BFTG - Derby

[3points]

Good overall performance especially second half where we looked the more likely winners. Not impressed by Derby at all. I'd be surprised if they get promoted.

Atmosphere was terrible for over 28000 people. Best chant from our small traveling contingent "is this a library" which could be heard on the other side of the ground.

Our movement up front was excellent. Piazon did pretty well and could have scored if he'd pulled the trigger from a ricochet at a corner. Vydra put in a good shift and caused problems without threatening too much. Feel sorry for Cooper for the goal. I think he slipped which allowed Shackell so much space.

Lots of 6 and 7 performances tonight and a 9 for Williams. He was excellent.

Blackman actually passed the ball a couple of times in the first half. He played wide right and then was moved more central in the second swapping with Ince, who looked about as interested as Blackman.

Good point overall and could have nicked it in the second half.

[The Cap]

Cheers 3points. Any first hand accounts are always welcome and, very often, make for varied and interesting reading.

[LWJ]

We looked back to our attacking best, quick passing, running at players and the flicks mostly connecting! Poor point for us, as quite easily should have won.

Stand our players for me yesterday were Vydra, Piazon and HRK. Piazon playing the in the number 10 role is so much more effective than out wide.

Everyone did well tonight, even Al Habsi who made a couple of important saves.

One thing about Cooper that concerns me, he seems to use his arms a lot in the air and whilst defending. I don't know if this is because they're so bloody long he doesn't know where to put them but I can see him conceding penalties this way.

Also should we have had a penalty in the first half, and should Derby have been down to 10, maybe even 9?

Shoutout to Martin Keown as well.

[Lenny The Tramp]

On the subject of our rising-star centre back, there was a very nice line on BBC Berks last night from Gooding:
"Think the ref has just cricked his neck while trying to have a word with Cooper."

[John Smith]

Decided to go last minute and quite pleased I did. Very promising display indeed. The goal we conceded was atrocious but we were always a threat.

From our side Williams was fantastic as mentioned before. I've seen the replay for our equaliser and I don't know why the two Derby men haven't challenged but certainly not complaining. Piazon looked decent, shame he couldn't have bagged the injury time free kick. Was interesting to see McDermott didn't make any changes at all (wonder when the last time that happened was?)

Derby looked quite dangerous in the first half and had the crowd on their side but were silent for the second period. Didn't really see Blackman make much of a difference.

[Brum Royal]

A good opening ten minutes, confidence clearly coming back into the side, which then took a knock with conceding the goal. It took us a while to recover again, but Derby had probably the better of the middle part of the first half they didn't really create all that much. As we grew back into it, we got our equaliser, and from then on we were the side who looked more likely to win it. A good spell at the start of the second half got the fans going, and our nearly 10 minute solid "Blue Army" seemed to kick the boys on again, amidst the silence from the Derby fans. A couple of decent saves from Grant, including one fantastic low save to tip round the post kept us from winning that, and I don't Derby could have had too many complaints if we had have nicked it - I heard several comments from the Derby fans of "how did we get a point out of that?" as we walked back to the car.

I'm not normally a big fan of AAH, but he looked pretty solid last night, did all that was asked of him and didn't look to have much chance with the goal.
Centre backs, Cooper looked pretty solid throughout, Ferdinand a little shakey with his massively slow pace and he just about got away with a weak back pass to AAH which was nearly intercepted.
Taylor, solid if unspectacular
Gunter, started shakily, got a lot of stick from the Derby fans, but grew into the game and combined well with G Mac
HRK, industrious and looked massively up for it, linked the play well from the left and was heavily involved in a lot of our attacking work. The kind of performance we don't see often enough, but you get when he puts a Wales shirt on.
Norwood, at the heart of everything going forward and provided decent cover for the back four, really bossed the game
Williams, unlike against Brizzle City (last game I saw) he released the ball quicker, dribbled down less blind alleys and became a lot more potent. Took his goal well.
G Mac, busy, dangerous and lots of crosses into good areas
Piazon, looks like a completely different player as a number 10, Brian is at least not repeating the same mistakes as Clarke and playing him wide left
Vydra, superb work rate (even in the 94th minute after losing the ball) and unlucky not find some of his team mates with his little flicks and tricks. Beginning to look like the player he was for Watford.

Blackman, other than having a shot which led to the corner Derby scored from on 10 minutes, I don't recall him doing much at all. One glory shot from about 30 yards that he got all wrong and went so wide of goal it was closer to the corner flag, but apart from that, we marshalled him well (both at right mid where he started and when he moved into the number 10 roles midway through the second half).

The main thing I took from last night's performance is: Brian has given us our Reading back. The "team" ethos was there, everyone looked right up for it, we played with a good tempo, we didn't give in, it gave the fans something to get behind and an entity you wanted to support. For a decent chunk of the second half we looked like the home team, and forced Derby to try and counter us.

Kudos to Martin Keown last night, who was sat a couple of rows behind us. One of the Reading fans kicked out at one of the empty seats in a moment of frustration after something didn't quite work in the penalty box in the first half, the seat back went flying about 6 or 7 rows down the stand, fortunately avoiding hitting anyone else. The guy stood there, apologising profusely to those he'd nearly hit, whilst the stewards readied themselves to come in for the kill. As two of them went to walk past Keown, Keown took his wooly hat off to clearly identify himself, and said "I saw it, the guy didn't meant to do it, it was an accident, don't throw him out", and the stewards backed down, choosing only to remove the damaged seat and let the guy stay for the remainder of the game. A small action, but he could have chosen not to do that.

[The Cap]

Lenny The Tramp wrote:
On the subject of our rising-star centre back, there was a very nice line on BBC Berks last night from Gooding:
"Think the ref has just cricked his neck while trying to have a word with Cooper."

Yeah, heard that and had to laugh.

BTW, what on earth was Tellor prattling on about at the start of the second half? Regarding Anton Ferdinand and his ritual of spitting water out before the game starts again. Seriously, he's on a par with the PA announcer. In fact, can you imagine those pair on a night out together? I'd rather not. Mick, you've got the patience of a saint mate.

[Brum Royal]

One of the LOLs of the night

Reading fans: "We'll play you next year, we'll play you next year, Derby County, we'll play you next year"
Derby fans: "We'll play you next year, we'll play you next year, on FIFA 16, we'll play you next year"
Sole Reading fan shouts: "It'll be FIFA 17 next year you stupid ba5tards"

[TBM]

Their manager really wasn't happy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35298139

[LoyalRoyal22]

Awesome performance last night. We have such a talented group of players, will be so sad if its wasted. We need to put 4/5 wins together if we want to do anything this season.

The application and work rate last night was bang on

Al Habsi- 7
Gunter- 6
Taylor- 6
Ferdinand- 7
Cooper- 7

Norwood- 6
Williams- 8

McCleary- 7
Piazon- 7
Robson Kanu- 8

Vydra- 7

[Hoop Blah]

Sounds like we saw a much improved performance with a more balanced side, working together and with players playing in their more natural roles.

No surprise really and a good start post-Blackman. Plenty more work to be done to rescue the season but lots of positives.

[melonhead]

Piazon- 7
Robson Kanu- 8
Vydra- 7

really impressed by the improvement in these three since brian came in.

McCleary- 7

^he seems back to his best too

[MoorgateRoyal]

I know Clement has no obligation to talk about the opposition, but it just comes across as really arrogant when managers criticise their own team and give no credit to the opposition, especially when their own fans (the always balanced Derby fans) said they were lucky to escape with a point because we were so good. Derby are nowhere near good enough to be doing the 'we shouldn't be drawing with that lot' routine, especially after being outplayed at home.

[marlowuk]

I know Clement has no obligation to talk about the opposition, but it just comes across as really arrogant when managers criticise their own team and give no credit to the opposition, especially when their own fans (the always balanced Derby fans) said they were lucky to escape with a point because we were so good. Derby are nowhere near good enough to be doing the 'we shouldn't be drawing with that lot' routine, especially after being outplayed at home.

I agree! He was even invited to make a comment on 'the opposition' but ignored it and continued his rant against his own players. Hardly good for the morale of the Derby players either!

[No Fixed Abode]

I know Clement has no obligation to talk about the opposition, but it just comes across as really arrogant when managers criticise their own team and give no credit to the opposition, especially when their own fans (the always balanced Derby fans) said they were lucky to escape with a point because we were so good. Derby are nowhere near good enough to be doing the 'we shouldn't be drawing with that lot' routine, especially after being outplayed at home.

Seems a strange thing to say about being the better team in one game . The league is played over a season. Have you seen the league table? Derby are 15 (fifteen) points ahead of you at the moment. I think (at this stage) they've earned the right to be disappointed with dropping points at home to a mid-table team not in the best of form.

[melonhead]

I know Clement has no obligation to talk about the opposition, but it just comes across as really arrogant when managers criticise their own team and give no credit to the opposition, especially when their own fans (the always balanced Derby fans) said they were lucky to escape with a point because we were so good. Derby are nowhere near good enough to be doing the 'we shouldn't be drawing with that lot' routine, especially after being outplayed at home.

Seems a strange thing to say about being the better team in one game . .

in a thread about that one game?

[MoorgateRoyal]

I know Clement has no obligation to talk about the opposition, but it just comes across as really arrogant when managers criticise their own team and give no credit to the opposition, especially when their own fans (the always balanced Derby fans) said they were lucky to escape with a point because we were so good. Derby are nowhere near good enough to be doing the 'we shouldn't be drawing with that lot' routine, especially after being outplayed at home.

Seems a strange thing to say about being the better team in one game . The league is played over a season. Have you seen the league table? Derby are 15 (fifteen) points ahead of you at the moment. I think (at this stage) they've earned the right to be disappointed with dropping points at home to a mid-table team not in the best of form.

True, but I think it's total arrogance to not even mention the other team in a post-match interview. Again, I know there's no obligation to do so, but to me in Clement's interview he sounded like the manager of a massive Premier League club who had been held to a draw with a crap League Two team in the cup, which wasn't the case.

Derby are better than us overall, and the table certainly doesn't lie, but that doesn't mean we can't outplay them in one game. Plus, Derby still aren't good enough to be dismissing anyone in this league in that way.