Derby match – Against Team based Over 110 Miles Away!
Tonight’s game at the Mazuma Stadium should have been played on Saturday, 10th September but was postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
If the game had been played as originally scheduled, this would have been Derby County’s five thousandth Football League match. The club was founded so long ago that they actually predate the Football League itself. When the latter venerable institution was created in 1888 – four years after the Rams first saw the light of day – Derby was a founder-member. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, County could be found in the upper reaches of the old First Division. They won the FA Cup in 1946 but by the time legendary Brian Clough arrived at the club in 1967, they were plying their trade in the Second Division. They immediately won promotion and in 1972 went on to end up First Division title winners as well. Three years later, with legendary ex-club Captain and Scottish international Dave McKay in charge, they were Champions of England once again.
But since then, Derby’s has been a Downward Spiral more often than not. Off the field, financial problems have repeatedly plagued the club since the 1980s to the present day. In January this year – when the Rams were still in the Championship – they were estimated to owe the HMRC alone a quite eye-watering thirty million pounds and more than this figure again to a host of other creditors.
Morecambe, by comparison, are also no strangers to money worries – as is the case currently as the present owners have put the club up for sale. Other than that, the Shrimps have never competed in the Premier League; come top of the highest Division in English domestic football; won the FA Cup or competed in any European trophy competition. But they have never been relegated either and their upward progress since the 1970s as Derby was entering its heyday has been steady and unrelenting. So meeting Derby County tonight was a historical event for both sides involved – for totally different reasons. The fact that the Shrimps hosted the Rams tonight as equals in the first ever meeting between the two clubs tells anyone interested both how far Morecambe have progressed – and how far the once-mighty County have fallen.
Derby arrived in seventh place in League One on the back of two wins, a single draw and two losses in their last five league games. Their latest win came at home against Bristol Rovers last Saturday, where the Rams were 3-0 up after twenty-five minutes but ended the first half – and finally the match – 4-2 to the good.
Prior to the game which was postponed because of the death of the Monarch, Rams’ then Boss Liam Rosenior had said:
“It will be a big challenge for us. Morecambe can play with a back five or a back four, which they used in their last match against Bristol Rovers. I want every match, whether we are home or away, to be about us and our standards and performance. That is the message to players and we have a really good group here, on and off the field. It is all about us. It is special for me to be at this club anyway, but to be in charge for the 5,000th league match is a great feeling. It is a great landmark to hit and another reminder to myself and the players of the magnitude of the club we are working for. I hope we can mark the occasion with three points on Saturday.”
His replacement – ex-Rotherham Manager Paul Warne – is a smart chap, even if the extraordinary bobble hat he routinely wears would suggest otherwise . He explained his strategy for the next few games in these words before the match:
“If we can go and win against Morecambe, it takes us into a month of away fixtures where we can pick up points and come back and have a good December. We just need to try and average two points a game, that’s how I see it. If you average that over the season you are right up there. At the moment we are short of that for a few different reasons but hopefully we can start to perform at a level where we see that.”
His ex-Luton striker James Collins added:
“We’ve got to go into the game against Morecambe with the right mentality. They are obviously near the bottom of the league so if we go up there thinking it’s going to be an easy game then we’ve got it all wrong. It’s a tough place, I’ve played there a few times and we need to put a run together now and try to catch that top six. Tuesday is our game in hand and that will put us into the top six if we win. That’s an incentive in itself.”
Our old favourite – Tom Barkhuizen – was unavailable for the Rams due to a hamstring problem. Midfielder Jason Knight plus defenders Kames Chester and Curtis Davies were also unavailable for selection due to long-term injuries and midfield supremo Conor Hourihane was suspended for this fixture.
Derek Adams made no bones about the enormity of the task facing his men tonight with these thoughts prior to the game:
“It’s a difficult fixture They’re ones who are trying to get automatically promoted back into the Championship. We understand the threats that they have. We understand the weaknesses they have as well. We’re going to have to be very good on the night.”
They were very good on a night which started damp and ended with torrential rain falling from the dark skies. Derby – dressed in their classic black and white kit – immediately went on the attack and the die was cast for the evening: they were quick, fluent and worked the ball well from front to back. But after just a minute, they should have been behind. Morecambe caught them on the break with a smart counter-attack which saw Kieran Phillips shake off the attentions of a Derby defender and bear down on Joe Wildsmith in the visitors’ goal. But the Derby goalkeeper stood his ground and managed to deflect Kieran’s attempt wide of the target. The match swept from end to end but the visitors had the next chance after six minutes. Korey Smith headed the ball forward to James Collins who then set-up his Skipper Max Bird to shoot from 20 yards out. Connor Ripley in the home goal was equal to it at the cost of a corner which came to nothing. Liam Shaw was only just unable to get on the end of a clever flick into the Rams’ penalty area by Ryan Delaney after almost ten minutes. Three minutes later, Adam Mayor – who was handful for the Derby defence all night with his mazy runs and direct approach play – did well to create space for himself and shoot but Wildsmith was again equal to it. With just over a quarter of an hour on the clock, David McGoldrick drew a fairly easy save from the home goalkeeper. Phillips then immediately went on a run just to the right of centre right down the pitch, weaving in and out of the away defence before unleashing a shot which was again well saved by the visiting goalkeeper. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing missed with a powerful effort after half an hour following a County corner. But a key moment of the match arrived in the thirty-second minute. Referee Marc Edwards always struggles to keep up with the play and tonight he simply guessed when he adjudged Anthony O’Connor to have brought down the unfortunately-named Lewis Dobbin in the Morecambe box. He whistled for a penalty: an appalling decision as Anthony clearly got the ball before the man went over his legs. The delightful James Collins – infamous for once tipping a beer glass full of his own urine over a balcony at Cheltenham Race Course – stepped-up to take it. But Shrimps’ Skipper Ripley dived low to his left and kept the ball out. So justice was done in the end. Moments after this, McGoldrick showed his frustration by chopping-down Ryan Cooney with a wild, angry foul fully deserving of a Red Card. But the weak official only proffered a Yellow. But still the match – always good to watch and with some nice touches by both sides – swept sometimes towards the massed ranks of Derby supporters and sometimes towards the packed home end instead.
In injury time, there was a bit of pin-ball in the away penalty area before Jensen Weir fairly walloped the ball home with a shot which went in off the post. So Derek Adams’ men returned to the Dressing Rooms at half time one goal up against the best League One team I have personally seen this season.
The visitors could – and should – have equalised right at the start of the second period. The ball pinged around the Morecambe penalty area virtually straight from kick-off and Collins fairly rattled the goal frame with a thunderbolt of a shot which bounced off the crossbar. The referee then blew his whistle for another penalty. I assumed this was for handball by a Morecambe player. But as nobody on the home team was booked, let alone sent off, his reason for making the award – and who was the guilty party – is not clear. Again, I suspect he simply guessed.
This time, McGoldrick took the spot-kick. And big Connor in the home goal chose to dive to his right this time and again managed to keep the ball out of the net once more. As the away crowd became suddenly totally silent, the match continued to follow the pattern of the first half. The Rams attacked and Morecambe continually caught them on the break. With almost an hour played, though, Derby finally equalised. Tricky and elusive winger Haydon Roberts made good progress down the County right, found Dobbin with a good pass for the ball to be played across to Louie Sibley, whose shot was deflected past a hapless Ripley by one of his own defenders. The game was pretty even after that but it seemed to me at least that the men in the red shirts had as good a shout for a penalty of their own after 69 minutes. But Mr Edwards – who was again miles away from the incident – chose not to blow his whistle on this occasion. The Referee was again the centre of controversy with 81 minutes on the clock. Morecambe were about to break away again just over the half way line in the Derby end of the field. Seeing his fellow defenders out of position, Eiran Cashin committed an appalling foul on substitute Dylan Connolly to stop this move dead in its tracks. He went straight through the back of him and made no attempt to play the ball. He should have got a straight red but once again, the useless man with the whistle only proffered a yellow. Is it one of the Laws of football that players who have just been relegated from the Championship can’t actually be sent off?
There were a couple more half-chances for both sides and the Ref clearly enjoyed the ego-trip that results from prancing right across the field to book Derek Adams for protesting too vociferously against another dodgy free-kick he had gifted Derby in a dangerous position near the end of the match. But what had always been a good game to watch – despite the inept performances of the clowns in the blue shirts – ended in what was probably a deserved draw.
The single point was enough to take the Shrimps above Forest Green Rovers on goal difference tonight. Derby, meanwhile, stayed in seventh, just two points adrift of the Play-Offs.
King Derek’s verdict at the end of the game was:
“It was an excellent game tonight. I think it was end-to-end from the start. It was non-stop: two teams going for it, passing really well; finding space between both defences and in midfield. It made the game really open. We started the game very well and we could have been further ahead.”
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (Y) (C); 4 Liam Gibson; 6 Ryan Delaney; 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau; 17 Caleb Watts (Y) (11 Dylan Connolly59’); 20 Liam Shaw; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Anthony O’Connor; 23 Kieran Phillips (9 Cole Stockton 73’); 25 Adam Mayor (8 Ousmane Fané 90’).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 5 Farrend Rawson; 14 Arthur Gnahoua; 18 Shane McLoughlin.
Derby County: 1 Joe Wildsmith; 3 Craig Forsyth; 6 Eiran Cashin (Y); 8 Max Bird (C); 9 James Collins: 10 David McGoldrick (Y) (23 William Osula 72’); 11 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (16 Liam Thompson 83’); 12 Korey Smith; 15 Haydon Roberts; 17 Louie Sibley; 18 Lewis Dobbin.
Subs not used: 21 Scott Loach; 19 Richard Stearman; 30 Kwaku Oduroh; 34 Jake Rooney.
Ref: Marc Edwards.
Att: 5,157 (loads from Derby – a fantastic turn-out on a wet and stormy night a long way from home.)
