The Weston Report: This Was No Black Sabbath For Divine Derby

I entered the iPro at around 1pm bemoaning the fact that I would have to miss playing for my Sunday morning team - courtesy of another rescheduled SKY fixture.

I left thinking of writing a petition to make all games 1:15pm kick offs on the Sabbath, such was the quality of the Rams performance.

Unsurprisingly unchanged from the win over Brentford, the Rams emerged to a sea of Mel Morris funded black and white scarves. Within three minutes, many of those scarves were being waved in the air again as we made the perfect start.

Neat passing down the left found Johnson in the box, who in turn found Hendrick. The Irishman’s lay-off was in the slot for Martin and with bonfire night approaching, the skipper let loose his own rocket into the top corner.

Not that Wolves appeared the sort of side, but it was a relief to know almost immediately that the opposition wouldn’t park the double decker in front of their net.

With the stadium bouncing, the opposition fans were nearly tempted to get back on their own buses. After a corner was cleared, Thorne had his obligatory long-shot per game, with his strike destined for the same corner as Martin’s before Martinez’s super stop.

It would have been foolish to suggest that with the attacking options at their disposal, Wolves would not pose a threat. What was disappointing was that they equalized with their first shot in anger.

A clipped ball into the box by Henry, who was already giving Forsyth his sternest examination of the season, was challenged for by both Keogh and Le Fondre. The referee, Andrew Madley (yes, the brother of he who shall not be named) deemed it was the Derby man who touched it last.

From the resulting corner, a neat dummy at the near post made dummies out of the Derby defence. Afobe found himself free in the middle of the area, akin to leaving a fox free in the middle of a chicken coup. With minimum fuss, he punished our clucking awful marking to level it up.

Almost immediately, we very nearly struck back. More tidy build up saw Martin swivel in the box, only for his left-footed strike to be excellently saved again from Martinez. At the other end, more excellent play from the impressive Henry set up Wallace to knock-back to Le Fondre, with only a crucial block from Shackell saving the Rams.

As the play became like a basketball game (only much more entertaining), we did get our wooly faces back in front. A poor cross from Russell was cleared terribly by the Wolves right-back straight to Johnson. A hopeful clip into the box should have posed little threat, but Martinez decided that now would be the right-time to do his Superman impression, charging out only for Martin to beat him to the ball and bravely nod into the empty net.

The big man was in an irrepressible mood, and more excellent link-up through him eventually saw Hendrick scuff one from the edge of the box straight at the keeper. Wolves still looked lively down the right but on the stroke of half-time, Martin had the chance to bag the match-ball inside 45 minutes.

Danny Batth, the visiting skipper, had performed, shall we say, poorly and his day was about to get much worse. A hopeful ball up the right saw Hendrick flick on towards Ince. Batth looked favourite to come and put both man and ball out of danger but instead suffered a touch of the Albentosa’s, hesitating as Ince nicked it past him and was blocked to the ground. A foul that he milked more than a cow, yes, but still a pen nonetheless.

It was a real shame then when Martin’s low strike saw Martinez guess right to push away the penalty. With the game possibly about to change on that moment, a goal softer than a new-born kitten followed.

Russell’s corner dropped invitingly for Johnson, who should have been marked by, yes, Danny Batth. Making up for losing Afobe for the leveller, Bradley had the easy task of stroking home, with no Wolves players on either post.

Readers of this article and those who have a brain will understand my feelings on teams leaving posts unguarded from corner-kicks. Still, I cared little and with my phone predictably showing a message of, ‘POSTS!’ from a like-minded friend, the half-time whistle blew.

With the Wolves licking their wounds, the Rams smelt blood. The opening fifteen minutes of the second-half were the best we have produced all season. Led by Jeff Hendrick, who seemingly had something very special in his half-time oranges, we were superb.

Quick passing, neat trickery and fantastic ball-possession led the visitors seeing black and white stars and the home crowd leading the ‘oles.’

What was most pleasing what that our sustained period of domination finished with a game-sealing goal. Hendrick’s clever pass was dummied by Russell for Forsyth, who cut-back to Johnson. He couldn’t quite control but with Wolves scrambling to clear, Russell controlled superbly on his right, took a touch to steady and cleverly poked home through a gap in the defenders.

That wasn’t to be the end in the scoring. With the smart money on Derby scoring 5 or 6, it was annoying then to concede again. Another deep cross from Henry was well headed back by Ojo to Le-Fondre. The proverbial fox in the box capitalized on Keogh getting caught under the ball to brilliantly volley in to corner, via a touch from Carson. With more than 25 minutes to play, was it back to game on?

Well, no, but the game remained enjoyable. Ince drove just wide from the edge of the box as he searched for a contribution to the outcome.

Knowing that another goal for Wolves would make 29,000 backsides squeakier than after a hot curry, the Rams seemed to slow the game down at throw ins and free-kicks. That said, we did have two very presentable opportunities from the dead-ball on the edge of the opposition box. What was baffling was Martin choosing to leave them for Hendrick and Ince, who both conjured up poor efforts.

Still, there was nearly a 5th as Johnson, the type of bloke you can imagine getting up and dusting himself off after being hit by a fast-moving vehicle, left his man in a heap and drove goalwards, only to sting Martinez’s palms with a low drive.

Hendrick was replaced by Butterfield and Christie by Baird as we professionally saw the game out. There was also time for Bent to get on, having successfully entered the route from his home to the iPro on his GPS!

Save for a stupid foul from Ince on the edge of the Derby box, probably in frustration at a below-par individual game, there were no more scares.

An excellent all round display which saw us climb into the top-six for the fist time this season. With this said, I’m sure there is still more to come and consistency will no doubt play a part.

Being unchanged for the first-time undoubtedly helped and it will be interesting to see what Clement does re-team selection in Lancashire on Wednesday night.

Until then, let’s all go and watch the highlights.

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to my church this Sunday!

Weston’s Player Ratings:

Scott Carson — 6: Relatively untroubled bar picking the ball out of the net twice.

Cyrus Christie — 7: Can we say he is back now?

Richard Keogh — 7: Another solid game, just caught under ball for their second.

Jason Shackell — 7: Back to somewhere near his best after a couple of below par home games.

Craig Forsyth — 6: Given serious problems by Henry in the first-half but improved in second.

George Thorne — 8:His normal, tough tackling, ball-distributing self. Good to see him get 90 mins too.

Jeff Hendrick — 7:In and out first-half, better second.

Bradley Johnson - 8 The term workhorse was created for this man.

Tom Ince — 6:Tried but never really happened for him.

Johnny Russell — 8: Usual energetic self. Great second half, brilliant finish for goal.

Chris Martin — Weston’s Star Man — 9: Up there with his very best game for us. Unplayable at times. A successful penalty away from a 10!

Subs:

Jacob Butterfield — 6:

Chris Baird — 6: