The Weston Report: By Hook Or By Crook We Are Looking Up Again
Monday, 7th Mar 2016 12:20 by Ryan Weston

Football, they say, is a results industry…. well, apart from Mel Morris that is. The Rams, despite not being at their best, recorded their third win in four and slowly tightened their grip on a play-off berth.

In comparison to recent times, it had been a pretty quiet week at Rams HQ. There was however a team bonding session to Silverstone. Rumours that the cars ran out of steam with 25% of the race to be run are still unconfirmed…

With another three game week looming, the caretaker chose to spring clean his line-up. Hanson, Ince, and Blackman all returned, the latter hopefully nicking a sat-nav from the race track to show him the way to goal…

What to expect from a Terriers side under new management themselves was anyone’s guess, but with head coach Wagner recently serving as Klopp’s understudy, a decent footballing side was mooted. And so it proved. More of a concern was which Rams would emerge from the tunnel.

From the early exchanges, it looked the same laboured excuse for a side that had so meekly surrendered in the Wolves’ lair last weekend.

A neat exchange down the Huddersfield right saw a low ball half cleared to Bunn, whose goal bound shot, was blocked by Christie. From the next attack, good work from Ince saw his low centre screwed wide by Blackman.

In an open start, Lolley’s cross for the visitors saw Keogh almost pop one into his own net. With the Rams more open than Aston Villa, the Terriers smelt blood. First, Forest-reject Paterson showed good trickery before shooting wide, before Wells’ drive picked out someone in the North Stand. Next to try their luck at the shooting gallery was Lolley, who couldn’t quite pop one in the corner.

Sandwiched between shooting practice at Carson, the Rams could have found themselves ahead. Hanson’s dangerous free-kick from the right found Keogh, who should have done better than awkwardly shanking a chance goal wards when unmarked.

The lacklustre Rams needed a spark and thankfully, Ince had decided to have his Weetabix for breakfast. Drifting dangerously between the lines, he was by far and away our main threat. Good link up play saw him find Blackman, who dangerously shifted onto his left peg before striking just wide.

As the open feel to the game continued, we soon fashioned our first clear chance. Unsurprisingly, it fell to Ince, after great work from Butterfield. The ex-Huddersfield man led a counter attack, brilliantly switching to Ince, whose first touch set, second steadied and third deflected off Hudson to loop agonizingly off the far stick.

With neither team seemingly bothered about defending, Carson did well to hold further efforts from Wells and Lolley. As the heavens opened and as the Rams faithful began a minutes applause for a deceased brother, we broke the deadlock.

I must apologise, I can’t remember the name of the supporter, but he was definitely smiling down on us as Christie’s great cross from the right was superbly guided in by Martin. Against the run of play yes, but no one cared.

After Paterson had once again stung the palms of Carson, the final ten minutes of the half was almost vintage Derby. Pressing high, forward runners, getting in behind. A good atmosphere. A couple of Ince crosses however came to nothing as we had to settle for a one goal half-time lead.

More of the same in the second half would see us canter to victory. But once again, the pot of luck produced another abject Derby start to a half. A free flowing move from the visitors saw us admiring the iPro scenery as Tommy Smith’s (no, not that one) cross found Wells, who laid off for Paterson to strike. Thank the Lord he is on Forest’s books, as someone from a decent club might have found the far corner, not the ball boy.

Still, we didn’t heed the warning. Next, Smith was afforded the freedom of Derby to pick his spot from the edge the box, forcing Carson sprawled to his right to push away. A couple of corners were repelled as we looked to be clinging on. Finally, Hanson crunched into a tackle on Lolley as we belatedly began to look up for the fight.

Slowly, we managed to find a foothold, with Ince the catalyst. His jinking run saw him release Martin in the box whose stinging left-footed drive well saved by Steer.

Unsurprisingly, the caretaker made a double change. Russell replacing Blackman came as no surprise to anyone with functioning eyes but the decision to remove Butterfield was met with boos, both from fans of his former employers and from some Rams, whose eyesight again questioned quite how Hendrick, as at Wolves last week, managed to stay on.

Nevertheless, led by substitute Bryson, we started to win the midfield battle.

However, not for the first time in recent weeks, it was the skipper who almost set up a goal. Reading a forward pass, Keogh collected the loose ball, shimmied past a player and drove forwards, finally releasing Ince. Tom twisted, turned and spanked one with his right, only to see his ferocious strike cannon off the crossbar.

Thankfully, the clincher wasn’t long in coming. Too his credit, Hendrick harried and hassled his man to win the ball in the opposition half. Driving forwards, he picked out Martin who nudged back for Russell. In two lovely touches, we had doubled our lead. Johnny’s first was good; his second was sublime, curling the ball into the net from the edge of the box.

With the game in our pocket, we sent some lad called George Thorne on to see out the game. And in the main, that’s what we did. There was almost time for some late gloss to be added, with Russell’s corner flicked on by Martin to Keogh. Sadly, the skipper doesn’t have the neck of a giraffe and could only glance wide.

No worries though as despite their spirited display, Huddersfield couldn’t send their supporters back up the M1 with at least a goal to cheer.

Another home win, another home clean sheet. Yes, at times, it was as pretty as watching a Schteve McClaren press conference but it was job done and by hook or by crook, we are starting to look upwards again.

There can little doubting the passion of Wassall, whose post-match pumped up celebration spoke volumes. Little complaint can be directed towards him, the supply teacher taking charge of a bright, intelligent, creative class.

Despite the win, there is still a sense of what might have been. But there are still 11 games to go…and who knows what could be yet to come in this strange old season.

After all, it’s a results industry.

Weston’s Player Rating

Scott Carson — 7: Made some good, if not testing saves.

Cyrus Christie — 7: Great assist for the opener and pretty solid. Still prone to giving me the odd heart murmur!

Richard Keogh — 8: Brilliant again. Loving the marauding runs.

Jason Shackell — 6:Another solid game.

Marcus Olsson — 7:Not much of an attacking threat but looked good defensively.

Jamie Hanson — 7:Growing into the role more each week. Providing a bit of steel.

Jeff Hendrick — 6:The typical Jeff performance. Good in bits. Bad in bits. Frustrating.

Jacob Butterfield — 6: Showed glimpses of his quality.

Nick Blackman — 6:Looked better on the right than left.

Tom Ince — Weston’s Star Man 9:Finally showed what he is capable of. Touches of class, worked his socks off and definitely deserved a goal. More every week please.

Chris Martin — 7:Another goal and looks sharper…but enough about his hair!

Subs:

Craig Bryson — 8:Won every loose ball and looked back to full fitness in a brilliant cameo.

Johnny Russell — 7:Took his goal well and another who looked sharp.

George Thorne — 5: It couldn’t have really been George… surely someone who looked like him? Rubbish!

We said / They Said:

We Said - Darren Wassall:"We believe in Chris Martin but what we did do at Brentford was have a long chat before the game and say we wanted him firing on all cylinders because he's a great asset to the club. He hadn't scored in open play since October so we decided to leave him out for the Brentford game and he agreed with that decision. Since then, I think it was a weight off his shoulders and his attitude was great.”

"He came on at Brentford and scored a wonder goal and he's not looked back since. That's all we've done, we told him we really rate him as a player and he's responded which is full credit to him."

They Said - David Wagner: "Derby had to produce one of their best performances today to be able to beat us and so we can leave the stadium with our head up. I think there were only some small key points that decided this game and those were in Derby's direction which is why we lost.”

"It's important that you trust and believe in yourself and sometimes you get what you deserve and sometimes not. Today I think we didn't get what we probably deserved, which was a draw or maybe more.