Derby looked every inch the side that hasn't won in seven and who were below us in the table prior to kick-off. Unfortunately, even with them down to ten men for 80 minutes we couldn't scrape a draw. We simply weren't good enough from back to front and offered far too little attacking ambition to really have expected to get anything from the game. Two-one flattered us a little.
Behind the headlines, of course, there are simple facts that we have a threadbare squad and continue to be hit by injuries which are forcing the player selections for Lee Bowyer. Lyle Taylor was on the bench from the off which meant Bonne was once again playing a lone furrow up front. Doughty was his nominal strike partner but in reality he played on the left wing.
Derby's tactics from the outset were very obvious - hurt Conor Gallagher. Kristin Bielik managed to get himself red-carded for a terrible challenge and others took their turn to try to stop Gallagher playing after that. The unfortunate part about Derby going down to ten men was that they were already one-up courtesy of a goal-line scramble after Phillips had parried a Waghorn stab up and across the face of goal. Indeed, Derby might have scored in the opening minute if Phillips hadn't pulled off a replica of his stop against Nakhi Wells the other week.
After that we saw plenty of the ball but for the most part we passed it around the back-line and up and down to the midfield. Eventually ambling forward with little conviction and quickly losing possession and retreating to start all over again. As if that wasn't bad enough, Macauley Bonne then started limping and was withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring pull that will likely see him join the missing list for a few weeks. Lyle Taylor was brought on which disproved my theory pre-match that he wasn't being started to avoid any injury that would scupper his transfer.
We simply didn't do enough quickly enough in the second-half to threaten an equaliser and when Derby finally had another five minutes of pressure they put the game to bed with their second goal. Gallagher went down for a cheap penalty which Taylor converted but it was all too little too late. Josh Davison and Ben Matthews came on for Sarr and Oshilaja as if to emphasise the youth and fragility of the options left available to Bowyer.
It was a bad night at Black Rock and we have more of the same to face again on Thursday. Not sure I can even bring myself to suffer it on TV. Luckily we only have the pointless F A Cup this weekend, so another ten days rest for the wounded after Swansea before West Brom will return with their A team in the league and we will need to be able to put up a better side and play more like a team once more if we are to avoid a third or fourth successive defeat after the mini-revival pre-Christmas.
Regardless of injuries and takeover/no takeover, Bowyer needs funds and quickly in January.
Behind the headlines, of course, there are simple facts that we have a threadbare squad and continue to be hit by injuries which are forcing the player selections for Lee Bowyer. Lyle Taylor was on the bench from the off which meant Bonne was once again playing a lone furrow up front. Doughty was his nominal strike partner but in reality he played on the left wing.
Derby's tactics from the outset were very obvious - hurt Conor Gallagher. Kristin Bielik managed to get himself red-carded for a terrible challenge and others took their turn to try to stop Gallagher playing after that. The unfortunate part about Derby going down to ten men was that they were already one-up courtesy of a goal-line scramble after Phillips had parried a Waghorn stab up and across the face of goal. Indeed, Derby might have scored in the opening minute if Phillips hadn't pulled off a replica of his stop against Nakhi Wells the other week.
After that we saw plenty of the ball but for the most part we passed it around the back-line and up and down to the midfield. Eventually ambling forward with little conviction and quickly losing possession and retreating to start all over again. As if that wasn't bad enough, Macauley Bonne then started limping and was withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring pull that will likely see him join the missing list for a few weeks. Lyle Taylor was brought on which disproved my theory pre-match that he wasn't being started to avoid any injury that would scupper his transfer.
We simply didn't do enough quickly enough in the second-half to threaten an equaliser and when Derby finally had another five minutes of pressure they put the game to bed with their second goal. Gallagher went down for a cheap penalty which Taylor converted but it was all too little too late. Josh Davison and Ben Matthews came on for Sarr and Oshilaja as if to emphasise the youth and fragility of the options left available to Bowyer.
It was a bad night at Black Rock and we have more of the same to face again on Thursday. Not sure I can even bring myself to suffer it on TV. Luckily we only have the pointless F A Cup this weekend, so another ten days rest for the wounded after Swansea before West Brom will return with their A team in the league and we will need to be able to put up a better side and play more like a team once more if we are to avoid a third or fourth successive defeat after the mini-revival pre-Christmas.
Regardless of injuries and takeover/no takeover, Bowyer needs funds and quickly in January.
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