Old One Eye's Match Report - Rams Rise To Sink Swans!
Monday, 14th Mar 2011 09:40 by Old One-Eye

Home once again was a place the Rams and its fans were proud to be after sinking the high flying Swans.

Derby County 2 vs. 1 Swansea

3pm - Saturday 12th March 2011

Pride Park - Derbyshire

Referee: Mr G D Scott

Attendance: 25,341 (1,190 Ugly Ducklings)

Teams:

Derby County:

Fielding, Brayford, Roberts, Barker, Ayala, Green (Doyle 50), Ward (Addison 62), Savage, Pearson, Bueno, S Davies (Robinson 71)

Unused Substitutes: Duke, Leacock, Hendrick, Ball

Goals: Williams (OG,7'), S Davies (54')

Swansea City:

De Vries, Williams, Taylor, Tate, Dyer (Beattie 66), Dobbie, Moore (Pratley 46), Sinclair, Rangel, Allen, Gower (Britton 46)

Unused Substitutes: Van der Gun, Ma-Kalambay, Serran, Richards

Booked: Rangel, Williams

Goals: Pratley (65')

Match Stats

Possession: Derby 50% v Swans50%

Shots On Target: Derby 5 v Swans 5

Shots Off Target: Derby 3 v Swans 10

Corners: Derby 6 v Swans 7

Fouls: Derby 8 v Swans 10

Most Fouls: Davies - 2 v Williams 2

Old One-Eye’s Match Report:

Priceless Victory Eases Pressure on Gutsy Rams

Derby produced a thoroughly workmanlike performance at Pride Park to see off promotion hopefuls Swansea City on Saturday.

The Rams were at times nervy, edgy, jammy, solid, enterprising, profligate, careless and desperate, but ultimately they were victorious – and at the end of the day, that’s all that counts.

After what seemed like a century without a win at home, it was as if all Derby’s birthdays had arrived at once. Naturally, it started with a gift-wrapped present, and finished with the delicious icing on the cake of all the other teams at the wrong end of the table slipping up.

The referee for the fixture was none other than Graham Scott, the man who presided over a feisty encounter a few months ago between Leyton Orient and Droylsden.

I’m sure you remember that game, but I really must fill some column inches so I’ll remind you anyway. Droylsden, a man up and two goals to the good with just 13 minutes to go, somehow contrived to lose 8-2 in a game that saw four players seeing red. I just thought I’d mention it for those who thought that ‘farce’ was an event that only involved Derby.

Swansea City over the last two or three seasons have been consistently knocking on the door at the business end of the Championship table, usually to crash and burn just before the final reckoning. In the process though, they have won many friends with their slick, quick passing play.

The Welsh side included Luke Moore, a player who earlier in the season had appeared for The Rams and actually put in a couple of decent performances.

The Rams kicked off chasing shadows in the general direction of the South Stand as the visitors wove intricate patterns in midfield, roared on by more than a thousand fans who had made the journey up the A38 via the A483, M4, A465, A40, A449, M50, M5, M42 and the A5, and in lambing season too. Ashley Williams should have rewarded such dedication in the opening minutes, but he headed tamely over following a succession of corners.

Williams soon found himself on the score sheet though, and much of the credit has to go to Doris de Vries. The soporific nature of Derby’s early play coupled with a large lunch on the bus had caused the Dutch keeper to fall fast asleep in classic ‘Alf Tupper’ fashion, arms folded, leaning against the far post.

Paul Green applied pressure following an aimless punt upfield, Williams rolled the ball back towards his goalie and by the time de Vries had reacted, the ball was already over the line to give The Rams an unlikely lead.

The goal spurred the home side on, and both Shaun Barker and Alberto Bueno went close to doubling the advantage before Williams, who was on the receiving end of roars of ‘Shoot!’ every time he received the ball in his own half, nearly made amends for his earlier lapse.

He rose highest to smack a thundering header thudded against the crossbar – this time at the right end - following good work by Scott Sinclair.

Stephen Dobbie, whose name is perilously close to everyone’s pet name for a carthorse – most unfortunate for a striker – will long be remembered in Derby for scoring the goal which defeated Nottingham Forest in last year’s playoff semi-final when he was on loan at Blackpool.

He further engrained himself in Old One-Eye’s affections when he missed three gilt-edged chances as Swansea pressed for an equaliser, but The Rams, for whom John Brayford was playing a blinder, hung on until half time.

Dobbie and Swansea started the second half as they had ended the first – missing chances – before Nigel Clough sent on American Conor Doyle in place of the disappointing Paul Green.

Doyle had an immediate impact, sending over a superb corner that Stephen Davies met beyond the far post with his head. De Vries laid a hand on the ball but he was unable to keep it out of the net. It was the first time that Derby had scored two goals in one game since New Year’s Day.

The hapless Williams nearly presented Derby with a third goal moments later when he allowed Davies to out-muscle him and fire goal wards, only to be denied by an excellent save from de Vries.

Swansea forced themselves back into the game when a splendid centre from Angel Rangel was headed home by Darren Pratley, and the all-too-familiar nerves started to jangle as far as the home fans were concerned.

Dobbie was unfortunate when his drive struck Daniel Ayala before rebounding off the crossbar to safety as Swansea threw bodies forward. If Clough’s first substitution was inspired, his second was almost disastrous. Miles Addison ran himself into trouble and his misplaced back pass fell to the feet of Sinclair who bore down on Frank Fielding’s goal. Luckily for The Rams, Shaun Barker was alert to the situation and his presence forced Sinclair to poke the ball wide.

Stephen Davies went down under an innocuous challenge out by the touchline, and the crowd fell silent, fearing the worst. Davies has had more than his share of bizarre injuries – he fractures eye sockets, collar bones and metatarsals as though they are plates at a Greek feast – no doubt on this occasion it will be something like impact-induced bubonic plague or a weird disease that you only get from handling obscure ornaments.

Davies made way for Theo Robinson for the last few minutes, and the fleet-footed striker was presented with an absolute sitter following great work by Stephen Pearson and Bueno. Robinson is one of those players who will always terrify defenders – especially if they are sitting in the crowd six yards left of the goal. Sure enough, the young Millwall striker pole-axed a poor unfortunate who was minding his business in Row ‘F’.

Moments later, Robinson somehow contrived to do the same again, this time missing six yards to the right. It might have made for an exciting finish as Swansea threw the kitchen sink and just about everything else at the Derby goal, but Rams fans don’t want ‘exciting’ at the moment – they just want a nice, safe, solid and largely uneventful three points. Somehow, on this occasion, the team delivered.

The referee, who had largely gone unnoticed all afternoon, finally brought proceedings to a close, much to the relief of the home crowd.

Overall, Swansea’s more measured play and slick passing probably deserved at least a point to put their own promotion campaign back on track following recent setbacks, but you don’t always get what you deserve. Besides, anything that upsets Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins is fine in Old One-Eye’s book.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match:

John Brayford – solid.

Old One-Eye’s Player Ratings:

Fielding(7) Brayford(8), Barker(7), Ayala(7), Roberts(6) Green(5) (Doyle 50, 6), Savage(5), Pearson(6), Bueno(7), Ward(7) (Addison 62, 5), S Davies(7) (Robinson 71, 5).

Rams Reaction:

First team coach Johnny Metgod spoke to the press as Nigel was no doubt to busy dancing a jig in the rooms:

"It's great to get a home win at last, although it was very hard fought. Swansea are one of the best teams in the division, if not the best, and they have a lot of quality.”

"We had bags of courage of determination to make sure they didn't have time on the ball, and that showed in our first goal. It might have been an own goal, but it came from us pressing the ball as individuals and as a team.”

"We had a few chances to make the game secure to avoid a nervy ending, but to hold out and win is very rewarding because the lads gave it all they had.”

"Results went our way too, so it has been a good day for us and we're delighted for everyone. The fans have had to wait a while, so hopefully they can enjoy the moment and their Saturday."

“Paul (Green) hadn't trained for a few days with a virus, but we patched the lads up and they were superb.”

Goal-scorer Steve Davies told the press of the team’s relief at finally getting a home win:

"I don't think we nicked the points, I thought we out-battled them throughout and out-played them at times."

"The luck for the first goal helped us massively and set us on our way. We're delighted and relived more than anything because a result at home has been a long, long time coming.”

"We felt we owed it to the fans, so the win was more of a thank you to them rather than a pat on the back for ourselves."

"To pull a performance out like that took a huge amount of effort, I thought we were magnificent and everyone was absolutely shattered at full time. We had to work as hard as we could and the manager made it clear we had to do that from the off to be in with a chance.”

"In the last few weeks we've been a bit nervous at Pride Park, but the early goal gave us belief and we took it from there."

"I've said many times before; if I'm playing I always think I can get a goal from somewhere. I've made six starts now and scored three times, but the main thing is the team and it's great we can enjoy a weekend off the back of a home win."