Were we all getting carried away or did the Rams just get beaten by a bigger, tougher and more determined side on the day? Let’s hope it was the latter!

Millwall 2 vs. 0 Derby County

Saturday 23rd October 2010 15:00

The New Den

Bermondsey - London

Referee: G. Salisbury

Crowd: 12,024 ( icluding 1,090 Travelling Rams)

Teams:

Millwall: Forde, Dunne, P Robinson, Trotter, Schofield, Henry (Hackett 90), Barron, Mkandawire, Morison, T Robinson (Abdou 77), Shittu (Ward 78) 

Substitutes: Mildenhall, Craig, Lisbie, Marquis

Goalscorers: Morison (11), T Robinson (49)

Derby County: Fielding, Brayford, Barker, Leacock, Moxey (Roberts 87), Bailey, Savage (Cywka 63), Green, Commons, Bueno (Moore 63), Kuqi

Substitutes: Atkins, Anderson, Doyle, Pringle

Yellow Cards: Bueno

Match Report by I.Saw:

Millwall via South Bermondsey, London Bridge, Purity’s Mad Goose times a few, an Italian at Carluccio’s, Kings Cross and Grantham. Sometimes it’s the via’s that count. No such joy those on the buses, the police escort gets them to the ground with barely minutes to spare.

At the Den, Derby disappoint, Bueno and Commons see little of the ball and make even less of what they see. Green casually competes whilst Savage and Bailey fulfil the role of holding midfielder admirably or they would if they could hold.

Up front Kuqi is alone against Danny Shittu, two man mountains moving together, ours has the lesser footfall.

At the back Barker is a pale shadow of his former self and Leacock seems strangely elsewhere at least in his positioning. Brayford and Moxey get forward at every opportunity only to find space closed down and options limited.

Welcome to the Den and whilst the Rams like a rabble of butterflies flit and flutter, the home side brush us off, wave us away and comfortably oh so comfortably go about tying up the points.

Goal number one a lofted strike from twenty five yards that sails into the back of the net, Fielding leaps like a caterpillar or crashes like one to the floor as the ball floats five foot above the prone keeper.

A wonder goal from Morison, yes you could argue that. You could also wonder why he wasn’t closed down or wonder why the keeper was so far away from the shot.

Shooting ourselves in the foot seems to be a pastime we excel at. Early second half and Morison is shepherded out to the touchline, or so it appears.

A second wind of speed leaves Leacock strolling and when the cross comes in. Barker slips before jumping and can only look up from the turf as Theo Robinson unmarked gleefully powers home his header.

We make changes two up front, Moore joins in and Cywka adds a little. On the terraces we have little to applaud.

The final whistle and we can go. Not for a pee though the toilets have overflowed, which if nothing else adds substance to the song "I Wanna Go Home".

Managers Reaction:

Nigel Clough did the maths when speaking to the Official Site after the match:

"It was disappointing to see the run end, but I think a lot of effort had gone into the last six games and it left us a little bit short today on energy”. 

"I don't think it was a bad, bad performance and Millwall should have a lot of credit for the way they played. They closed us down and stopped us playing the way we like to, and our final ball was frustrating because we got into some decent positions at times”. 

"The message to the players, and the fans, is 'lets start another run'. In the Championship - as we all have to learn - everyone loses games and as hard as it is to take in the aftermath of a defeat, you have to get on with it, accept it and move on to the next game”. 

"What is most important now is that we learn from this run and the good and bad points we can take from it, for both our younger players who are gaining experience and our senior players too”. 

"It is vital we get back on it now and with two home games coming up in the next two weeks we want to get a few more positive results and move back up the table."

"Six points from nine is a brilliant return. I am sure before this week everyone would have taken a win and two draws which would have been five points, so we are a point ahead in that respect”.

"In some ways, it is better winning two and losing one than winning one and drawing two".

Brayford reaction:

Defender John Brayford was also on hand to speak about his teams disappointing display:

"The run was always going to come to an end and it was just unfortunate that it happened at Millwall because we felt we could get a result against them”.

"You have to earn the right to play your football, and to be fair we didn't play as much as we have been doing in the last few weeks. Like we didn't get carried away with the victories, nor will we because we've lost a game”.

"I think the Doncaster game took a lot out of us, although I suppose it is easy to say that after losing but it has been a challenging week especially after the intensity of the game at Doncaster”.

"We have two home games coming up now against Watford and Portsmouth and given our recent form at home we have to be confident and we know we can bounce back”.

"A week to build up to the game will be nice to freshen up our legs and I'm sure we will be ready to go by the time we kick off against Watford".

Next Match:

Derby County vs. Watford

Saturday 30th October

3pm - Pride Park Stadium

Derbyshire

Photo: Action Images

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