs: Roos, Calero, Warnock, Bent.
Goals: Malone o.g (22’), Martin (45’)
Possession: 48% - 52%
Shots On Target: 5 - 3
Shots Off Target: 4 - 0
Corners: 3 - 2
Fouls: 16 - 14
We Said — Steve McClaren:
"It was a professional performance and we won the game in the first half. Missing that penalty would have affected us a year ago, but not now with the maturity of this team. They kept competing and got the two goals.”
"I told the players at half-time to take it on and we had opportunities to get the third. But we got sloppy and too casual and should have scored again because anything can happen at 2-0."
They said — Russell Slade:
"I'm a positive person and I don't think we are getting dragged into a relegation fight. We need to stop this trend of losing but I don't see why we can't go and win next week and get some momentum.”
"This has been a tricky period as we go through transition with players leaving and coming in, but it's not impossible to make the play-offs."
Derby vs. Bolton
3:00pm - Saturday February 7th