Derby 2-1 Hull
Match Report
It had to end at some point—but just not when I decided to spend money, travel 2 and a bit hours down the motorway on a Tuesday night to Derby, which welcomed us with pissing down rain and a pointless drum in the stands to the left of us. It was our worst game of the season: we struggled in front of the goal; were sloppy in all areas of the pitch; and just did not capitalise on anything. A complete contrast from our past six games (winning four and drawing two) and these results will come back to haunt us at the end of the season.
I don’t want this to turn into a grumble, but I will keep it short as I am writing it on my phone on the way back, still vexed, dissatisfied and let down.
Sergej made two changes to the starting eleven he fielded away to Norwich on Saturday: starting Ajeyi at the back to make it three centre halves, and Drameh as the right wing back. That meant in a 3-4-1-2 formation, we lined up as follows: Pandur between the sticks; Giles, Egan, Hughes, Ajeyi and Drameh as the true back line (Giles and Drameh pushed up the wings when required); Slater, Crooks and Gelhardt in the middle; with Joseph and Ndala as the attacking duo.
The Rams were on a run of their own heading into this game, winning three on the bounce and beating Sheffield United away from home in their last outing. Carlton Morris, their number 9, is on fire this season (transferred from Luton this season) scoring 9 in his last 14 games—he’s the second top goal scorer in the league, just one behind Coventry’s Thomas-Asante. Their set pieces are also formidable—something I picked up on last season—and as we seem to be useless at defending set pieces, it was going to be our biggest problem today.
And that’s how they got their first. Derby were pilling on the pressure from the off, causing us to be on the back foot. They had a chance to score in the 26th minute after a counterattack. Agyemanh was free and open down the middle. The ball was played to him, where he found himself with just Hughes to beat. He took him into box and shot, but Hughes’ toe took it wide of the post. They had two consecutive corners after this, and it was Ward’s accurate cross on the last attempt into the middle of the 6 yard box that was headed into the back of the net by Carlton Morris.
We failed to make any response to conceding, and despite the possession being equal, it felt like Derby were the team on top, having five attempts at goal to our two. Both our shots were from outside the box, which demonstrates how tight and structured the opposition were. The closest of the two was in the 14th minute, when Ndala laid the ball off to Crooks, who rifled it onto the crossbar from range. Other than that, we did not have much to cheer.
But, some hope was restored in the second half. We came out of the blocks much stronger and faster than the home side. We were pinging the ball forward better and were causing a real nuisance for their back line. They eventually fell to our sustained pressure in the 50th minute, and Ndala was able to equalise in the most unusual circumstance. Kyle Joseph had the ball on the right of the box, and played a low cross to an oncoming Ndala, who seemed to have been beaten by the keeper as he laid on the ball. Little did we know that he did not have two hands on it, and the striker was able to get his feet under to the ball and tap it into the back of the net. Cue pandemonium in the away corner.
We had complete dominance and control over the game after this and there was a ten minute period where we looked like scoring. We had The Rams on the ropes, and it was ours for the taking. But, squandering chance after chance, it was frustrating to watch. Those onlooking from the away stands were dreading Derby hitting us on the counter and punishing us for our lack of finishing. To our chagrin, that’s exactly what they did—from all fault of our own.
In the 83rd minute, we seemed to have control of the ball and were building out from the back. We played the ball back to Ajeyi, who seemed to leave it for Pandur without communicating with him. This meant Pandur, pressured, had to quickly clear it, but it deflected off Ajeyi and to the path of Salvesen, who saw an open goal and rifled it into the back of the net. Utter chaos. All that hard work getting back into the game, and potentially winning, vanished from a pointless mistake at the back. When will we learn?
We were stunned and shaken, and were unable to regain our rhythm. Even six minutes of added time did not mean anything as we just kept booting the ball left, right and centre which did not come to anything. The referee blew his whistle and many flooded out of the exits and to the coaches, as their home party music started.
It’s a shame, really. Just under 2,000 travelling fans on a weekday, and nothing to show for it. Is this just a blip and a one off? We will see. We face 20th placed Portsmouth at home on Saturday.
