The Weston Report: 'Regulation' Rams Conserve Energy For Southport
Thursday, 1st Jan 2015 07:55 by Ryan Weston

2014 finished as it began, with the Rams chasing down the top-two in the Championship, following yet another win over Dirty Leeds on a freezing cold night at the iPro.

A win that would be filed in the dictionary under ‘regulation,’ with our visiting Yorkshire friends seemingly over-doing it on the Christmas festivities.

Rumours that, on this frozen night, McClaren said, ‘let it go’ when referring to last month’s defeat against the same opposition remain unconfirmed. What was confirmed though was the somewhat surprising (but in my opinion, welcome) return to action for Bucko, replacing Shotton in our only change from the Blues away Boxing Day blitz.

Snow on the ground, the Sky cameras in attendance and the ‘Damned’ in town, this had all the makings of a special end of year night.

Sadly, the first half didn’t live up to the billing. Hendrick’s booking within the first 30 seconds couldn’t even ignite the candle to warm the freezing masses. Leeds’ failure to sell out their allocation spoke volumes about their plight (and the extortionate ticket prices of £39) but a crowd of over 31,000 did their best to spur the game into life.

With the game struggling to find a rhythm, attacks of note were few and far between, with Leeds content on stifling our supply into Martin. Our best threat however was Ibe, who showed his pace, power and pleasingly, an end product firing low across the box, sadly to no avail.

Leeds lost their captain in the early going but looked reasonably solid defensively. Antenucci shot well wide as Eustace shielded the back-four well. Attacking wise though, they were as likely to score as I was likely to catch sunstroke in the sub-zero temperatures.

Our threats continued in the wide areas, with Christie first delivering a cross that Leeds keeper Silvestri clawed at and missed before providing another low ball that was well-turned behind.

As the game threatened to meander to half-time, we finally found the match to light the fire.

Hughes superbly wrestled and slipped his way out of a three-man sandwich to find Martin. His pass to Ibe saw the youngster then drive at his full-back before sliding an excellent through-ball back to Hughes.

Keeping his balance and poise, Will checked, went towards the by-line and delivered a great low cross which the unfortunate Mowatt could only divert onto his own bar and in.

The Rams smelt blood as we finished the half on a high. First, Hendrick’s free kick was diverted goal wards by Keogh, only for Silvestri to produce a save that was firmly in the, ‘one for the cameras’ bracket. From the resulting (poor) corner, Ibe produced a stinging shot which Silvestri took two bites of the (Tweety) pie to gather.

Half-time.

Even at 1-0, you felt it was a long way back for the Damned. A long way soon became Everest as we quickly put the game to bed.

Ibe was going nowhere near the left-corner flag, but was needlessly fouled. From the free-kick, Hendrick found the head of Buxton, who had easily evaded his donkey of a marker in Doukara, before expertly diverting the ball in. I’m not sure who enjoyed the goal most - the fans or Bucko!

Now we started to play as we can and really should have started the New Year Celebrations early with a third. After Ibe’s low drive was beaten away by the goalkeeper, Forsyth then picked up the ball on the left. Beating his man, his superb cross was met by the head of the unchallenged Martin, who lost his bearings, heading straight into the North Stand.

No matter though as Leeds’ A, B, C and D game plan seemed to be a long, direct, easily defendable, ball towards the strikers (for Doukara, read donkey). That said, Grant had to be alert to deny Antenucci following a corner. Even after Eeyore had been replaced by one-time Rams target Billy Sharp, the threat of a comeback was as likely as Forest winning the league.

As the Rams strolled about the pitch, there seemed little intent on going for the third, with the Rams obviously conserving their energy to face Southport!

After Bryson had been introduced for Hendrick, Martin was teed-up on the edge of the box, only to drive straight at Silvestri. By then though, with Christmas Day five days ago, the only turkeys left were those wearing gold!

There was still time to introduce perhaps the biggest one, with Adryan sent on to fall about the pitch for the last 10 minutes. A clash with Eustace, which sent him sprawling, was my highlight of the night, but only a 3.2 from the judges.

Full-time then and the judges would have had us up on every scorecard. If Norwich were the best side I’d seen this season then Leeds may well have been the worst. That said, you can only beat what is in front of you and we did it with the upmost professionalism.

The question that I asked myself on the way out was, ‘how on earth did they beat us last month?!’

You feel though that many other questions will be asked in the month ahead:

What positions need strengthening?

Who will we go after?

Who will be heading through the exit door?

Will Leon Best score for us?

I can’t be the only one though who has a real feeling about the New Year?

Sounds good doesn’t it…, 2015 - The Year of the Ram!

Weston’s Player Ratings:

Lee Grant — 7: As quiet a night as you can wish for as a goalkeeper. Was going to run on with a brew for him at one point!

Cyrus Christie — 7: Went forwards more than he went backwards which tells you everything. Surely he will score soon?

Richard Keogh — 7: Nullified any limited threats.

Jake Buxton — 8: Great to see him back and with a goal too.

Craig Forsyth — 7: Solid, won everything and Martin should have credited him with an assist.

John Eustace — Weston’s Star Man - 8: Showed why we have missed him recently. Broke up play, got stuck in when needed and can’t remember him giving the ball away.

Jeff Hendrick — 7: Much better for me. Much better energy and use of the ball.

Will Hughes — 7: Balance and poise made the first goal. Made things tick all evening.

Jordan Ibe — 8: The most complete performance we have seen from him. Sensible in possession, looked a threat and worked back well for the team. Constant menace.

Johnny Russell — 6: A little quieter than normal perhaps.

Chris Martin — 7: Did what he does.

Subs:

Craig Bryson — 6: Last 10 mins.

Simon Dawkins — 6: Last 5 mins.

Paul Coutts — 6: Last 2 mins. Did he touch it?

Match Info / Rams Team:

Ref: Keith Stroud

Crowd: 31,690

Derby: Grant; Christie, Keogh, Buxton, Forsyth; Eustace, Hendrick (Bryson 79’), Hughes; Russell (Coutts 90+1’), Ibe (Dawkins 89’), Martin.

Unused Subs: Roos, Shotton, Mascarell, Best.

Match Stats — Rams / Leeds:

Goals: Mowatt (41’ O.G), Buxton (47’)

Possession: 59% / 41%

Shots On Target: 6 / 1

Shots Off Target: 9 / 7

Corners: 5 / 2

Fouls: 12 / 13

We Said / They Said - Match Reaction:

We Said — Steve McClaren:

"A great job, disciplined and professional. The tempo kept going, they were going to tire and we scored. We were in control from the second goal. Will Hughes has been fantastic. You have to put the ball in the box, that is where you score and great credit to Hughes for the first goal.”

"Jake Buxton was suspended but we brought him back and you see him and Richard Keogh are a rock for us, he then went and got a goal."

They said — Neil Redfearn:

"The goal gave them a leg up and even at 1-0 down, I thought we were in the game. We looked solid enough in the first half but probably didn't carry enough threat. Alex Mowatt tried to clear it but we are having no luck at the moment. We have to stick together and believe in what we are doing.”

"If you open out too much, you can get swamped and it was difficult to get a foothold in the game and get the ascendancy. We didn't have the cutting edge and the lads are unhappy, it wasn't a good result."