Once again it was not to be for the Rams as they bowed out of the FA Cup but at least they put up more of a fight than last season, fight being the operative word as Stoke came looking for a scrap.

Derby County 0 vs. 2 Stoke City

Pride Park Stadium

Saturday January 28th

22,247 (5569 former members of the Tom Jones Appreciation Society)

Referee:

Steven Gerrard’s best mate Mark Clattenburg (Baffling upon Sea, Tyne and Wear)

The Teams

Derby County:

 Fielding, Brayford, Barker, Shackell (Naylor 89), Roberts, Green, Bailey (Tyson 78), Hendrick, Ward, Bryson (Buxton 86), Ball.

Unused Substitutes: Legzdins, B Davies, Doyle, Maguire.

Stoke City:

Begovic, Huth, Whelan, Wilson, Shawcross, Whitehead, Walters, Crouch (Jones 66), Etherington (Pennant 63), Wilkinson, Jerome (Fuller 77).

Unused Substitutes: Nash, Delap, Shotton, Woodgate.

Yellow Cards: Shawcross, Whitehead, Huth, Wilkinson.

Goals: Jerome (5), Huth (81)

Match Stats: Rams - Potters

Possession: 44% - 56%

Shots On Target: 1 - 4

Shots Off Target: 1 - 4

Corners: 3 - 7

Fouls: 13 - 17

Most Fouls: Bryson (3) - Whitehead (5)

Old One-Eye’s Match Report

Crouching Gouger’s Hidden Talent

When the draw for the fourth round of this season’s FA Cup paired Derby County with no-nonsense Stoke City at Pride Park, there were mixed feelings in the Old One-Eye household.

On the one hand, it would be interesting to see just how The Rams measured up against the Premier League outfit from up the A50. On the other hand, given the physical size of some of the specimens The Potters could call upon, would anyone be able to find a tape measure long enough?

The injury crisis in the field hospital that doubles as Derby’s treatment room continues to ease of late – it is now only a lack of fit strikers that causes major selection headaches for manager Nigel Clough.

There are advantages in having key players out of action as we approach the end of the transfer window though – at least owners GSE won’t be able to sell them all just yet.

Steve Davies, who fractured his skull in September, is getting close to full fitness for the first time this century and he actually played the full 90 minutes in the Derbyshire Cup last week, not even suffering a severe reaction to the citric acid in his half time slice of lemon. Steve wore a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ face mask on that occasion, but because it was only made of Kevlar and therefore not deemed to be sufficiently Crouch-proof, Clough decided not to risk him.

Davies has the small matter of a dozen metal plates and twice as many screws holding his eggshell-like skull together – it is likely therefore that when the time comes for him to don the No 7 shirt once more, opposing managers will surreptitiously introduce the use of electromagnets into their set-piece plays.

Nathan Tyson too is on the mend, rather surprisingly. Signed by Clough in the close season shortly after having had a corner flag surgically removed from his nether regions, he has made a couple of fleeting appearances in a Rams shirt before disappearing, Will O’ The Wisp-like, back to the comfort of the treatment table. But today there he was, as large as life, champing at the bit like a thoroughbred racehorse. Next week we look forward to news of him having shed a shoe or pulled a fetlock.

Tony Pulis, the Stoke City manager, shares a birthplace with Old One-Eye’s Druid sister - the beautiful town of Newport in the picturesque county of Gwent. To stretch the coincidence further, the pair hail from the ward of Pillgwenlly which has far more vowels than your average Welsh place name, but what has that got to do with football, you ask. The answer to that poser, of course, is what have Tony Pulis in general and Stoke City in particular got to do with football?

The Football Association demands that there must be a referee present for a sanctioned league or cup match to take place under their jurisdiction. Well, perhaps there was one lurking in the stand somewhere but on the field of play we had to suffer the dreadful Mr Clattenburg, a match official who needs no introduction. Mores’ the pity his parents were - introduced, that is.

Now Mark has suffered what could be described as ‘a bit of bad press’ throughout his whistle-blowing career, and he has been soundly castigated by player and manager alike. However, the most damning criticism of his abilities came a year ago when former QPR boss Neil Warnock described him as ‘A fantastic referee’. I rest my case.

Derby kicked off towards the South Stand and for a minute or so, looked comfortable before City got hold of the ball. Three minutes later, it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere somewhere in the vicinity of Pride Park. It was far from pretty to watch, but pretty effective it was all the same. A team must play to its strengths and Stoke’s strengths are just that. Amidst the agricultural stuff though, there was a glimmer of a side that can actually play a bit when the mood takes them.

Matthew Etherington and Glenn Whelan cleverly made inroads on the right following a short corner, and Whelan delivered a teasing cross into the area. Marc Wilson touched the ball on to Huth but it bobbled away from him, ending up at the feet of Cameron Jerome who prodded the ball home from close range with just five minutes gone.

There were unanswered questions as to whether the goal scorer was offside, but the most worrying question from the home side’s point of view would have been how not one but two players could be left almost completely unattended at the far post.

England centre forward Peter Crouch is a player possessing a face only a mother could love. Fortunately for the rest of us, said face is so distant from the ground as to be practically invisible to the naked eye.

A man of many talents is Peter, and should Tom Daley find himself incapacitated in the run-up to this year’s Olympic Games, the British Diving Association could do worse than give Crouch a call. After all, for most of the time his mirror-cracking features will be 10 metres higher than normal and following a mercifully swift plummet, they will be invisible under water.

Crouch demonstrated his justifiably high position alongside the likes of Francis Lee in the upper echelon of the game’s great divers with a breathtaking display of gravity midway through the first half. Rams full back Gareth Roberts, seeing the lanky one teetering on the brink, pulled out of his challenge and was not amused with the resultant inward two and a half somersaults with tuck which Crouch achieved before hitting the pitch. The referee, predictably, awarded a free kick to City and 9.9 to Crouch.

It’s possible of course that Crouch merely tripped. Professional footballers are highly conditioned athletes whose normally well-balanced demeanour can be sent spinning off in chaos at the smallest thing.

For some players, it can be a cruel word; as for Roy Keane, it just took the mere presence of Alf Inge Haaland for the red mist to descend. We must make allowances – after all, only last week Crouch left a much-loved fingernail firmly embedded in Jonas Olsson’s face. Anyway, moments later Huth’s header was the width of an upright away from putting the visitors out of sight.

Derby eventually hit their straps and Jamie Ward brought the crowd to its feet with a series of runs down the left which nearly all ended in the same manner – with the Rams winger being felled by a series of robust challenges. On the one occasion he managed to stay upright for more than three strides, Stoke’s defenders made a hash of a routine clearance only for Callum Ball to handle in attempting to get his shot away.

For the last 15 minutes of the half, Derby took the game to their more illustrious visitors but was unable to trouble Asmir Begovich. Twice City defenders blocked efforts from the edge of the box before the ball fell at the feet of Jeff Hendrick.

The young Irishman’s hurried effort went wide of the upright though with Begovich struggling to get across. There was time for the referee, for want of a better word, to caution Dean Whitehead for yet another foul on Ward before half time came as a welcome relief to thousands of strained necks.

The second half began much as the first one had – with Derby defending desperately beneath an aerial bombardment. Unable to get past Shaun Barker and Jason Shackell in this manner, Stoke resorted to plan ‘B’ – kicking them. This worked only so far as Mr Clattenburg was able to add the autographs of Huth and Wilkinson to his burgeoning collection.

Eventually, even Stoke manager Pulis got fed up of the strong-arm tactics and took the novel approach of introducing two footballers onto the field of play with Etherington giving way to Jermaine Pennant and Kenwyne Jones coming on for the hopeless – sorry, hapless – Crouch.

Jones of course is familiar to Rams fans as Roy Keane, as he often did before getting sacked by Sunderland, used Derby’s interest in a player to justify his own purchase, and who can blame him? Scouting networks are expensive so why have one of your own if you can use someone else’s?

Pennant added some much-needed pace to the proceedings and he gave Derby’s defence the run-around in the last half hour as Stoke’s Premier League pedigree finally started to show. With both sides now largely keeping the ball on the deck, Air Traffic Control allowed East Midlands Airport to re-open.

Derby needlessly gave a free kick away 35 yards out from goal. Pennant’s drive seemed for all the world to be goal-bound until Frank Fielding pulled off a brilliant diving save to turn the ball behind. From the resulting corner, Walters was only inches away with a header which flashed over the bar from close range.

To have someone of the quality of Ricardo Fuller on the bench is a luxury that Nigel Clough can only dream about. Tony Pulis threw on the third of his ‘big guns’ with a quarter of an hour to go while Derby introduced the pace of Nathan Tyson for James Bailey. Moments later, the inevitable occurred. No, Nathan Tyson didn’t get injured again – I mean that Stoke scored their second.

Excellent work on the right by Pennant and Wilkinson finally succeeded in forcing a corner which Pennant took, drilling the ball at waist height towards the penalty spot. Robert Huth was first to it and his well-struck shot went through a crowd of players and squirmed into the net beneath the sprawling Fielding.

Fuller spent the last five minutes running rings around everyone – including himself – as Stoke threatened a third, but that would have been cruel on Derby who had competed in all areas of the pitch except for the one that really matters – the opposing box.

As the final whistle blew – probably the only thing Clattenburg got right all day – City’s fans could dream of a return to Wembley. Reality – and Barnsley on Tuesday – beckons for The Rams.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match:

Robert Huth – A pearl amongst swine.

Old One-Eye’s Rams Ratings:

Fielding (7), Brayford (6), Barker (7), Shackell (7), Roberts (8), Green (6), Bailey (7), Bryson (7), Hendrick (8), Ward (7), Ball (7).

Manager’s Reaction:

Was not too upset with his team going down to their top flight opposition:

"I thought we did really well and put in a good performance against a side sitting in the top half of the Premier League and I thought for long spells we matched them."

 "There wasn't too much wrong with the performance; I thought it was a pretty solid display actually and against many other sides we would have got a result today."

"We obviously didn't have the best of starts by conceding an early goal - which was offside in our opinion - but the players responded really well and we were never out of the game until the second went in late on."

"Stoke are a hard side to break down, they kept a clean sheet at Anfield against Liverpool a few weeks ago, so we knew that chances were going to be few and far between today.”

"Tony Pulis was true to his word and named a strong side against us, so it was always going to be a difficult ask. Despite that, we produced a good performance and we're encouraged by what we saw. Yes, we lost the game, but there are plenty of positives we can build on in the second half of the season.”

"The performance was consistent, as it has been for the last few months, and now we can look forward to an exciting week with two big games against Barnsley and Nottingham Forest.”

"The young players especially will benefit from today's game and they'll have learnt a hell of a lot in 90 minutes and what it's like playing against top players."

"Half-time came at the wrong time because we'd built up some momentum and we had them under pressure. That was probably our best spell of the game, as we were on top for a good 15 minutes or so. We used the ball really well at that time, on the ground and we attacked them whenever we could.”

"Clear cut chances weren't easy to find today but we had a right go and we can't knock the players for the effort they put in because they gave everything the could.”

"We missed having an extra attacking option today with Theo Robinson injured, Ryan Noble unable to play and Nathan Tyson and Steven Davies not quite ready. Craig Bryson did well to support Callum Ball and like I said the lads gave it a right good go, which is all we could ask of them."

"We just want to maintain that level of performance; we have a good pattern about us at the moment. They're two tough games (Barnsley & Forest) and we're looking forward to them."

Next Match:

Barnsley vs. Derby

7:45pm – 31st January 2012

Photo: Action Images

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