The Rams shared the spoils in their second pre-season match of the new campaign as they visited Southend on Monday night.

The Rams played two different teams as they did against Burton on the weekend but were unable to complete a good performance.

Rob Hulse's put Derby ahead early with a strong header but things were all square after Luke Varney gave away a soft penalty in the second half. Matt Paterson stepped up to the spot for United and fired truly beating Saul Deeney.

Russell Anderson suffered concussion in the second half and will miss the next match as Derby face AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

Rams manager Nigel Clough spoke to the DET about the ‘4-2-3-1’ formation he is employing in an attempt to prepare it successfully for the season ahead:

"It is something we will look at because of the players we have available, it gives you a lot of possession and then it is a matter of turning that possession into shots, crosses, chances and goals”.

 "Johnny Metgod was an advocate of the 4-2-3-1 before he went to the World Cup with Holland. He was very strongly saying that we should try it because he thinks the personnel we have would fit very well into it”.

"But we need three or four options when it comes to formations, options the players can slip into at any given time. This could be dictated by personnel available, the opposition and the state of the game”.

"We will work on different formations in training and in the pre-season matches. The 4-4-2 shape is the obvious one for English teams but with the players we have, there is no reason why they cannot adapt”.

"We have players who are flexible – Kris Commons can play a number of positions, Dean Leacock can play holding midfield, right-back or centre-back."

"Most of the players who can adapt were not available last season due to injuries, the statistic that three quality players like Leacock, Commons and Davies have never started a game together for Derby despite having been here two years, never ceases to amaze us”.

"There have been some stats produced but that is as astonishing as any. Last pre-season, we didn't have too many strikers available but we did have two wide players at the time in Lee Croft and Gary Teale and they were doing OK."

"The main thing in that system was to get the three midfielders in – Savage, Green and Pearson. We accommodated them and it worked very well in the early weeks but then we lost players to injury and had to go back to a 4-4-2."

"Spain and Holland are the best two teams in the world according to form and the fact they reached the World Cup final but for 45 minutes to an hour they cancelled each other out when everybody was hoping for a great spectacle," .

"It certainly wasn't a classic despite the formations and the quality of the players on show. Sometimes formations can dictate a game but you still need the players to shape the way the game goes and the outcome."

Rams Team – First Half:

Bywater, Brayford, Leacock, Moxey, Martin, Green, Abalimba, Cywka, Doyle, Commons, Hulse

Rams Team – Second Half:

Deeney, Varney, Anderson (Garton), O'Brien, Roberts, Savage, Bailey, Mills (Ledgister), Pringle, Connolly, Morgan-Smith

Southend United:

Evans, Clohessey, Gilbert, Easton, Coughlan, Bilel, Soares, Grant, Corr, Patterson, Hall – Substitutes: Spencer, Morris, Osifuwa, James-Lewis, Milner, Crawford, Herd

Attendance:

1,052 (163 Travelling Rams)

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