What I.Saw - Forever The Optimist!
Sunday, 11th Dec 2011 13:10 by I.Saw

RamZone match reporter I.Saw was at Pride Park to witness Callum Ball come of age in a Rams shirt and collect all three points for his struggling team.

Callum's 1st Goal & 3 Points - Thoughts from Derby 2 vs. Bristol 1

An icy December morn, defrost the car.

Work first, then the obligatory dash.

Park.

A brisk walk by the Derwent, the Brunswick approaches.

Two swift pints, a bowl of chips, melted stilton.

Cheese sweats, a half full bowl left, forever the optimist.

Another brisk walk. Four, Five, One, a negative formation waits to greet us. Tamas Priskin, a poor mans Nicklas Bendtner, the one. It’s the same line up that won a point away at Crystal Palace. We set up for a draw.

Referee sees everything as Shipshape and Bristol Fashion, a phrase which apparently meant your valuables were stowed away safely, a necessity when ships visited the tidal River Avon. Certainly Bristol’s assets were safe in the mouth of Mr. Madley as he lovingly protected them from the nasty men in black and white.

You need something to whinge about though in a dour first half, not a single shot on target for the Rams who have Frank Fielding to thank for two excellent saves the first low from Martyn Woolford the second a stunning effort from Nicky Maynard.

And if the ref gave us nothing, we created nothing, deserved nothing and generally got what we deserved.

Unsurprisingly at the half time whistle, Derby is booed off.

Starting the second, Callum Ball is coming on, 4-4-2 we wonder, no a straight swop for Priskin who hardly put a foot wrong, or indeed right, such was his involvement in the first half.

Ball has a touch of the John O’Hare’s about him, no pace but the ball sticks, we play to him and he brings others into the game. It what we need and have needed since Kuqi went back to wherever he came from.

So while we enthuse about Callum, Bristol score, we lose the ball in the visitor’s penalty area and the Robins flit down the other end. We watch as Woolford pokes the ball past Fielding.

Jamie Ward isn’t beaten; he brushes past two static defenders and fires in a cross which three white shirts strain to meet. It misses the first, bypasses the second and in third place, Craig Bryson connects and slides home the equaliser.

Another change, the mercurial Mason Bennett relieves the out of form Davies and Derby take the game to the visitors.

Callum Ball in the box controls the ball dead with one foot, turns, a couple of steps then shoots, David James outstretched arm merely defecting the ball up and into the back of the net. A standing ovation follows for Ball’s first senior goal. “Great Balls Of Fire” needed from the tannoy.

We hold our own.

We take three points.

“Chelsea Dagger” sounds good as we exit into the cold December night.

A better than expected day, forever the optimist.