The Rams produced a fantastic first 80 minutes of football that yielded 3 goals but Palace hit back with 2 late strikes that had the home fans on the edge of their seats till the final whistle.

Derby County 3 vs. 2 Crystal Palace

Pride Park Stadium

24th  March 2012

Mick Russell

Attendance:

25,222 (1,528 From The Palace).

The Teams:

The Rams:

Fielding (GK); Naylor, Buxton, Shackell, Roberts; Green, Hendrick, Bryson, B. Davies; Robinson (Tyson 76), S. Davies (Ball 31).

Unused Substitutes: Severn (GK), Bailey, Carroll.

Goals: S.Davies 6', Hendrick 29', Robinson 49'(pen)

Palace:

Speroni (GK); Clyne, McCarthy, Gardner, Parr (Appiah 76); Ambrose, Dikgacoi, Jedinak (Moxey 45), Scannell (Williams 45); Murray, Martin.

Unused Substitutes: Price (GK), McShane.

Goals: Martin C 79 Ambrose 90

Match Stats: Derby - Palace

Possession: 53% - 47%

Shots On Target: 4 - 6

Shots Off Target: 6 - 3

Corners: 4 - 3

Fouls: 8 - 7

Most Fouls: Shackell (3) - Williams (2)

What I Saw – Rams Fan Match Report:

Forget the score line, forget the stats, this was the most comfortable performance by Derby County of the season. Three nil up against Crystal Palace and coasting, it could and should have been four; five or even six such was the dominance of the home side.

From the early minutes when Theo Robinson whipped in a cross that took a deflection allowing Steve Davies to poke home, the Rams were on top.

Factor in Paul Green forcing a wonderful save from Julian Speroni, consider Robinsons delightful shot similar to his goal a week earlier at Doncaster, this time the crossbar thwarts the striker.

It was all one way traffic.

Jeff Hendrick adds a second. His second. His first was at Forest when we err  had “ten men”. How could we lose?

How indeed, the loss of goal scorer Davies to an injury slows us down, but within five minutes of the second half starting eagle eyed referee Michael Russell spots a handball and from the penalty Robinson makes it three.

At this stage it is perhaps worth noting that ref Russell had been a breath of fresh air, in that he saw fouls, considered for a few seconds whether an advantage had actually occurred and if not then pulled the play back to the foul. The fact most of these were in favour of Palace mattered not one bit.

It was good refereeing and a pleasure to see.

Of course praising a referee is fatal.

Gareth Roberts, on the half way line, loops a ball high into the air and deep back into the Derby half. Jason Shackell, back peddling, attempts to nod it back to Frank Fielding in the Derby goal.

Fielding picks the ball up, the Eagles player closest raises his arms and appeals for a back pass. It’s given. Fielding allows the ball from his grasp and quick thinking Glenn Murray takes the kick to Chris Martin who slots the ball home to make it 3-1.

In real time, in the stands we all felt sure Shackell had headed it back, we cursed the referee, TV later showed that the ref got that one right too.

With injury time upon us Darren Ambrose wraps up a well worked move to reduce the deficit to 3-2.

That score line was a travesty anything more would have been daylight robbery.

So the Rams now need five points from seven games to satisfy Our Manager, perhaps that explained why Andy Garner did the after match interviews and even briefly mention the “p” word.

First Team Coach Reaction:

Andy Garner is starting to think a late charge for the Play-Off’s is worth a shot:

"There have been slight words about it in a positive way," he said. "When you are five points away from it there's a possibility. But we don't want to get carried away. The manager (Clough) has said get to 60 points as quickly as we can and take it from there. We've had a great month and now we want to go to Bristol City on Saturday and finish it off.”

"It's a great three points but we did make it a big harder than we should have done for ourselves. We got a bit sloppy in the final 15 minutes or so because, at that stage, we were cruising and we lost a bit of concentration, which saw Palace pull two goals back which left us hanging on when we shouldn't have been.”

"Despite that, those lapses should not overshadow what was a great performance from us - especially in the first 70 minutes. We can forget about the closing stages, as long as we learn from the mistakes that we made. We deserved to be 3-0 ahead and make no mistake about it, Palace is a very good side and we must not forget they were unbeaten in ten matches before today and had a very good defensive record."

"The quality of our goals was excellent today, Steven Davies - who was ill, which forced him to come off in the first half - and Jeff Hendrick took their goals really well and it's great to see the team playing with so much confidence at the moment to get on the ball and play.”

"I think Jeff's goal was the pick of the bunch, and it was great to see him back on the scoresheet. Even though Theo's goal was a penalty it was brilliantly taken. There's plenty to be positive about here - we've won four or our last six matches and we've had a really good month. The young players - like Jeff Hendrick, Tom Naylor, Callum Ball and Theo Robinson - are learning all the day and this season has been a great one for all of them.”

"It's been an excellent month and we can't be any happier than we are at the moment and it would be great to finish the month with another good result down at Bristol City."

Rams Lucky Eleven Goal Scorer:

Theo Robinson is pleased with the way his season has progressed:

"I heard people talking behind me saying that I was going to miss (the penalty) but before I took it, I already knew where I was going to place it so it paid off with the goalkeeper going the other way. I started the campaign not as the first choice striker and was on the sidelines and came off the bench a few times.”

"But since September time I have starting games and I am getting goals, combined with the team getting victories. My target at the start of the season was to get into double figures as I did not really know how involved I would be.”

"I have got double figures and it is a great opportunity to kick on from here with seven games to go. I had a shower, so I didn't see their first goal go in. I heard a few cheers and presumed we had got a fourth, but it was still a good result at the end of the day. At 3-0 you think everything was going to be alright, but to come out, see them score a second, then see four minutes of time to be added on, you start to wonder.”

"I did see their second goal and it did get a bit nervous watching on the sidelines, but thankfully the boys dug in and got the result - which we deserved."

Next Match:

Bristol vs. Derby

3pm – March 31st 2012

Photo: Action Images

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