Derby County’s club-record-equalling run of home league wins has ended at the hands of Norwich City.
Borja Sainz hit a controversial hat-trick to end Derby’s one hundred percent home record - the ball appearing to go out of play in the build up to both his first and third goals.
On what was a very eventful afternoon for the officials, questions will also be asked over whether Corey Blackett-Taylor’s late consolation should have stood for the Rams, with James Collins arguably impeding goalkeeper Angus Gunn’s view whilst stood in an offside position.
Ultimately, what has been an exciting week for Derby County, with talk of investment ramping up, has ended in disappointment for the raucous home crowd – though not in their team’s performance.
Coming into the lunchtime kick-off, Paul Warne made a single enforced change, Craig Forsyth coming in for the injured Callum Elder to make his 300th league appearance in black and white.
While Norwich travelled to the East Midlands on a high, Johannes Hoff Thorup naming an unchanged XI following their 4-1 win at home to Watford.
Derby made a bright start with a good chance carved out inside two minutes. Jerry Yates moved out to the left flank and flicked the ball into Ben Osborn, he released Nathaniel Mendez-Laing whose outside-foot cross to the back post was side-footed wide by Kayden Jackson, who should have at least hit the target.
Jacob Widell Zetterstrom crucially came out of his goal to deny Josh Sargent when the Rams were temporarily down to ten, with Ebou Adams receiving treatment.
Mendez-Laing put a good cross to the edge of the box from a free kick on the left-hand side of the half-way line in the 25th minute; Eiran Cashin acrobatically played the ball over the top for Jerry Yates, who forced a reflex save from Angus Gunn before the flag went up.
As the first half entered five minutes of stoppage time, Eiran Cashin made a vital tackle to stop Sainz’s delivery reaching Sargent, who would have had a tap-in.
But Norwich would take the lead before half-time as Nunez robbed Mendez-Laing and slipped the ball through for Sargent, who cut it back from the right-hand side of the box for Sainz, who scored with a backheel.
The Spaniard had been Norwich’s biggest threat throughout the first half, firing just wide from the edge of the box following a corner, and forcing Zetterstrom to tip a looping effort over the bar. But there was no way the goal should have stood, with Sargent cutting the ball back from a foot out of play.
By the time the half-time whistle was blown, everyone in the stadium knew that the goal shouldn’t have stood, evidenced by the chorus of boos that the referees went down the tunnel to.
Derby started the second half the better of the two teams and scored a deserved equaliser on the hour. From a second corner in quick succession Mendez-Laing delivered the ball to Curtis Nelson at the back post, who headed it back across goal for Craig Forsyth to fire a low-drilled effort home. The earlier wrong had been corrected.
But the Rams’ relief would last all of five minutes before Borja Sainz scored again, finding the bottom corner after driving at Derby’s retreating central defenders and unleashing an effort from 18 yards.
When Jackson drilled a low cross in for Jerry Yates, it looked as though Derby had a chance to level once more. But the on-loan striker, who had substitute Tawanda Chirewa as an option to his left, failed to get a shot off.
Eiran Cashin shocked everyone in the stadium when he went inches away from a goal of the season contender, his first time effort from 35 yards rattling the crossbar.
Derby had a good chance to equalise with five minutes to play, Kayden Jackson winning a free kick in a near perfect position when he was brought down in a central area 25 yards out. But it soon went about as badly wrong as it could.
Kenzo Goudmijn and Tawanda Chirewa were stood over the ball. The latter hit it low, forcing Gunn into a save down to his right which saw the ball go out of play. However, the referee let the game continue, and Norwich launched a counter, culminating in Sargent whipping the ball in from the left for Sainz who completed his hat-trick with another low effort which went under Zetterstrom.
As the game entered second half stoppage time, a Norwich counter was halted by an inch perfect tackle and Derby quickly worked the ball down the left flank. Forsyth found substitute Corey Blackett-Taylor ahead of him, who cut inside two defenders and opened up his body to find the bottom right corner to set up a tense final six minutes, which Norwich would survive.
Analysis: A valiant display in difficult circumstances
Derby County will undoubtedly feel hard done by this evening, and who can blame them? They should have come away with at least a point, or arguably all three, but instead the Canaries travel back to East Anglia with all three points.
Ahead of the game, some fans had voiced concerns that Craig Forsyth would struggle coming back into the team for Callum Elder, who has been a revelation after a difficult first season at Derby. But as has happened so many times before, the 35-year-old slotted into the starting XI like he’d never left and rolled back the years by being at his creative best. Not only did Forsyth pop up with a goal and an assist but created the joint-highest number of chances of any player (three alongside Mendez-Laing).
Elsewhere on the pitch, Eiran Cashin was on top form. He won the most duels and made the most tackles and recoveries of any player on the pitch including some vital interventions to keep Derby in the game.
Ebou Adams may have gone down requiring treatment four times, but you wouldn’t have known it. The Gambian International covered ground with so much energy that you could be forgiven for thinking it was limitless. With a couple of big challenges won too, it was another of the warrior-like displays that endeared him to fans initially as a loan player.
Even having lost, though, this was another game which showed why Derby County Football Club is an attractive investment for many parties. Yet again, the Rams have gone toe-to-toe with an established Championship club whilst operating on a shoestring budget – per transfermarkt.com, Norwich’s net transfer spend this summer was more than five times that of Derby’s excluding sell-on fees.
Spurred on by the injustice of the opening goal, the noise of the flock was deafening at times in the second half as they roared their side back into the game. Who wouldn’t want to invest in that?
Derby (4-3-3): Zetterström (GK); Nyambe (Wilson 69’), Nelson, Cashin, Forsyth; Adams (Blackett-Taylor 81’), Goudmijn, Osborn (Chirewa 69’); Jackson, Yates (Collins 81’), Mendez-Laing (C) (Harness 69’).
Substitutes not used: Vickers (GK), Bradley, Phillips, Brown.
Norwich (4-3-3): Gunn (GK); Fisher (Stacey 78’), Duffy, Córdoba, Doyle (Hanley 88’); Núñez, McLean (C), Schwartau (Slimane 59’); Crnac (Chrisense 78’), Sainz (Amankwah 88’), Sargent.
Substitutes not used: Long (GK), Gordon, Hills, Forsyth.
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