Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, if Buxton don't get you, Addison must.

22 August 2009 - Pride Park Stadium

Derby County 2 v Plymouth Argyle 1

Goals:

Derby: Buxton 40, Addison 90

Plymouth: Judge 17 (Pen)

Derby County:

Bywater (5), Connolly (5), Buxton (6), Addison (6), Moxey (8), Croft (7) (Commons 74, 6), Savage (7), Pearson (5), Livermore (7) (Green 86), Teale (7), Davies (6) (Hulse 55, 6)

Unused Subs: Deeney, Leacock, Barker, McEveley

Plymouth Argyle:

Larrieu, Duguid (Summerfield 51), Paterson, Fletcher, Mackie, Arnason, Fallon, McNamee (Clark 46), Saywer, Seip, Judge (Johnson 88)

Unused Subs: Letheren, Gow, Maclean, Barnes

Attendance: 26186 (526 visitors)

Referee: Craig Pawson (Preposterous, Yorkshire)

Match Report: 

A beautiful, sunny August afternoon watching England put Australia to the sword was luckily avoided by Old One-Eye when he decided that possible Ashes victories seem to come along every four years or so nowadays, and when you've seen as many as he has, you've seen, 'em all. The chances of The Rams winning their first two home games of the season is quite another matter though, and far, far less likely. So it was that all thoughts of cricket were put firmly to the back of the mind as Pride Park came into view.

The visitors who were charged with the task of denying Derby County their second successive victory at the home of East Midlands football were Plymouth Argyle, the side sponsored by Ginsters, purveyors of those splendid D-shaped semi-Oval pasties. They brought with them a small but spirited following of five hundred or so faithful who had made the painfully long journey up the M5 from Devon.

The highlight of the pre-match entertainment this week was watching the ground staff watering the pitch. No expense was spared when Pride Park was being assembled a decade or so ago – a system that includes pop-up sprinklers sends a veritable deluge, sufficient to keep the average test match umpire twitching, across much of the playing surface.

The jets used to be automatic, but now they tend to stick. Derby now employs an assistant groundman whose responsibility it is to give the sprinkler a turn every couple of minutes to ensure uniformity of saturation.

The teams were led out by the splendid specimen of Ram-hood, Private Derby XXIX of the Mercian Regiment. In my dreams I have heard the stadium announcer call out his name, “Derby 29”, usually followed the phrase “Nottingham Forest nil”, but that's for next week. Before then, there was the small matter of Plymouth to dispose of. With the sprinklers finally turned off, Derby kicked off towards the deep end.

Barely six seconds after Craig Pawson got proceedings under way; Robbie Savage had been felled by the Antipodeans bouncer, Rory Fallon, which gave Jake Livermore an early opportunity for his first touch of the ball in a Derby shirt. Unfortunately, it drifted away from him on the tide. Savage was less than thrilled at the edge that was appearing in the game so early on, and he tried to make his point in the general direction of the referee.

Derby made good progress during the early stages down both flanks, with both Gary Teale and Lee Croft making plenty of early runs. Teale it was who produced the first effort on goal as he first slipped inside and then outside the full back before cutting back and pulling the trigger, but Romain Larrieu in the Argyle goal had the effort covered.

During the early moments, Derby passed the ball well and Teale once again waltzed to the by-line in a move that would have done Strauss proud, but his cross swung straight into the arms of Larrieu.

Plymouth gradually edged their way into the game, and a powerful drive by Duguid was blocked by Jake Buxton at the expense of a corner which was easily caught by Bywater. Jamie Mackie outpaced Derby's defence and his fine shot came back off the post to Alan Judge who was bowled over by Jake Buxton. The resultant penalty was smashed into the net by Judge to give the visitors the lead after 17 minutes.

Derby set about playing themselves back into the game, and much of the good work was coming down the flanks, but it was from the centre of midfield, where Derby had a third man to Plymouth's two, that much of the good work came, especially from the lively veteran Savage. Robbie is loved by some, hated by others, but he plays the game with a Broad grin on his face. Rams fans are generally delighted that he has elected to extend his contract by another year.

As the pressure increased towards the interval, the warning Bells were sounding for Plymouth. Larrieu produced a brilliant save to thwart Steve Davies, but he was completely stumped when the ball dropped at the feet of Buxton who fired home from a dozen yards to bring Derby level. five minutes from half time. The Rams could have gone ahead moments later when Miles Addison met yet another fine Teale cross, but Plymouth were bailed out by Arnason who headed off the line.

Early in the second half Stephen Pearson hooked the ball wide, and then Derby's long injury list took another turn for the worse when Steve Davies went down under what seemed to be an innocuous challenge. Davies was carried off with his leg in splints, to be replaced by last season's leading goal scorer, Rob Hulse, who Trotted on to a hero's reception.

Lee Croft, two short legs and a bag of tricks, was having a fine afternoon on the right, but all too often his final delivery failed to find a player in white. Croft came in for a spell of rough treatment, being brought down by Patterson on more than one occasion, before Rams manager Nigel Clough decided that his goose was finally cooked, and that it was time for Kris Commons to be given a run out for the last 20 minutes.

Kris Commons is definitely a Clough type of player – quick, skilful, graceful – almost Swann-like in the way he moves. Back in the day when Old One-Eye was younger, the late great Brian Clough insisted that football was a game to be played on the floor – I think he would have approved of Commons. Derby fans are indeed fortunate that the club has been managed by a father Anderson who thinks the same way.

After 75 minutes of letting even the most robust challenges go unpunished, the referee finally started flashing the yellow, and Miles Addison for The Rams went into the book for probably his first offence of the afternoon. The precedent set, Mr Pawson added Chris Clark's name to his collection shortly afterwards. With the game seemingly petering out to a draw, Clough threw on Paul Green in place of Jake Livermore.

Plymouth broke dangerously when Jamie Mackie nicked the ball away from the hitherto unflappable Dean Moxey and bore down on Bywater's goal. Robbie Savage, whose stamina knows no boundaries, chased him into the box and thrust out a long leg to deny Mackie when he seemed certain to score. Prior to that, it had been Bywater who had thwarted Mackie with a block at the near post to keep The Rams in the game.

With the game heading towards the final minute, Derby surged forward once more, and two successive corners were scraped behind. From the third, Teale produced the perfect delivery and Miles Addison met the ball beyond the far post to give The Rams the lead with 15 seconds of normal time remaining. Addison's exuberant celebrations were understandable – he has already equalled last season's goal tally of two – but poor Rammie may well be traumatised for life.

Addison twice came to Derby's rescue as Plymouth surged forward in added time, but at the other end Gary Teale was closed down as he threatened to increase the home side's lead. The increasingly ridiculous referee enjoyed the last laugh, booking Plymouth's Carl Fletcher for kicking the ball away after the final whistle had already blown. Derby had scraped a second successive last-gasp victory at home to leave them six points better off than they were at the same stage under Paul Jewell's ill-fated regime last season. All in all, they had probably earned the win.

So what lessons can be learned? Even without strikers, Derby are a threat going forward, but still appear to be shaky in defence, with a lack of communication between centre backs and the goalkeeper being of primary concern. Just a bit of basic Collingwood help. Clough teams are built from the back – clean sheets guarantee points. A sound defence didn't do Brian any damage, and it won't Harmison either. He is, after all, a Flintoff the old sparking stone.

Old One-Eye's Man of the Match:

Jonathan Trott.... I mean Dean Moxey.

Photo: Action Images

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