Banjo finally hits target – Cow surprised as Rams win.

Old One-Eye's Match Report

26 September 2009, Pride Park Stadium

Derby County 1 - Bristol City 0

Goals: Tealinho 85

Derby County:

Bywater(7), Connolly(6), Barker(8), Leacock(8), Moxey(7), Croft(6) (Addison 90), Savage (7), Livermore(7) (Hendrie 78), Teale(6), Hulse(7), Vaughan(7) (Dickov 64)
Subs: Deeney, McEveley, Pringle, Stoor

Brizzle Zitty:

Basso, Orr, McAllister, Fontaine, McCombe, Elliott, Johnson (Haynes 65), Maynard, Hartley, Sno (Sproule 82), Saborio (Nyatanga 57)
Subs: Henderson, Carey, Clarkson, Williams

Attendance: 27144

Referee: Mick Russell (Hertfordshire)

There's something about football in early autumn that Old One Eye doesn't really like but he can't put his finger on precisely why. Perhaps it's the fact that the pre-season optimism has already been confined to that area of the mind where pipe-dreams sit cheek-by-jowl with dashed unrealistic hopes, because Derby just don't do decent starts to the season, and it takes seven games for that realisation to actually sink in.

The Rams came into this match on the back of four successive defeats – games where their play had oscillated at times between completely dreadful and merely dismal.

Saturday's visitors, Bristol City, were on a streak of their own – three successive draws had seen them losing a little touch with the early leaders in the Championship, but nothing that a couple of wins couldn't fix. Last season, The Robins handed Derby a football lesson but the home side, still in the Nigel Clough 'honeymoon period', emerged victorious thanks to an 85th minute winner by Rob Hulse.

Bristol City kicked off towards the North Stand end, and were the first to create an opening in what was a helter-skelter start. A pin-point cross from the right wing found Alvaro Saborio in the middle, and his powerful header was somehow kept out by Stephen Bywater who recovered quickly enough to dive into the resultant tangle of legs in order to come up with the ball. He looked as surprised as everybody else in Pride Park that his goal remained intact.

Good work by Gary Teale led to him being bowled over by Bradley Orr, and from the resultant free kick, Derby forced the first of many corners. In what was an almost unprecedented event this season, the cross actually found its way to a Rams player in the opposition penalty area but Rob Hulse's drive rebounded off the brick outhouse that is James McCombe as City's defence held firm.

The same couldn't quite be said with confidence about Derby's central pairing in the early stages. Injuries this season have meant that Nigel Clough has used up most of the permutations available to him but finally the pairing that most Rams fans would consider to be their first choice – Shaun Barker and Dean Leacock – appeared on the same team sheet at the same time for the first time.

In the opening ten minutes, they looked as uncomfortable in each other's company as brother and sister on a blind date.

Bristol City were looking more than a little lively in the first twenty minutes, and Evander Sno was popping up all over the pitch to good effect – his elbow popped up to good effect in Lee Croft's face which earned him a deserved booking - but it was the Rams who were to carve out the next real chance to register the opening goal.

Robbie Savage and James Vaughan chased and harried before Vaughan won possession and sent Savage bounding into the penalty area. A perfect return pass left the youngster with a clear opening, but his horribly sliced shot worried the fans sitting by the corner flag.

Derby's players didn't look as though they were on a long losing streak but Pride Park was its usual, edgy place. One misplaced pass and certain elements of the crowd seem only too willing to heap their own pressure onto the players' shoulders.

A sweeping City move ended with Bradley Orr curling a shot just wide of the upright with Bywater beaten, but increasingly it was The Rams who were looking the more likely to score or at least to get a shot on target. For all the enterprising play, the finishing from both sides had been woeful.

The battle between McCombe and Hulse was becoming increasingly physical, with McCombe demonstrating in equal measure his strength in the air and his similarity to a Biblical beast of burden on the floor. For all his lack of finesse, he is the rock upon which Bristol City's defence is built – and at least he kicks the ball in the direction he is facing.

This one fact is more than Brizzle keeper Adriano Brasso, who if he isn't Polish ought to be, could manage. He made Stephen Bywater's own wayward kicking look poker-straight.

Lee Croft gave his autograph to referee Mick Russell before half time for 'unsporting conduct'. Old One-Eye is unable to enlighten you just how unsporting his conduct was, or even who it was that he was supposed to be conducting, but it certainly had the zoider-zwilling hordes in red up in arms. As it was, Derby continued to press and a shot on the turn by Hulse came close to breaking the deadlock.

There were other memorable efforts - ones by Moxey, Livermore and Vaughan will stay in the mind a long time but only because they came closer to breaking the clock.

It wasn't all one-way traffic though, as Saborio burst through Derby's offside trap and looked certain to put the visitors ahead, but he reckoned without Shaun Barker who produced an excellent block to deny the Costa Rican. Shortly afterwards, the referee's whistle ushered the players off and forty can-can dancers on.

Derby started the second half as they finished the first – very much on the front foot. City continued to have their moments, but their fluid football of the first 20 minutes was becoming a distant memory as The Rams dominated midfield. The Robins resorted to the high ball into the box but everything the increasingly dominant Barker and Leacock were unable to deal with was plucked out of the air by Bywater.

The incident which above everything else settled this game occurred after 53 minutes. Neat footwork by Rob Hulse saw him skin Jamie McCombe near the left touchline. An attempted trip was followed by a shirt grab that brought the Derby centre forward to the floor.

Both players stood toe to toe but Hulse's half time onion and garlic sandwich seemed to do the trick because McCombe crashed to the ground as if he had been gassed. The referee booked the City defender for simulation but the red mist had descended and was there for all to see.

A minute later and yellow had become red. Hulse broke through and once again the uncompromising McCombe clobbered the striker, leaving the referee no option but to put him on dressing room bath tap duty. City sacrificed Saborio and brought former Ram Lewin Nyatanga on to warm applause. Nyatanga's first contribution to the game was to fall over.

Derby went into overdrive, but chance after chance was spurned by a combination of dreadful finishing and wayward crossing. Basso presented Croft with a golden opportunity to open his account with a sliced clearance that made Roy Carroll's feeble effort against Aston Villa a couple of years ago look half competent, but the winger went for power and blazed over.

Manager Clough rang the changes, sending on the wise old heads of Paul Dickov and Lee Hendrie, but both spurned glorious close range chances as it looked increasingly likely that City would escape with a point.

Enter Gary Teale.

No player divides opinion more amongst the Pride Park faithful, but despite being infuriatingly inconsistent and possessing a face that could curdle cheese, the Scottish winger is a trier to the last. He had spent the first 84 minutes of the game crossing the ball perfectly with his left foot, meeting the head of Mrs Doris Mopp of Chaddesden, seated in Row 'F' every time.

On this occasion, Gary Teale cut inside and fired a rasping shot with his right, just inside the near post. Pride Park erupted – they had never doubted him for a second, despite the groans every time he received the ball and such faith deserves its reward.

There was still time for Paul Connolly to give everyone the collywobbles as his headed back-pass cleared Bywater by a yard and missed the frame of the goal by considerably less.

Despite the athletic efforts of the tireless Maynard, Derby saw out time with quite a bit to spare and claimed the three points which took The Rams well clear of the dodgy end of the table. A little more composure in the opposition penalty area and victory would have been more clear cut but the words 'comfortable' and 'victory' are not willing bedfellows at the moment.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match: Shaun Barker (Derby)

Photo: Action Images

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