A feeble first-half performance by The Rams, who seem to have started their end-of-season games 6 or 7 weeks ahead of schedule, handed Watford 3 of the easiest points they will pick up this season.

Derby 1 vs. 2 Watford

Pride Park Stadium

Saturday 10th March 2012

Referee:

S.Mathieson (Who cares!? Nobody reads this bit)

Attendance:

23,140 (633 Squadron)

The Teams:

Derby County:

Fielding (GK); Green, Barker, Shackell, Buxton; Hendrick (Bailey 89), Carroll (Tyson 45), Bryson, B. Davies (Ball 76); Robinson, S. Davies.

Unused Subs: Legzdins (GK), Naylor.

Goals: Davies 31’

Watford:

Kuszczak (GK); Doyley, Mariappa, Nosworthy, Dickinson; Murray (Buaban 81), Eustace, Hogg, Kacaniklic; Garner (Iwelumo 63), Deeney (Taylor 90).

Subs: Loach (GK), Trotta.

Goals: Murray 8’, Deeney 15’

Match Stats: Derby - Watford

 Goals: 1 - 2

Possession: 57% - 43%

Shots On Target: 5 - 3

Shots Off Target: 4 - 4

Corners: 7 - 3

Fouls: 10 - 20

Most Fouls: Davies (4) - Deeney (4)

Old One-Eye’s Match Report: Inept Rams gift-wrap Watford the points!

Old One-Eye and The Memsahib rolled up at the ground half an hour before the kick-off, tray of chips duly purchased and lathered in the requisite runny tomato ketchup, and the conversation was one of optimism – Derby have found their feet again, no surrender, storming comebacks, playing for places against Forest next week – who would have known that the disappointing tray of unsalted lukewarm chips would be the highlight of the day.

The first surprise, on surveying the team sheet, was the absence of the former liability but more recently rehabilitated into the hearts and minds of Ram kind alike, Gareth Roberts. “Must have upset someone – perhaps he parked in Clough’s space on the car park” was the first thought that went through this cynical mind. The official line was that he had been ruled out by illness, but my money’s on the first explanation.

Since the start of the season fans have been questioning the sanity – or at least the priorities – of certain senior personnel within the club with respect to developing the strength of the first-team squad, a policy which is universally known as ‘bodging’, at least the way that it is applied at Pride Park. Three areas were highlighted by fans and management alike – a midfield ‘schemer’, a ‘bruiser’ up front and cover at full back.

As the August transfer window slammed shut, those key positions remained conspicuous by their emptiness. When January arrived with The Rams nicely placed just outside the playoffs, once again thoughts turned to the possibility that a few new faces, even loanees, might be acquired to plug the holes. More cash-strapped clubs than Derby were active in the market with more than this old one eye firmly focused on the top of the table.

A couple of years ago, Miles Addison was seen by many as a great prospect for Derby, either in central defence or as a midfield ‘enforcer’, but he spent the first half of the season on loan at Barnsley – “…to get some games under his belt”, we were told.

At the start of this year he returned, and with want-away central midfielder Paul Green having to fill in at full back following John Brayford’s season-ending injury (see previous comment regarding cover at full back), it seemed obvious that a place would be found for local lad Miles. We didn’t realise that place would be in Bournemouth.

Perhaps I am being unfair. After all, we did bring in Tom Carroll from Tottenham – a young, gifted (we are told) lad who lit up the Europa League campaign for Spurs (we are told) – a ‘playmaker’ (we are told) with an ‘eye for a pass’ (we are told). I put it to you, knowledgeable readers, that there has been a serious case of mistaken identity somewhere down the line.

Sixteen years ago, poor manager and even worse pundit Graeme Souness signed Ali Dia, a ‘footballer’ who claimed to be the cousin of former world player of the year George Weah. He made one appearance for Southampton, coming on as substitute for Matthew Le Tissier in a performance famously described as ‘running around like Bambi on ice’.

Once Souness realised that he had been the unwitting victim of a Senegalese version of the Nigerian email scam, he whipped poor Dia off the pitch and booted him out of the club two days later.

Carroll made his debut for Derby at Barnsley on the last day of January. The Rams that day were 3-0 down after half an hour, and by some accounts, teenager Tom ‘ran the show’ during the second half which saw the Rams almost come back from the dead only to fall frustratingly close to grabbing a point.

Since then, he has not exactly set The Championship alight, and some fans have suggested that with Nigel Clough and Tom Glick seemingly inhabiting Wonderland, the person we have signed until the end of the season is in fact Lewis Carroll.

Yesterday, Carroll had one of those days he will want to forget. Lightweight in the tackle, careless with his distribution, he had disappeared without trace by half time. Perhaps it is a case of casting pearls before swine, but with a Hogg on the field and a Trotta in reserve for the more agricultural Watford,

the rough-and-tumble of Championship football does not look to be the wisest choice of habitation for such a delicate flower. The subtlety of truffles can be wonderful on occasion, but not with every meal. Sometimes a big lump of something is required – and Watford had a few of those.

Perhaps the persistent rumours of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between Derby and Spurs are indeed true – that Carroll has to start every game and to be on the field for a certain length of time. Well, screw that for a game of soldiers. This Rams side are in free fall now, and the season cannot end quickly enough.

The way some of the players are performing, it’s possible that they have already packed their buckets and spades. A quite sobering statistic is that it is now eleven games since Derby scored the first goal in any contest.

Anyway, on to the match.

Seven minutes in, an act of charity in midfield gifted the ball to Alex Kacaniklic – coincidentally on loan from another white-shirted London club. Paul Green, struggling to run whilst carrying his suitcase, was left for dead on the flank and the inch-perfect cross was tucked home by Sean Murray to give Watford the lead.

More profligacy was to follow after a quarter of an hour. Once again the home side squandered possession outside Watford’s penalty area and Shaun Barker, normally so reliable, had one of those ‘cannot trap a bag of cement’ moments.

The ball squirmed away from his possession, the unpronounceable Kacaniklic skinned him not once but twice in a mazy run before squaring to Troy Deeney who shot first time. The ball deflected off Jake Buxton and looped high into the air over the diving Frank Fielding, inevitably to nestle in the far corner of the net.

Time and time again Buxton rescued Derby from further embarrassment as Watford looked as though they were going to run riot, bypassing the home side’s inept central midfield and statuesque defenders. Jake ‘The Enforcer’ normally comes on for the last minute of each game – yesterday, at that rate, he got through about two seasons’ worth of work.

Somehow, The Rams gained a foothold in the contest on the half hour. A free kick wide on the left was fired in to the box by the hitherto anonymous Ben Davies and it somehow found its way into the far corner. Steve Davies tried to claim it, but it looked as though it had missed everyone.

Half time came and went, and with it went Carroll, replaced by Nathan Tyson. Derby, to be fair, bossed the second half and went desperately close on a number of occasions, Tyson set up Theo Robinson only for him to revert to his early season ‘Mister Sitter’ persona, firing over from close range, albeit via a defender’s deflection, but frankly Theo should have buried it.

As the game drew to a close, Derby battered Watford and Craig Bryson, Callum Ball and James Bailey all went perilously close to grabbing a point which their spirited second half performance arguably deserved, but as the referee drew proceedings to a close it was the familiar feeling of ‘too little, too late’ which set the mood for post-match discussions over coffee, or beer – whatever your poison. Now there’s a thought. Can you still get strychnine at the chemist’s?

One final thought about cost-cutting – last week, a very nice lady from Derby County rang Old One-Eye and made polite enquiries as to whether he would be purchasing the usual number of season tickets for next season.

He was suitably non-committal but suggested that decisions might well depend upon similar commitments from the investors. This morning, he may have got his answer to that conundrum – another query from Derby County about next year’s season tickets, only this time it was from a machine.

I guess the downsizing continues.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match:

Jake Buxton – Performed well in a lost cause – a battler who gives everything every time he plays.

Old One-Eye’s Player Ratings:

Fielding(6), Green(4), Buxton(8), Barker(5), Shackell(6);.Hendrick(7), Carroll(4) (Tyson 45min, 6), Bryson(6), Davies B(5), Robinson(5), Davies S(5).

Manager’s Reaction:

Nigel Clough thought the early goals hurt the Rams….. really? -

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding two goals inside the first quarter of an hour and that cost us in the end. The goals were sloppy and, despite a spirited second half performance, it wasn't good enough today."

 "We've fallen behind far too often of late and we can't always come back from behind - like we did against Birmingham and Blackpool - because at some point your luck will run out."

"We can't keep waiting for a goal to wake us up. We were on the front foot earlier in the season and scoring first, but we've not been doing it lately and we need to find a solution to that.”

Next Match: 

Derby County vs. Nottingham Forest

Pride Park Stadium

7:45pm – Tuesday March 13th

 

Photo: Action Images

pkay_brum added 18:28 - Mar 12 Tom Carroll seems to be another case of Derby taking what's available, rather than what is needed. Tom may flower in the future but at the moment he is the wrong player at the wrong time. Battling players or one or two with experience were needed in this period but the club elected to help Spurs and let Carroll run around for a few weeks. Little players can make huge contributions and we know that such as Gemmill and Bremner get told they are too small to be a successful footballer. Leon Osman made an impact, Barry Bannan did (to a lesser extent) but many other loanees have come and gone anonymously. Tom is a fish out of water. A full back, a midfield creator or enforcer, a centre-forward or goal-taker were (and remain) Derby's prime requirements and failure to address squad needs could see things unravel. Other clubs have built successful squads - on a budget- in half the time, and it's still a piecemeal, half-formed team at Pride Park Stadium.

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OneMickyBrolly added 10:20 - Mar 13 One thing Derby fans have always needed is a sense of humour to get them through the dark times and this article is a superb example of that - having a laugh about our situation as its better than slashing our wrists. However tonight is no laughing matter - we must pull out a performance to win tonight otherwise the frustrations will boil over. Something has to change at the club otherwise it will start to become embarrassing. There has been no progress at the club in the last 2 years (apart from cost cutting) so unless something signifcant changes mediocrity at best is what we have to look forward to.

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