RamZone Team Match Report - 5 Witness Rams In Forest Fire!
Sunday, 23rd Jan 2011 13:24 by RamZone Team

Our biggest ever match report gives you not one but 5 different descriptions of how the Rams lost… well it was a good idea until we lost! The RamZone team were out in force at Pride Park to cover the match!!

Derby County 0 vs. 1 Nottingham Forest

13:00 Saturday 22nd January 2010

Pride Park - Derbyshire

Referee

G. Salisbury

Attendance

33,010 (4,196 Travelling Trees)

Teams

Derby: Bywater, Brayford, Leacock, Barker, Moxey, Savage (Bailey 55), Addison, B Davies, Commons (S Davies 88), Bueno, Porter

Un-used Substitutes: Deeney, Roberts, Pearson, Cywka, Green

Yellow Cards: Leacock, Savage, Bueno

Red Cards: Moxey (2 x Yellow)

Forest: Camp, Chambers, Morgan, Anderson, McGugan (Adebola 75), Tyson, Cohen, Gunter, Moussi, Tudgay (Earnshaw 66), Lynch

Un-used Subs: McGoldrick, McKenna, Smith, Moloney, Majewski

Yellow Cards: Anderson, Earnshaw

Goals: Earnshaw (79)

Match Report

The Rams tried hard and did their best to compete with a superior Forest team. Not disgraced but not back to their best Derby slumped further down the table as Forest leapt into the play-off positions, courtesy of a Rob Earnshaw goal.

Five of the RamZone team were at the match so we thought instead of just reporting a blow by blow account our team members would each contribute their thoughts, observations and opinions on the match.

I am sure you will agree the result is a riveting read - just imagine if we had won!

Sigh...

I. Saw – Match Reporter

"We Love You Derby. We Do"

"What do you get when you fall in love?"

"Just a prick to burst your bubble"

Robbie Earnshaw burst our bubble yesterday. Space round the eighteen yard area, defenders standing off, control, move the ball, shoot. The net ripples and Forest have their first win at Pride Park. They also have their first double over the Rams since nineteen hundred and froze to death. Others will tell you when. Others will tell you why.

Others will tell the full story.

All I will tell you is that we played better than our last seven outings. That round pegs and round holes make for a more balanced side.

More? Ah okay what else?

Ben Davies must wonder what he has let himself in for. Dead ball lethal we were told. Maybe, maybe, but his debut was more a crematorium service as he never looked likely to bury the ball in the back of the net.

Pin point crosses? Nope.

But then perhaps he's used to having strikers finding space in the box.

Strikers, we have but one.

Until the dying moments when we bring on another. Both then jump for the same ball. Buses, buses, buses.

Bookings, bookings, bookings, innocuous things, lack of refereeing reserve.

Lee Camp a one man pantomime villain, playing himself. You might want to add a "with" somewhere there, I certainly would.

Would Shaun Barker make the 'News Of The World - team of the day'?

In my view he was awesome yesterday, a commanding performance, and back to last season’s form you had to ask what has changed.

Nothing changed with Forest's attitude, always time wasting, little taps of the ball away when decisions go against them, it's petty, it's frustrating, never mind the "Brian Clough" trophy the Reds deserve the "Don Revie Cup".

We deserved a draw. Honestly, truthfully, a draw.

And if sometimes the truth hurts, losing to our local rivals hurts more.

Mick McDermott – Match Previews

Forest are a long way ahead of us and possible contenders for promotion. We give them 4000 tickets and a whole end so they can get behind their team. They look threatening every attack.

We should have taken the lead. Why Porter didn't hit his shot with some force I'll never know.

Barker & Leacock, Brayford & Moxey - all defended well. Barker in particular was my man of the match.

Savage? Simply kept giving the ball away and got caught in possession to many times.

We played with one man up front. The one man available and he simply can't cut it in a lone striker role. Result was that Davies, Commons and Bueno were feeding off scraps.

Commons looked like a man trying not to get injured in his last game for the club. Davies had a few nice touches but didn't seem anything special. Expected more from his set pieces but again nothing special.

Disappointed with the result -but more worried about the apparent lack of investment in the team that will see us struggle for the rest of the season. The deficiencies are obvious - why no spending?

Fair play to Kris Commons, Marcus Tudgay and Rob Earnshaw who showed how to play with respect against your old team.

As for Lee Camp well ...

Paul Mortimer – RamsWeek Writer & Columnist

Much improved on the weak and ineffectual recent performances but Forest are one of several sides that have put Derby in the shade this season, with or without significant investment.

Clough has made huge progress 'on paper' - on the financial reports that the board cherish - halving the wages bill and chopping out Jewell's & Davies' dross. He's obtained value from Savage, Leacock, Commons, Green and others.

However, the team fall short on ability, quality, presence and leadership and if you can't buy quality, you tread water and plod on to another 'mission accomplished' survival marathon. The so-called comparative progress Glick rattles on about has been eroded by a terrible run of defeats.

There's a Led Zeppelin song, 'How Many More Times?' It's a searing power-blast that can be played at the end of the season, just for Rams fans wondering how many repeat campaigns we will have at Derby in this 'building responsibly' mirage.

We had some good performances but Forest posed more threat with their speed and zip. Barker was colossal again, back to form. Leacock gave a decent showing but is not the answer to a solid partnership. Leacock can't pass for toffee, and (surprise, surprise) spent quite a bit of the game limping and looking beleaguered by knocks.

He collected his 10th booking (in half a season!) so is suspended again. Hopefully, Daniel Ayala or Miles Addison can establish the better combination whilst Leacock is sidelined again. Surely WBA or someone can make bid for him now?

Ben Davies grew into the game and whilst not overawed, he wasn't exceptional and acknowledged afterwards that he can and will improve. I think he will be a tidy player.

Commons was disappointing and Savage was second best. He should book his flight to Vancouver; he can coin it for a bit where football talent doesn't really matter much and good luck to him - we have a more serious football team here to get sorted out and Savs wages have been a millstone around Clough's neck whilst he's had to halve the wages bill.

Clough should have used Green earlier and also should have replaced Bueno for Steve Davies with 20 mins to go - the team would have had a bit more power and thrust. Bailey did well enough and was more effective than Sav.

Porter is like a dazed rat in a pen, trapped by defenders at every turn whilst he has no strike partner - it's obvious that he only fits in a 4-4-2.

Addison, of course, ran his guts out and looks like he will become a massive player for us in defence or midfield. He's the single shining light of this year so far.

Please, please beat Paul Jewell's Ipswich Town next time out!

Elaine Dean – Columnist

We did not deserve to win, F*rest looked the far better side from the outset (choke choke).

Savage looked a mile off the pace and his tackling was mistimed and his distribution woeful. Clough made the right decision subbing him - but in my opinion should have brought on Green.

I would also have taken Porter off - he was useless.`

Shaun Barker is far and away our best player but the rest of the team are just not up to his standard.

The new lad Davies looked off the pace - he expected to have more time on the ball than he did. Didn't think much to his corners either.

The endless singing of 'Non League Nigel' was quite off-putting; it seemed so regular and so loud. The Forest fans outsang ours most of the time and I was in a neutral position really.

Then 'Tell me mam, me mam' also jarred with me :-(

Stuart Hughes - Columnist & Writer - www.stuarthughes.webs.com

My biggest fear going into the East Midlands derby with our local rivals was that an in-form Nottingham Forest would totally outplay a badly out-of-form Derby County and that the result would be another humiliating embarrassment.

Fortunately that fear was unfounded and what we witnessed at Pride Park Stadium was a fairly bland, scrappy affair with few chances.

Forest had the better of the first half, the Rams had the better of things after the break, and an even game overall was decided by a fine Robert Earnshaw strike on 79 minutes.

The former Rams player has now scored four goals this season, three of them against Derby County, so it really is time for Rams fans to stop singing that disgustingly obscene chant about him and his family.

Nottingham Forest started the game the brighter, with their pace up front causing problems. Better control from another former Ram Marcus Tudgay would’ve seen the visitors ahead after barely thirty seconds, as Forest burst forward with two players over, but a heavy touch saw the ball roll away from Tudgay to Stephen Bywater.

Wonder kid Lewis McGugan brought a fine save out of Bywater with one free-kick and wasted another dangerous set-piece by blasting the ball high over the bar from inside the penalty area D.

At the other end, Derby County failed to capitalise on the best chance of the first half, indeed of the whole game. Miles Addison did brilliantly to play in a square ball that took yet another former Ram Lee Camp out of the game; all Chris Porter had to do was blast the ball into an open goal from eight yards but he somehow managed to hit the only Nottingham Forest player standing between him and hero status.

After the break the Rams penned Forest back for long periods with new signing Ben Davies producing a fine volley that Camp saved brilliantly and Shaun Barker brought another fine save out of Camp with a strong header from a Kris Commons free-kick. Davies also had a good shout for a penalty turned down but, again, that evened out as Forest had a penalty claim of their own denied in the first half.

Over the course of ninety minutes though, the game served to highlight all of Derby County’s current deficiencies. Powder-puff up front, lacking any real fire power, creative midfield players drifting in and out of the game, and too many individual defensive errors (I counted at least three in the build up to the only goal of the game).

There were positive signs though. Addison came through another ninety minutes after his long injury layoff and was very impressive. Davies made a solid, if unspectacular debut. The back-four looked more comfortable with round pegs in round holes this time and the Rams competed, more than matching their opponents for effort, work rate, and commitment.

Overall, an even game, with few chances that neither side deserved to win; a goalless draw would, in all honesty, have been a fair result but what it came down to in the end was one simple fact: Porter missed his chance and Earnshaw took his.

So Nottingham Forest wins at Pride Park Stadium for the first time and completes a double over the Rams for the first time in twenty-one years. Two seasons ago, Derby County completed the double over Nottingham Forest as the Reds struggled to avoid relegation.

Both clubs have improved since then but, on the evidence of two local derbies in three weeks, Nottingham Forest has improved to a far greater extent than Derby County.

The Reds looked faster and stronger than the Rams, had more firepower, and have to be considered serious promotion contenders. Something Rams manager Nigel Clough acknowledged after the game with the rueful comment “That’s what you get when you spend £15 million.”

So, perhaps, the biggest question arising after this latest Rams defeat is one for Tom Glick and General Sports Entertainment to answer: Why can Nottingham Forest spend so much money on players and Derby County can’t?

Managers Reaction:

Nigel Clough tried to remain upbeat after the match when speaking to the media:

"It hurts to lose a local derby for the second time this season, and I don't think I could have asked for any more from our lads today, when our players get the element of confidence back they had earlier in the season and settle down, we will be fine."

"It isn't quite falling for us or going our way at the moment, but we will be okay as long as we keep working hard. Chances were there for us but we didn't quite take them, Chris Porter's one in the first half was the best of the game and it was disappointing to lose to their only real shot of the second half."

"A point would have been a good result for us today, we felt we deserved it but it wasn't to be. There were some encouraging signs out there, but like I said we need to get some confidence back."

"I thought Ben (Davies) worked very hard and did well, it was a difficult game to come in to, and he had to deal with stepping up from the League below too. He will get better once he is settled in and considering he only trained with us for an hour yesterday, he did very well indeed."

"It might be a good thing for us (the 10 day break till Ipswich clash) it will give everyone a chance to re-group and get ready to go again for the Ipswich game and the ones after that."

Debuting Player Reaction:

Ben Davies speaking to the DCFC Official Site:

"It was a great occasion but unfortunately it wasn't the right result, I thought we had done enough to get a point and it would have been about fair, but Earnshaw popped and did what he does best."

"We had the better of the chances today and I was disappointed not to score with the two chances I had. I thought the volley was in all the way and if it was anyone other than Lee Camp in goal it probably would have gone in."

"It is a disappointing feeling to lose a local derby but we have 10 days now to re-group and go again against Ipswich at Pride Park."

"It was a baptism of fire for me, but these are the games you want to play in. I am not one for nerves, but I was nervous before the game today. I wanted to do well for Derby and show the fans, who were great with me, what I could do."

"I've had a stressful week, so I'm looking forward to settling in, having a full week of training this week and kicking on with my Derby County career."