Middlesbrough, A1, A168, A19, A66, a long drive quickly taken. Park pound land style, £1 all day a bargain.
Visit the Doctor. Doctor Brown’s the pub that is.
Otter bitter lubricates whilst we watch Leeds losing on the big screen. Switching over, Man City are winning as we are regaled by John’s story about his gorgeous cat from Boston (Lincolnshire not America) which "only cost the same as a season ticket” (and not the cheap seats either) by his wife’s logic.
More Derby fans arrive before the disco belts out Ska classics such as ‘Lip Up Fatty’ and ‘Mirror in the Bathroom’. It’s a good start.
A short walk, The Riverside Stadium, more empty red seats than filled. As the teams run out the banner proclaims; "Middlesbrough our club, our team, our Teesside”, catches the eye. It seems a lightweight statement to say the least.
Ten minutes gone, Jake Buxton a tank, Jeff Hendrick a JCB digging deep, Patrick Bamford gives butterfly kisses.
Football in black and white. We are the better team.
Thirty, we are playing safe possession football, we create little though, our butterfly flutters around, pretty to watch but that’s it. Boro come into the game they win corner after corner, we defend well enough.
Half time, goalless, two shots on target for The Rams total.
Second half and the Smoggies up their pace. They close us down, they get in our faces. They play football and we let them. They are the Duracell bunnies, we aren’t.
Bamford gets booked for persistent landing on a buddleia; err sorry fouling, if you can’t brush off a butterfly what is the world coming too?
A change, Sammon warming up, bye bye Bam… wait it’s Johnny who Russells off.
Our bald headed one plays left wing up against their bald headed one József Varga, it’s a no contest match, the Hungarian wins hands down.
The contrast between Chelsea starlets is wide too, Nathaniel Chalobah waltz’s through the Rams rearguard, Keogh lets him go and a low shot across both Wisdom and Grant, finds the back of the net. A simple goal and one that Middleborough thoroughly deserved.
And the changes keep on coming, Will Hughes for the butterfly and Lee Naylor for Thorne.
Naylor is deployed on the left wing and displays all the vroom of Gordon Guthrie’s Vauxhall Viva and should really be resting at Clarkies’ scrap yard. Not that it’s Naylor’s fault, after all if somebody, anybody, paid me to play football I’d jump at the chance, no doubt Lee’s the same. It doesn’t make it right though does it!?
The final whistle, we traipse away.
The one bright thing about today and only 15,000 at the Riverside is that getting out of the city is a doddle.
Oh well there’s always another game, now where’s that Wilcox — Hulse CD.
Derby Gaffer Steve McClaren:
"We were below-par and that's been very rare. We played at a low tempo and although I thought we bossed that game in terms of possession, we lacked the urgency, penetration and ruthlessness we usually show and we got punished for it - and you could see it coming."
"We are still in a good place and we have to get back to what we have been doing quickly and get results,"
Middlesbrough Manager Aitor Karanka:
"I'm delighted, we played very well against a good side who are trying to get into the play-offs. It shows everybody that when we play like a team, we can beat any team in this league. I have said this before.”
"We played well to beat Brighton last week and now to beat Derby, too. We worked very hard and we took one chance. The last four or five games at home, we have played well but now we are scoring goals and that means you can get positive results.”
Possession: 48% / 52%
Corners: 7 / 2
Shots (On Target): 11 (2) / 13 (3)
Fouls: 11 / 11
Referee: Andy Haines
Attendance: 15, 234
Derby County: Grant, Wisdom, Keogh, Buxton, Forsyth, Thorne (Naylor, 86), Bryson, Hendrick, Russell (Sammon, 60), Bamford (Hughes, 77), Martin.
Unused Subs:Legzdins (gk), O’Brien, Whitbread, Eustace.
Charlton Athletic: Konstantopoulos, Varga, Gibson, Omeruo, Friend, Chalobah, L Williams (Butterfield, 79), Leadbitter, Adomah (Main, 90+2), Tomlin (Ledesma, 59), Graham.
Unused Subs: Steele (gk), Kamara, Atkinson, Kitching.
Goals: Chalobah (69’)
Blackpool vs. Derby
Bloomfield Road
7:45pm — Tuesday 8h of April