A little help from the ref, and Cole sent packing

By: Tim | November 4th, 2008

After our first away win of the season at Palace, I had renewed hope for last Sunday’s trip to Pride Park. Strange things can happen at local derbies though, and boy, this was no different.

The first half is best forgotten in all honesty, but we didn’t start too badly and narrowly seemed to come out on top of what was a scrappy 45 minutes. Derby’s players seemed nervous and kept giving free-kicks away, had we been able to keep possession a little better then something might have come of that period. There was little to prepare us partisan supporters for the second half though.

Villa’s 55th minute own goal (although Garner tried to claim it) briefly meant we were on top, pity that we started to fall apart ten minutes later – the final nail in the coffin being McGugan’s red card for a studs-up challenge shortly after Villa had levelled the score at 1-1. Both managers later agreed that the sending off was a harsh decision, however, this highlights the fact that McGugan has still got some maturing to do. A player of his age should be fully aware that you can’t go in to a challenge like that, a yellow card would have been enough (obviously I’m biased), but knowing how strict referees are these days you just can’t get away with it.

After that it was pretty much all Derby as they threw everything they’d got at us. Steven Attwell (the ref who gave the ‘phantom’ goal at Watford) was up to the task though, after disallowing one goal and awarding a penalty instead (which Camp saved brilliantly to his right), he then disallowed another, seemingly perfectly legitimate goal in extra time. He claims that he saw a push, and looking back at the footage there is an ever so slight push on Breckin, but Derby have every right to feel aggrieved in my opinion. It takes a lot for me to say that, too.

Paul Jewell wasn’t very happy either: ‘He says he’s seen a push. I think he’s just guessing. Whoever says that’s not a goal shouldn’t be on the pitch refereeing, it’s 100% a goal. I’ve never felt as aggrieved in my life’. Calderwood had a mischievous grin on his face when he was interviewed after the match, he knew we’d gotten lucky with the result: ’Obvious push, there were probably three or four fouls in there. The referee judged the game really well. That’s twice we’ve had him and I’ve no complaints’.

On the balance of play I think a draw was a fair result, but then I would say that after surviving the last 20 minutes. We’ll get another shot at winning the Brian Clough trophy in February anyway.

In other news, Andy Cole has left the club by mutual consent. Talks were held between him and CC shortly after my last blog, but as I said then, the simple fact is that his legs aren’t up to the task. Shame really, as it was a slightly ignoble end to an illustrious career, but such is life.

Birmingham on Saturday – they are currently 2nd but they’ve lost their last two, so they’re not unbeatable. Breckin thinks we are getting there; hopefully we can build on the recent run we’ve carved out (4 points from 6) and have something to cheer about at the City Ground.