Old One-Eye's Match Report - Toothless Donny Feel Rams Bite!
Sunday, 21st Aug 2011 14:08 by Old One-Eye

Equal top of the table and a record over a century old were statistical highlights but the most pleasing thing that came out of Saturday is that the Rams are improving with each and every game they play.

Derby County 3 v 0 Doncaster Rovers

Pride Park Stadium, Derby

3pm - 20th August 2011

Referee:

Bonnie Langford (Doncaster)

Attendance:

23,377 (847 Roving Rovers)

Teams:

Derby County:

Fielding, Brayford, Kilbane, O'Brien, Shackell, Bailey, Hendrick, Bryson (Maguire 86), B Davies, Ward (Croft 25), S Davies (Robinson 68).

Un-used Substitutes: Legzdins, Roberts.

Goals: Kilbane (6), S Davies (46), B Davies (62)

Doncaster Rovers:

Woods, Friend, Spurr, Oster, Gillett, C Brown (Wilson 75), Lalkovic, Barnes, Naylor, Dumbuya (Hird 86), R Brown (Bennett 62).

Un-used Substitutes: Sullivan, Baxendale.

Match Stats: Derby - Doncaster

Possession: 57% - 43%

Shots On Target: 5 - 4

Shots Off Target: 4 - 8

Corners: 2 - 7

Fouls: 8 - 5

Most Fouls: Croft (3) - Spurr (3)

Old One-Eye’s Match Report:

Toothless Donny Put To The Sword By Four-In-A-Row Rams!

Two weeks into the new season, the novelty of Derby County not being rooted firmly to the bottom of the table still hasn’t worn off for Ramkind.

Before today, the sequence read a monotonous ‘WWW’ in the Championship, with only the predictable and regular exit to League 2 opposition in the first round of the League Cup taking the gloss off the sparkling start to the current campaign.

Today’s visitors were Doncaster Rovers, a side who have had a history of playing the Party Pooper against The Rams under the shrewd management of Sean O’Driscoll. Doncaster is the latest club to be smaller than Giles Barnes, and the former Rams starlet was roundly booed every time he touched the ball – which wasn’t very often.

But I get ahead of myself.

The referee – and I use the term advisedly, despite what may be written in the Trade Descriptions Act – is a gentleman going by the name of Oliver Langford. Don’t be too hard on him – it’s his first season on the league list, and today it showed – but it’s not his fault. When he was aged just 14, his Dad heard him shouting abuse at a referee, and suggested young Oliver should have a go himself.

Most pushy parents seeking glory vicariously through the lives of their children point their progeny into playing tennis or football where the financial rewards can be enormous, but not Mr Langford Sr.

If he truly IS a sado-masochist, because I cannot come up with any other explanation for such a wanton act of cruelty towards his own son, then the oft-repeated chorus of “You don’t know what you’re doing” would have been music to his ears. So it wasn’t the ref’s fault – blame the parents.

Irish youngsters Mark O’Brien and Jeff Hendrick continued in central defence and midfield respectively for Derby, while Doncaster gave Chelski loanee Lalkovic his debut.

Rams fans would have been relieved that record goal scorer Billy Sharp and fellow marksman James Hayter had had the misfortune to be playing new Championship cloggers Brighton the previous week.

Doncaster kicked off towards the North Stand and instantly won a corner, which gave Derby fans the first of several early chances to thank Giles Barnes for his years of stalwart service at Pride Park. The resultant header by Richard Naylor went harmlessly over the bar. Doncaster in all fairness passed the ball amongst themselves pretty well in the early stages, but that seemed to be as far as their ambition went.

Derby, on the other hand, looked much more positive going forward, and when they won their first of only two corners in the sixth minute, Doncaster’s hesitant defence was made to pay. Ben Davies put over an inviting centre and Kevin Kilbane met the ball powerfully with his head at the near post to put The Rams 1-0 to the good.

Barnes appeared to be very keen to make an impression for the visitors during the early stages, which seems strange - after all, there was no live TV coverage of the game. After 12 minutes he might easily have equalised with a shot from inside the area, and he would have done too if the goals had been ten yards further to his right and positioned in Row ‘Q’. As it was, it merely served to give sections of the home crowd further opportunity to show their appreciation.

The former Derby, Fulham and West Brom starlet then went on an enterprising if somewhat surly run down the right, sulking his way past Jamie Ward, dropping the chip on his shoulder to go beyond Kilbane before over-inflating his ego and self-centring to nobody in particular. O’Brien quietly, modestly and effectively dealt with the danger.

Ward left the game midway through the first half with a tight hamstring, being replaced from the bench by Lee Croft. Barnes, meanwhile, had a five minute spell when he lay down rather a lot. In his case, it was possibly a tight G-string, although it is rumoured that he now wears his agent’s telephone number on the soles of his boots – ‘just in case’.

For long periods of the first half, Rovers appeared to be content to keep the ball in their own half, but as soon as they ventured forward, Hendrick, Bailey and Bryson put them under intense pressure. If the ball was knocked long into Derby’s box, Jason Shackell and O’Brien dealt with any danger with consummate ease. In the Derby goal, Frank Fielding looked decidedly underworked.

Half time came and went with Old One-Eye decidedly unsure of what he had witnessed. Had it really been that comfortable for The Rams? Would Doncaster be able to offer something more? Would there be further opportunity to take the Mickey out of Giles Barnes? Yes, no and probably. Incidentally, Doncaster racecourse is described as ‘left-handed, flat and pear-shaped’ - a bit like Giles Barnes, then.

It took Derby precisely 15 seconds of the second half to wrap up the contest and extend their faultless start to the league campaign. Dumbuya was left sitting on the turf as he completely lost Ben Davies and the winger stood the ball up perfectly for Steve Davies to steer his firm header past Gary Woods and into the far corner of the net to put The Rams two up.

Derby at this stage was rampant. Naylor’s head somehow got in the way of a goal-bound strike from Ben Davies, and then Lee Croft was unceremoniously scythed down when in full flow by George Friend – a foul which deservedly earned the Rovers defender a yellow.

Doncaster briefly came back into the contest – at least territorially – when they managed to retain possession on the business-side of the half way line for long enough to muster a couple of shots at goal. Lalkovic fired narrowly over but by and large Donny efforts were more likely to trouble Mrs Mopp from Chaddo sitting in Row ‘Q’, than pose a problem for Fielding.

Just after the hour mark Lee Croft picked the ball up on the edge of the Doncaster box and switched play to Ben Davies. His first-time effort was perfectly placed beyond the outstretched hand of Woods and The Rams were three up. It was as easy as that - the quality of Derby’s finishing had been absolutely first class.

Both sides rang the changes in the final 20 minutes, and one of the new entries – Kyle Bennett for Doncaster – finally managed a shot which forced Fielding into a save. Don’t let the fact that the ball bounced three times on the way through to The Rams keeper fool you – it was a shot on target, and it might even have been powerful enough to reach the goal.

Theo Robinson came on for The Rams, and within seconds he cleverly made space for himself inside the box before bringing a save out of Woods at the near post.

Dumbuya was taken off and was instantly booked in for a complete dermoplasty, having been so thoroughly skinned by Ben Davies. Barnes, meanwhile, had finally found a place to hide, and when the final whistle sounded, he was the first off the pitch.

So there you have it – the best start to a season for The Rams since The Romans – and with struggling Burnley next up at Pride Park, it would take a brave man to say that Derby won’t extend the run still further.

What of Doncaster? Their approach work is very steady, and they retained possession for long periods at a time. The defence though was slow to react throughout and they seldom showed anything as an attacking force – hardly surprising with both Sharp and Hayter missing.

The signs do not look good for Donny – but then again, they didn’t at this stage last season either – but they still finished well clear of Derby.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match:

Ben Davies – a thoroughbred performance.

Old One-Eye’s Rams Player Ratings:

Fielding(6); Brayford(7), O’Brien(8), Shackell(8), Kilbane(7); Bailey(7), Hendrick(7), Bryson(8) (Maguire (6), B Davies(8); Ward(6) (Croft (7),S Davies(7) (Robinson (6).

Manager’s Reaction:

Nigel Clough was very proud of his improving squad:

"We are extremely proud of all the players for what they've achieved in the last two weeks. To put the amount of effort in we did today, when you consider we played on Wednesday evening and didn't get home until 2am from Blackpool, is remarkable.”

"To achieve four league wins in a row as well, given the disrupted pre-season we had with injuries and not playing too well, has taken a big effort.”

"The lads have worked their socks off to win all four games and as long as they continue to do that, we have a chance of doing well this season. We can't emphasise how hard they have been working in games and training, it's been staggering."

"We wanted an early goal and that helped settle the players down, the onus was then on Doncaster to come out and have a go at us. The second goal (from Steven Davies 15 seconds into the second half) was perfectly timed too and gave us another massive boost.”

"The performance was once again pleasing and it's nice to keep another clean sheet too, our third in a row. We've not had the best form against Doncaster at home in the last few years, so it was good to put that right as well."

"It was a great strike from the edge of the box. Ben practises that a lot of training to it's great to see him take it into a game. It is lovely to see him settled now and making an impact in the Championship."

Man Of The Match Reaction

Ben Davies after what was his best performance in a Rams shirt so far:

"It was a good afternoon personally and while I'm delighted about that, it is just great the team has won again. As an attacking midfielder I need to be chipping in with goals so it's nice to have got my first of the season already to avoid being a bit edgy in a few weeks if I hadn't scored.”

"It was obviously nice to create a few goals as well, but credit to the boys who finished them because they were two brilliant headers. I would say it was my best performance in a Derby shirt and hopefully I can keep performing and stay in the team."

"We couldn't have asked for a better start and we're all delighted."

"Doncaster's performances hadn't matched their results so far this season so we knew it was going to be difficult against them and we were told in no uncertain terms we could not let our performance level drop against them. But we got the early goal and from that point there was no looking back.”

"There's a real hunger and desire to keep this run going now we want to make sure we go into the international break after the Burnley game unbeaten. But make no mistake about it we will be going all-out for another win against Burnley, to have five wins from five would be unbelievable.”

"The manager has told us that can't get carried away with the start we've made and all of our feet are very much on the ground. When you look at the teams we've played this season, I think it goes to show just how well we've started the season.”

"In pre-season we didn't perform well and we lost a few games which didn't please everyone, but we've done it when it has really mattered and that's the most important thing."