I.Saw's Match Report - Ward Gets Red & Rams Get Rolled!
Sunday, 24th Apr 2011 14:56 by I.Saw

Once again this season Burnley stood in the way of Derby and their target. Earlier in the season they started the slide and on Saturday they prolonged the Rams race for safety.

Derby County vs. Burnley

Saturday 23rd April 2011

Pride Park - Derbyshire

Ref:

M. Russell

Attendance:

25,187 (1,093 away fans)

Teams:

Rams:

Jones, Brayford, Ayala, Barker, Anderson (Addison 82), Savage (Henrick 80), Bailey, Pearson, Ward, S Davies (Ball 77), Robinson.

Unused Substitutes: Atkins, Doyle, B Davies, Bueno.

Goals: Robinson (6), Ward (31)

Red Card: Ward

Clarets:

Jensen, Mears, Fox, Duff, Bikey, Elliott, McCann (Alexnader 78), Cork, Eagles (Wallace 82), Rodriguez, Iwelumo (Thompson 71)

Unused Substitutes: Grant, Carlisle, Delfouneso, Edgar.

Goals: Eagles (15, 62 - Pen), Elliott (65), McCann (75)

Match Stats:

Possession: Rams 46% - Clarets 54%

Shots On Target: Rams 6 – Clarets 8

Shots Off Target: Rams 5 – Clarets 4

Corners: Rams 5 – Clarets 9

Fouls: Rams 7 – Clarets 7

Most Fouls: Pearson (4) - Bikey (2)

I. Saw’s Match Report:

Brilliant blue sunshine, Brunswick beers, riverside stroll.

Pride Park. Early lead.

Stephen Pearson, left wing, races then waits. Waiting was perfect.

Cross, low, precise. Theo Robinson gratefully slots home.

One nil, minutes gone.

More minutes, all Derby. We press high, front foot then Burnley attack.

Chris Eagles, unmarked, in the box, turns and scores against the run of play.

Rams restore lead, corner not cleared, Jamie Ward fires low through a crowd.

We look though comfortable, deserve the half time lead.

Good mood, even the chips are hot.

Seconds away, we sit back, further and further.

We concede midfield. Chris Eagles runs the show. He bosses everything.

We pick up in our area if we are lucky.

Eagles at pace, Robbie Savage comes across him, takes the ball perfectly as the Clarets bay for a penalty. Correctly none is given.

Tyrone Mears, booed throughout, the Judas who as legend goes snuck past Jewells windows with his boots to escape the Rams, goes down in the box.

And as much as you want to shout “Cheat” you can’t.

Ward brought him down, last man, Red Card, penalty.

Mears got up too.

Brad Jones, shaky start, gaining confidence each match, faced Eagles.

Keeper saved straight back to Eagles who scored the rebound.

Two all, ten men, Burnley gave us lessons in control.

Elliot and McCann added two more goals. Comfortably!

Academy youngsters, striker Callum Ball and midfielder Jeff Kendrick were given a run and looked no worse than Davies and Savage who they replaced.

Finally after four minutes added we were released from the demonstration match the game had become.

Man of the match:

Chris Eagles, bossed everything and created chance after chance.

Manager’s Reaction:

Nigel Clough was seeing red about Ward seeing red:

"The penalty and red card changed the game, without any doubt, it was unfortunate for Jamie to be sent off, but it is something we have to deal with. Burnley came out strongly in the second half and really got at us.”

"What we needed to do was sit tight and weather the storm, but we didn't have chance to do that with the red card. In the heat as well we had to chase the game, so it was not ideal for us.”

"We have to pick ourselves up from this, recover and get ready for Norwich on Bank Holiday Monday."

"We showed our fluency is coming back, which was hugely encouraging, we played the ball around well and created quite a few chances, which we should have taken. I suppose that is the biggest frustration, that we weren't further ahead at half time.”

"It was a bit like the games against Norwich and Reading before Christmas when we played well and got nothing for it. That has to be a major change for us next season where we get something from these games."

"Russell (Anderson) is a great character and he did exceptionally well considering he was out of position. It was great to see him out there from the start because he has had a tough season with injuries."

"We wanted to give Callum and Jeff game time and get used to playing at Pride Park, and it will benefit them in the future. Both deserve their chances; they have had good seasons in the youth and reserve sides."

Stand-in Left Back reaction:

Returning defender Russell Anderson believes the Rams need to step up on Monday with a performance similar to the one recently at Loftus road:

"We put in a very good performance at QPR and we deserved the point we got in the end. We had the best chance of the game as well, so we could have won it.”

"Norwich is having a great time of it right now, but there's no reason why we can't do it again at Carrow Road. Reflecting on yesterday's defeat to Burnley, Anderson felt the 4-2 scoreline did not show a true reflection of the game.”

"It looked comfortable for Burnley in the end, but it wasn't the case for an hour," he said. I don't think anyone can criticise the players for the effort that went into the game.”

"Going down to 10 men changed the nature of the game and in the hot weather they made the extra man advantage count. We looked dangerous early on deserved to be ahead, but we couldn't carry it on."

"I must admit, I didn't expect to be playing at full-back. I was just delighted to be out there playing again from the start, because it has been a long time."