RamsFan Report: Injury Time Errors Doom Derby To Draw!
Sunday, 29th Aug 2010 14:07 by Daniel Brooks

The Rams played the leagues pace setters off the Pride Park but still the home side found a way to let their opponents rescue a point at the death.

Derby County 2 v 2 Queens Park Rangers

Pride Park - Derbyshire County

NPower Championship

30th August 2010 - 15:00pm

Referee:

Mr M.Haywood

Attendance:

25,874 (1,655 Visiting Rangers)

Yellow Cards:

Moxey (Derby), Hill (QPR), Mackie (QPR)

Goals:

Commons 40’ (Derby), Bailey 59’ (Derby), Agyemang (QPR) 92’, Mackie 95’ (QPR)

Teams:

Derby County: Bywater, Brayford, Barker, Leacock, Roberts, Bailey, Savage, Green, Commons (Cywka 45), Doyle (Martin 57), Moxey (Ball 90)

Subs: Deeney, Pringle, O'Brien, Buxton

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Derry (Buzsaky 61) , Helguson (Agyemang 62), Faurlin, Mackie, Gorkss, Connolly, Ephraim, Taarabt (Clarke 70)

Subs: Ramage, Leigertwood, German, Cerny

RamsFan Match Report by Daniel Brooks:

A day that celebrated the official unveiling of the Clough/Taylor statue found the Rams playing in a manner that the legendary pair would have been proud of; right up until the ninety-second minute at any rate.

The Rams defied their injury problems to take a comfortable two goal lead, only to let it slip away in injury time – truly you couldn’t make it up.

Facing the early Championship leaders without a fit striker in the squad other than teenager Callum Ball was not exactly inspiring but the Rams threw themselves into the task with gusto and should have come away with three points.

Despite post match mutterings from dispirited fans exiting Pride Park regarding the late failings of individual players to see out the victory, we should not lose sight of the fact that we played QPR off the pitch for long periods of this game.

The backline drew much derision for the late collapse yet they were imperious for the first ninety-two minutes; Barker looked fit for the first time although tellingly his inability to deal with Patrick Agyemang late on suggested he still isn’t quite there yet.

Dean Leacock looked twice the player he did last week at Coventry and both full backs appear to be much better than the players they replaced this past close season. All that is stopping this unit from stringing together clean sheets is the odd crazy moment, or in this case a crazy five minutes.

The Rams have stacked up four points from as many games to start the season; average maybe but the football on display has deserved more. Nigel Clough’s time in charge bears certain comparisons to George Burley’s reign at Pride Park I feel; the first full season was about treading water and disposing of the deadwood – the second was about building a successful football side and taking significant steps upwards.

Now I don’t think for a second we’ll make it into the playoffs as we did in the days of Idiakez, Bisgaard, Smith etc. but if we continue to play our football in this manner, and get a striker or two available every week then we will be just fine this season.

That’s not to say stand-in Dean Moxey isn’t doing well in the absence of Hulse and co; his energy and ability on the ball mean he is holding his own and he was at the heart of the Rams’ opening goal.

It was the full-back/winger/strikers block and that saw the ball fall to Paul Green and his interplay with Moxey resulted in a great pass across the penalty area to Commons who waited and waited before poking the ball past a now prone Paddy Kenny to give the Rams a lead which they deserved on the balance of play.

QPR had previously not conceded in their opening three games but they seemed to be unstuck by the Rams’ neat passing play which kept the dangerous Adel Taarabt off the ball for long periods, stifled as he was by the possession of the Rams and the presence of Robbie Savage, who followed the Moroccan throughout.

The second period saw much of the same and if anything the Rams stepped their play up a gear; substitute Cywka carried on where Kris Commons had left off with some excellent running on the ball that opened up the visitors far too often for their liking.

It was one such run that lead to what should have been a decisive second goal; the Pole’s neat turn and break drew defenders to him and allowed James Bailey the time and space a curl a shot around Kenny for his first career goal – a great effort too.

From there the Rams should have seen it out; for long periods QPR looked well contained, especially by Shaun Barker, but wily old Neil Warnock knows his business and brought on Patrick Agyemang and just like that the game seemed to change.

Now Agyemang is never going to be mistaken for Fernando Torres, or even Luke Varney, but every so often his combination of brute strength and a turn of pace will catch teams out, which it did when the big frontman got one-on-one with Shaun Barker and did him with ease to give Rangers a lifeline.

Now Barker was immense for much of this contest but in that second you could see that he is still working his way back to fitness and we shouldn’t forget that – this sort of thing will not happen in a few weeks time.

From there I figured Rangers would score again – this being Derby County after all – and so they did; Leacock made a mess of his header and Mackie found the ball on the edge of the penalty area, one turn was enough to see off Roberts and Bailey and suddenly the Rams had just one point to show for an excellent performance that deserved three.

Dan’s Derby Player Ratings:

Bywater 6, Brayford 7, Barker 7, Leacock 7, Roberts 7, Savage 6, Bailey 8, Green 7, Moxey 7 (Ball 5), Commons 7 (Cywka 7), Doyle 6 (Martin 6)

Dan's Man Of The Match:

James Bailey - Moxey, Green and Doyle were energetic, Commons, Cywka & Martin were, at times, electric, Barker, Brayford & Leacock battles but it was Bailey and Savage that engineered the best football seen at Pride Park in many seasons.

Bailey was my MOTM because of his spectacular performance and goal which should have been the winner. In fact he should have had a brace and put things beyond doubt in injury time but such nit picking is undeserved as this young midfielder is fast growing into his role.

His pace and energy alongside Savage’s experience and passing is showing it could become a useful partnership this season.

Managers Reaction:

Nigel Clough spoke to the DCFC official site after the match:

"It wasn't quite to be today, despite a magnificent effort. We were down to the bare bones because of injuries, and we couldn't have asked for any more than what each and every one of them gave out there”

"The lads were brilliant, and there were lots of positives to take from the game. We've said from pre-season onwards it is a learning experience for our younger players, and today was another one of those experiences”.

"We feel for the lads after all the effort they put in; they are down right now. We just couldn't see it through, but I suppose before the game if we'd have been offered 2-2, especially after losing Kris Commons to injury as well, we would probably have taken it”.

"The performances aren't reaping the rewards of points, but they certainly giving us encouragement."

"They are such a good side, and we were always concerned about them getting a goal. That late goal gave them a lift, and anything can break in the final few minutes as they found to their advantage with Mackie's goal."

"It was a blow losing Kris, he was on it today and he deserved his goal, his hamstring tightened and we didn't want it to go completely and lose him for two months”.

"Dean Moxey moved up front and ran his socks off and certainly wasn't the reason we didn't win the game. We want exactly the same performance against Sheffield United”.

"Our performances have been consistent; we've passed the ball well, created chances and scored goals. That bodes well for the next 40-odd games."

Captains Reaction:

Robbie Savage was gutted after the match:

"I don't know what to say to be honest; we are devastated right now. At 2-0 up we should have seen the game out and it feels like we lost in all honesty”.

"I suppose we were a little naive attacking in the 90th minute and we left Agyemang one-on-one with Shaun Barker to pull a goal back”.

"After that we knew it was going to be a tough few minutes, and it is so disappointing we let the equaliser in. We should have won and yet again we've played well and not taken the points”.

"QPR didn't get a kick for most of the game, and remember we were down to the bare bones again. We're suffering badly with injuries, and the lads are devastated in the dressing room. It hurts right now, but there are so many positives to take from today”.

"It will be a long two weeks until the Sheffield United game, but we will just keeping working hard and hopefully we will get our rewards against them."