 Tuesday, 27th Dec 2011 13:42 by Old One-Eye The curse of Clough continued for the ‘Damned United’ as Jamie Ward delivered the best Christmas gift for Rams fans – three points at the expense of the old enemy.
Derby County 1 vs. 0 Leeds UnitedMonday December 26thPride Park StadiumReferee Mr. Bates (Really?)
Attendance 33,010 (4,172 Tykes who sneaked across the border for their annual fruitless visit to the Home of Football)
The Teams
Derby County: Fielding, Brayford, Barker, Shackell, Roberts, Green, Bailey, Bryson, Ward, Ball (O'Brien 90’), Tyson (Robinson 65’). Unused Substitutes: Legzdins, B Davies, Priskin. Yellow Cards: Barker Goals: Ward (67’)
Leeds United: Lonergan, Kisnorbo, Brown, Becchio (Keogh 68), Clayton, Pugh, Lees (Connolly 42’), Snodgrass, White (Nunez 75’), McCormack, O'Dea. Unused Substitutes: Vayreyen, McCarthy. Yellow Cards: Becchio, Brown
Match Stats: Rams – Dirty Possession: 51% - 49% Shots On Target: 5 – 9 Shots Off Target: 7 - 6 Corners: 3 - 11 Fouls: 10 – 15 Most Fouls: Ball (2) - Snodgrass (3)
Old One-Eye’s Match Report: Normal Service Resumed as Rams Beat Leeds - Again. There are only two things that are certain in life, it is often said – Death and Taxes. To that should probably be added a third category to be numbered amongst life’s certainties – Derby County to beat Leeds United whenever and wherever they meet. Before today, The Rams had emerged victorious in four successive league encounters and a cup game to boot, but with Leeds flirting with the business end of the table and Derby a mere seven points clear of Forest and the rest of the relegation fodder, United would have felt confident of breaking their losing sequence against God’s own team, even allowing for the fact that they had only a single point to show for recent games against Watford and Reading. The ‘officials’, for want of a better word, were led by Tony Bates, the man from Burslem, Stoke on Trent (a small town in Port Vale), whose career as a referee peaked in 2007 when he took charge of the Women’s FA Cup Final. Old One-Eye refuses to use Mr Bates’s name in a vain attempt to obtain a cheap laugh at his expense – his own performances bring their own brand of humour to proceedings which render additional comedy superfluous. Old Tony, younger brother of Leeds Chairman Ken, was born in 1961 and so is now in his sixth decade. He still, however, managed to look far younger than either of the men, laughingly known as his assistants, who shuffled arthritically up and down the touchlines; such is the power of referee-strength Grecian 2000 nowadays. We shall revisit the collective performance of the flag-wavers later. The Leeds United thousands were in loud, brash and confident mood – actually spending a day outside Leeds can have that effect on people, unless through some unfortunate sequence of events or a malfunctioning in-car Satellite Navigation System they actually end up in Barnsley, of course – but the 1:00 pm kickoff meant that some of them were, for the most part, almost sober. The official Leeds United Football Club website helpfully printed a picture of a seat together with simple instructions on how to use one (as opposed to their fans’ usual method of tearing them out and throwing them), and to be fair, seventeen United fans did eventually succeed in achieving the requisite posture, if only momentarily. It is thought that this is a record for the current season. Derby manager Nigel Clough had the luxury of being able to select from as near to a fully-fit first team squad as makes no difference, allowing for the permanent injury crisis that is Steve Davies, of course. At this point I have been instructed to make it clear to one and all that there is no truth in the rumour that Steve has recently suffered a severe scald from a lukewarm cup of coffee. The truth is that it is frostbite from his coming into momentary contact with a carelessly disposed-of Cornetto. Nathan Tyson finally made it into the starting line-up for the first time since his move from Nottingham Forest a decade or so ago, partnering young battering-Ram Callum Ball up front and with both sets of fans in fine voice, we were under way. The opening was frenetic with a number of fierce challenges, but to be fair the game lacked any real pattern for a quarter of an hour. Jamie Ward, looking more and more at home in the wide role, tore past Tom Lees and squared an inviting pass into the path of Tyson who drilled his shot straight at Andy Lonniedonegan in the United Goal. A few moments later, Ross McCormack picked up a loose ball for the visitors and fired a long range effort towards Derby’s goal, but Frank Fielding was able to turn it around the post. Ward was proving to be Leeds’ tormenter-in-chief at this stage and following good link-up play on the left, he cut inside and crashed an effort towards the net only to see the ball cannon off the inside of the upright and narrowly evade the outstretched foot of Tyson. Robert Snodgrass was doing his best to help the officials out throughout the first half, correcting them on the few occasions they actually got things right, and he shoved Gareth Roberts to the floor before cleverly diving over the Derby full-back’s prostrate body in order to win a free kick the position of which, over the next two minutes of discussion with the hapless officials, moved closer and closer to Derby’s goal. Neither referee nor assistant seemed willing to question Snodgrass’s authority. Once Snodgrass had manoeuvred the free kick within shooting range, he curled the ball towards the top corner but drew a fine save out of Fielding. From the resultant corner, Luciano Becchio should have given Leeds the lead. However, having spent the first half hour throwing himself to the ground whenever the referee looked vaguely in his direction, and to be fair the referee was looking vague enough in pretty well every direction, Becchio’s header was high, wide and far from handsome. Much like Becchio. Tom Lees, having been turned inside-out by Ward throughout a torrid first half, left the field in order to have some emergency origami, and he was replaced by former Ram Paul Connolly at right back. Leeds enjoyed their best spell of the game so far as the first half drew to a close, but by and large neither side had created enough clear-cut chances to claim that they deserved to be in front at the interval. The second half started with neither side sure whose turn it was to kick off, but eventually Snodgrass decided that it was United’s turn. Leeds continued where they had left off in the first half - equally on the offensive and just plain being offensive - and Becchio finally found himself in the referee’s notebook following a dangerous challenge on Jason Shackell as the Rams centre half tried to shield the ball back to Fielding. The first real chance of the second period fell to Roberts, but his half-volley from the corner of the six yard box sliced horribly wide. Shortly afterwards Callum Ball, strong as an ox and very effective in his role of target-man, wriggled free of his marker but dragged his shot wide of the upright. Play was switching from end to end with bewildering speed, and after both Kisnorbo and Snodgrass missed with headers for the visitors, Derby finally wrested the initiative. Clough sent Theo Robinson into the fray in place of Tyson, and within two minutes the home supporters were sent into raptures. Following what must have been their third corner in as many matches, Craig Bryson made inroads towards the Leeds goal before laying a lovely pass into Jamie Ward’s path. Lonergan did well to block the first effort but the Derby winger clipped the rebound past the keeper and into the far corner of the net. Derby led against Leeds – normal service had been resumed. The last 20 minutes was almost totally one-way traffic. Leeds replaced Becchio with Andrew Keogh, but it was the introduction of Honduran international Ramon Nuñez that gave The Rams a whole heap of problems. Playing in the advanced midfield role, he threatened to unlock Derby’s beleaguered defence every time he received the ball as Leeds threw men forward in an increasingly desperate search for an equaliser. The last 15 minutes of the match belonged to Derby goalie Fielding. With the home defence lashing increasingly desperate clearances in the general direction of Ball or Row Q, Leeds carved out chance after chance. The first fell to Snodgrass whose swerving effort was turned aside before both McCormack and Keogh were denied in quick succession by quite brilliant stops. As normal time ebbed away, the referee acted smartly to grab a wild polythene bag which made its way onto the field of play, and in the process no doubt saved Steve Davies from certain suffocation. Nuñez produced a delightful chip towards the top corner which Fielding acrobatically turned over, and finally when the Rams keeper was beaten, John Brayford was on hand to clear the ball off the line. Derby finally got a toe in, won possession and Robinson and Ward killed vital seconds down towards the Leeds United corner flag before Mr Bates brought proceedings to a close, much to the relief of the majority of Derby’s second capacity crowd of the season. In fairness, Leeds’ spirited display in the last 20 minutes probably deserved some reward, but where’s the fun in people getting what they deserve in this life, especially the Dirties? In addition, that would have been cruel on Frank Fielding who thoroughly earned his first clean sheet in over three months. Old One-Eye's Man of the Match Frank Fielding – a series of stunning saves to preserve The Rams lead.
Manager’s Reaction Nigel Clough was feeling the spirit of the season: "That was the perfect Christmas present and I thought we deserved it, Leeds threw absolutely everything at us late on but we dealt with it well.” "We knew if we were going to get a result today we would have to match Leeds physically and play some good stuff on top of that, and we did.” "We were very good indeed in the first half and produced it in the second half too although we did have some more defending to do as time went on - and our goal was a superb finish from Jamie Ward." "It was a real team performance today, which stands out above everything else. We had a lot of good players out there rather than outstanding individuals - and the team ethic shone through." "The clean sheet was so important for everyone and it was probably the most important aspect to come out of the game. It's been a long time coming but we've shown in recent weeks we've been keeping it fairly tight, so it has been on the cards.” "Frank Fielding was in top form today in goal, he made some fine reaction saves to keep the clean sheet and that will do him the world of good. The fans played their part; they were brilliant. They really got behind the players and they lifted us in the last 10-15 minutes when we really needed it.” "The Boxing Day game is always one to look forward to and people have shelved out their money again to come and watch us. I don't think they will have been disappointed with the performance and the result."
Defeater Of The Damned Reaction Jamie Ward thinks the Rams are on the way up: "Some people may be surprised we've got this result but we've shown in the past we're more than capable of mixing it with the best in this division. We've beaten two of the three teams that have come down from the Premier League this season, so that says enough about the team we have here.” "We're going in the right direction and that's the main thing. “It's a great win - even more so for the fans because, as players, we know about the rivalry between the two clubs.” "To get the three points was just brilliant. It was a great team performance and everyone played their part, from back to front."
Next Match:Derby County vs. West Ham United1pm – Saturday December 31stPride Park StadiumPhoto: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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