"I read the news today, oh boy. 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small. They had to count them all.” So sang the Beatles in 1967 about the number of potholes in Blackburn Lancashire as reported by The Daily Mail.

In 1967 Derby County also had a Clough in charge and in his first season we finished 18th in Division Two, the equivalent of the Championship now.

It would only be a guess as to whether the Blackburn’s pothole problem has got better or worse but you don’t need to guess about the Rams performances though.

Some forty six years later and we have to accept we really aren’t very good. We lack pace, we lack creativity, we struggle to defend and going forward the skin of a rice pudding is safe and not likely to be knocked off anytime soon.

Yesterday Rovers showed what it meant to them from the opening minutes when Jamie Ward was taken out after the ball had gone. The home side tackled and gave everything for the cause, yes they got the rub of the green from the referee but they deserved their lead.

A lead won when Jake Buxton fudged a clearance, Buxton and Richard Keogh then got in each other’s way resulting in Jeff Hendrick going for the smaller non inflated balls of an opponent rather than the large white spherical version nearby.

There were no complaints and Jordan Rhodes coolly tapped the resulting penalty home.

Derby tried, Ward gifted a first class chance when the otherwise impeccable Grzegorz Sandomierski’s chip never reached it’s intended target, managed only a second class return firing directly back at the keeper.

Chris Martin fared even worse, eight yards out and a free header, gaping goal and he headed straight into the keeper arms.

At least though Martin looked like scoring, his partner Conor Sammon displayed as much control as a scalextric car on an S-Bend with the trigger pulled fully back.

Losing only one nil at half time might have been considered a success, doubly so when Blackburn hit the bar and the defender on the line belatedly cleared the ball.

We couldn’t however manage that.

A corner in the third minute of added time, Frank Fielding slightly impeded failed to reach the ball and Scott Dann headed down and the ball bounced up into the back of the net.

Second half and we could have had a penalty, we could have scored we didn’t .

Paul Coutts departed having contributed little Ben Davies arrived and met fully the little expectation we had, Sammon went off for Mason Bennett.

Man Of The Match Craig Bryson was replaced by full back Kieran Freeman, Jacobs presumably having broken a mirror killed a black cat and spilled salt over his wrong shoulder at the pre match meal.

It mattered not in the final analysis. Blackburn possessed the sparkle the drive the creativity to take all three points.

Had Brian been manager he’d of called this lot in for training this morning. With the present regime I’m not sure that would be a positive.

Final words though must be left the Blackburn fans as they sang “How Sh*t Must You Lot Be We’re Winning At Home”.

Precisely.

Photo: Action Images

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