Sheffield, early morning, large police presence, horses on parade, Rams fans on the beers.
Sheffield Tap, shirts hidden, friends founden, beer drinken, taxi aquiren, Harlequin by dubious route soughten, the grail trail goes onen on. The Shakespeare callen, the Riverside appaulin and finally the Kelham Island we appluaden. Thanks Wheaty and all’en.
One final taxi ride, the trams being down and we are within walking distance of Hillsborough. No hassle the Rams in yellow and white battle the Owls.
We compete, yet it’s not convincing, we get caught casually giving away possession, we want too long with the ball, our creativity is stifled. Credit Wednesday for closing down, credit them for moving the ball quickly. Credit them, they started well.
Derby with Simon Dawkins and Jamie Ward starting again lacked width, our game plan similar to that adopted in the first match; we rely heavily on Cyrus Christie and Craig Forsyth bombing forward on the overlap. Wednesday works that out quickly and two men wide are despatched wide. It shrinks the Rams options massively.
Our midfield misses George Thorne immensely or someone to pass and create, the balance of Jeff Hendrick, Craig Bryson and Will Hughes isn’t quite pulling cohesively together. Hendrick again though looks the best of the three.
Wednesday have the upper hand Lee Grant is called upon for a number of good saves, although a huge cheer from the home fans, followed by a jeer from us away was a clear sign that the ball rippled the side net and not a goal as the Owl fans thought.
Ex-Ram Chris Maguire comes closer as he sees his free kick in front of goal take a slight deflection off the wall and with Grant beaten the ball strikes the underside of the crossbar before bouncing down and being cleared, a lucky break I reckon.
Approaching the break Dawkins clears off the line, the Owls certainly have the better of the first half as we Rams ride our luck.
Second half and we appear better. Hughes departs and Omar Mascarell joins the fray, we hold the ball more. Ward leaves and Leon Best plays wide left before switching over to the right when Johnny Russell takes over from Dawkins.
Best doesn’t live up to his name, or, in my eyes, even Tyson’s name. It’s a non-descript performance by our number 30, one good ball to Christie his main effort arguably.
Yet who is to blame?
The strikers who don’t look likely of scoring or the midfield that are playing balls that don’t give the strikers a chance.
Take Chris Martin, on yesterday’s game his contribution was poor, but if you don’t give him the ball in a winnable position he won’t be effective.
It’s a claim Johnny Russell can’t use, two great opportunities fell his way, the first one he slid narrowly past the post and the second, when clean through, failed to beat Keiren Westwood who had already gone to ground. Those are the chances that on another day would have won us the game.
Confidence, time and a run in the team, I’d back Russell to bury those every week.
Five minutes of injury time from a referee who might know his posterior from his elbow, but if he does then it’s a secret he hides exceptionally well and then it’s all over.
Shared points, goalless, a fair result perhaps, now that’s over - one question remains…
Where’s the beer?