Derby day (or night)

By: Tim | January 26th, 2009

Earnshaw forces a replay with this strike A match once described by Joe Kinnear as ‘just another game’, the 81st East Midlands derby had added spice due to the plethora of players and managers swapping different ends of the A52 over the past season or two. Although he has been at Burton for the past decade I’m sure Nigel Clough’s loyalties were split, simply due to the years he spent with us, both as a supporter and a player. He denies it though, claiming that Derby is ‘in his blood’.

Pity that Billy Davies couldn’t make the match in the end, due to his son having an operation on Thursday, then again, he would have been livid with the first half performance we turned in. After a cagey opening 10 minutes the tide swung in favour of Derby – time and again Bazarite beat Lynch on the right side to send in a cross, the only wonder was that it took Derby 36 minutes to capitalise on this weakness when Hulse eventually latched on to a dummy and couldn’t miss from all of 10 yards out.

My guess is that Lynch wasn’t fully fit, he has been ruled out of our next game after a recurrence of his back problem. Assistant coach David Kelly subbed him at half-time, pushing Chris Cohen in to the back four and bringing Garath McCleary on in his place. The plan worked too, after starting the second-half brightly Earnshaw was on hand in the 64th minute with an almost exact copy of the Derby goal – Tyson dummied it for our top scorer to hit home from 10 yards.

Aside from a couple of late chances for the Rams, and a gilt-edged opportunity for Commons only moments after coming on as a sub, we looked much the better team in the second-half. On the balance of play I think 1-1 was a fair result, Smudge played particularly well to deny Derby in the latter stages. Highlights are available to watch here, the replay will be played a week on Wednesday, with the winners getting a tasty home tie to Manchester United.

One unfortunate outcome of the Derby match is the injury to Paul Anderson, which looked fairly horrific at the time. He fractured his forearm and dislocated his wrist, according to the BBC website he’s going to be out for 6 weeks. On the plus side we should have Big Wes back for tomorrow night’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday at the City Ground, he missed the Derby match due to his son being ill with pneumonia.

In ex-manager related news, click here to watch a trailer for ‘The Damned United’ starring Michael Sheen. The film is based on David Peace’s book of the same name, which charts Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United in 1974. I’m usually sceptical about films adapted from a book but it looks like Sheen does a good job of capturing Old Big ‘Ead. It’s out on March 27th. Calderwood has landed a job amongst the coaching staff at Newcastle United too, a job he may combine with a part-time position as head coach of the Faroe Islands. I can’t help but feel sorry for Newcastle’s fans to be honest, ending up with not one but two of our ex-managers on their books, not to mention Dennis Wise.