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Morley's Musings: Let Slip The Rams Of War!
Wednesday, 21st May 2014 14:25 by Nathan Morley

It’s coming. It’s the talk of the town. It’s almost the play-off final. How to describe the feeling? A healthy mix of nerves, excitement, confidence and fear — and that’s just me!

‘Arry’s mishmash bunch, who I must say, seem to have settled down with a strong ever-present nucleus, on mega contracts, is the only thing that stands between Steve McClaren’s well-assembled, hard-working and relatively youthful team and the Premier League.

The main dilemma facing The Mac is deciding who to start in the middle of the park. George Thorne is the only dead cert. Will Hughes impressed massively when he replaced Craig Bryson in the second leg against Brighton and scored a delicious goal (I can’t stop talking about it!).

Can you consider leaving out the fans’ player of the season for young Will after one terrific performance? And what about Jeff Hendrick, could he make way?

I mentioned earlier that QPR have a strong nucleus and yes they do have a rigid backline, but the Derby backline has come on leaps and bounds in the past few months and Lee Grant looks to be the real deal.

The Rs’ defence in the semi-final second leg was Simpson, Onuoha, Dunne and Hill; it doesn’t strike me as the quickest of defences. Of course pace isn’t everything but Derby tore Brighton’s ageing defence apart in the semi-final and that Albion defence looked slow and clocked in with an average age of 32.

Midfield could be where the tie will be won and lost. Thorne is key for the Rams and if he can stamp his authority on the game and mop up any QPR advances, then the rest of the midfield will be left to do their thing.

There is an added incentive for Mac’s men to win the game with reports saying that the squad will split a £4.5 million win bonus should the Rams win. For some, if the story has any truth to it, it would double their season’s earnings!

The breakdown of who gets which amount is said to be mainly based on appearances. Lee Grant has played every minute of every game this season, closely followed by Craig Forsyth who is only a few minutes behind... might need to get bigger piggy banks boys!

Charlie Austin is bound to score, but at least he will not be in our bogey team Burnley’s strip this time. The QPR side that arrived at Pride Park back in February lacked ideas and offered little for large parts of the game, Austin wasn’t present that day and unfortunately, he is back on the goals trail having bagged five goals since his injury turn last month.

The match is a tough one to predict, it could go either way.

My thoughts are that Derby will win 3-1 but I think the game will be kept tight, similar to the two fixtures already played between the clubs this season. Things will be kept tense by QPR’s tight defence and then the Rams will explode and out-pace the Rs in the second 45.

Finish off a remarkable season in style at Wembley.

C’MON YOU RAMS!


For more of Nathan's articles you can read his blog at www.derbycountyfan.com and follow him@NathansRamsBlog on Twitter.





Photo: Action Images



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