Jack Bryan is a football writer and life long Derby County supporter.
138 years to the day since their first, Derby travelled across the East Midlands to face Lincoln City in their 5,000th league game. Prior to kick-off, EFL CEO Trevor Birch presented Derby owner David Clowes with a trophy to mark the milestone.
Also before the game began, as happened in football grounds across the country, respects were paid to Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, with a minutes silence being observed before the National Anthem was played. Players and coaching staff also wore black armbands.
Liam Rosenior fielded four changes from the side that surrendered a two-goal lead as they lost to Plymouth ten days ago: Richard Stearman was dropped to the bench, Curtis Davies returning from injury, whilst Haydon Roberts, Lewis Dobbin and Birthday Boy Louie Sibley came in for Craig Forsyth, Tom Barkhuizen and David McGoldrick.
Derby had the first chance of the game, James Collins getting something on Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s sixth minute cross, to test goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, for the first time. However it was the hosts who would take the lead, Jack Diamond finding the bottom left corner from the spot after Jason Knight brought him down.
Not for the first time this season, James Collins had a goal disallowed for offside finding the far bottom corner with a tidy finish on the turn in the eighteenth minute. Soon after, a Jason Knight cross was flicked on by Lewis Dobbin to Conor Hourihane, whose volley was saved. But it wasn’t until the fortieth minute that there was more significant goalmouth action.
After Sibley’s effort from the edge of the box, the ball hit a Lincoln defender and found Jason Knight. The number 38’s volley was just tipped behind with a great reaction save by Rushworth, who had been linked with the Rams before moving to Sincil Bank on loan from Brighton.
Derby made a double change eight minutes after the restart, Tom Barkhuizen and David McGoldrick replacing Lewis Dobbin and Louie Sibley. From this point began a thrilling period of play.
Eiran Cashin went into the book for a bad tackle on Ben House, and Lincoln won a free kick on the edge of the Derby box. The ball was crossed from the right hand side and Paudie O’Connor headed narrowly wide. Next, a good Derby counter: Nathaniel Mendez-Laing bursting down the right and finding Barkhuizen at the back post.
Rushworth did well to deny the substitute, before Lincoln went up the other end, and Joe Wildsmith got down low to push Ben House’s shot away.
A minute or so later, Mendez-Laing was the victim of a cynical foul from Sean Roughan, who was booked. From the subsequent free kick, Hourihane whipped the ball onto the head of Curtis Davies, but O’Connor headed the Derby captain’s effort off the line.
Four minutes after the hour mark, a short corner was played to Haydon Roberts, whose deep cross found Mendez-Laing at the back post. Rather than nod it back across goal, the winger headed goal-wards, but his effort lacked power and was saved by Rushworth.
Mendez-Laing had what would have been an equaliser ruled out for offside halfway through the second half, the Rams’ second disallowed goal of the game. From this point, Lincoln went up the other end and doubled their lead through House, who fired a lose ball into the net to kill the game off, earning the Imps all three points in the first league meeting between the sides since 1986.
Despite having chances and dominating possession, seeing just over two thirds of the ball, Derby didn’t do enough with it (I copy and paste that after almost every game at the moment). Curtis Davies summed it up perfectly in a post-match interview: “There’s no excuse, it was sloppy.” As well as describing a lot of Derby’s issues throughout the match as “self-inflicted”.
Liam Rosenior said that his side’s performance was “Littered with individual errors.” The manager is trying to implement a style of play that he sees as a long term investment in the future of the club, and cited “So many games where we could’ve scored the first goal, haven’t scored the first goal, and then we’re chasing the game.” He also said that Derby “should have come away with at least a point” considering the chances they had. He is right, in fact the Rams are the only side in the EFL who are yet to score a league goal away from home this season. Something has to change on this front if Derby are to kick on.
It also felt to me like the balance in midfield was off. As Plymouth did in a game Rosenior said “was a wakeup call,” Lincoln managed to supress the midfield duo of Max Bird and Conor Hourihane, who made 45 and 61 passes respectively out of the team total 652, many of which were between the defenders and goalkeeper. Whilst there is undoubtedly quality in the midfield, it lacks a bit of bite. The energy that someone like Jason Knight brings has been missed in the last couple of games, as well as he has done filling in at right back.
The performance was really poor, but League One was never going to be easy. What Derby need, and this is another thing that has been written many times over the past couple of years, is a Plan B. As nice as the style of football Rosenior wants his side to play can be, they must have a back up plan for when things aren’t going their way.
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