Derby County 0 Millwall 1 - e-Football Report

Article by e-Derby Correspondent Chris Harrison

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A Paulo Wanchope return to Pride Park wasn’t enough to inspire Derby to collect the 3 points. Derby failed to match the drive and energy that the former Derby stars team would produce regularly during his time in a rams shirt. A frustrating afternoon for Derby County as a game they dominated in possession, failed to produce any clear chances in front of goal. A game that Derby should have won resulted in defeat after a 61st minute Steve Morison goal.

Derby started the game with 3 changes from the side that started at Burnley a week ago. Conor Sammon, came in for the suspended Chris Martin and had to force his way into the game due to the lack of service from the midfield. Craig Bryson came in for John Eustace who provided Derby with lots of energy in the early stages. The 3rd change was Patrick Bamford, who started in place of Johny Russell who had to settle for a place on the bench.

Derby started brightly with lots of fast tempo attacking play but failed to make the early domination count. Corner after corner was the reward for Derby’s attacking play but they failed to trouble David Forde’s goal. The Lions grew in confidence as the first half went on but failed to create any real chances themselves.

Derby looked to start the second half as they did they first but again failed to create a clear cut chance. Millwall caught Derby napping on the hour, a quick free kick that lead to a cross from the left, on to the head of the Scotland striker Morison. The Rams never recovered from this with chances from Ed Upson and Steve Morison failing to beat the improving Lee Grant. Derby tried to get back into the game by bringing on the attacking threat of Johny Russell, Jamie Ward and Mason Bennett.

The match was at times reduced to farcical circumstances with time wasting from the goalkeeper Forde, who was shown a yellow card. There were also several innocuous injuries to Ian Holloway’s players that resulted in 7 minutes injury time being played.

With Derby’s next game at home to Bolton on Tuesday night a huge improvement in performance and a bigger effort to create chances will need to be shown.

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