Gabriel's Away Diaries: Derby

I missed Birmingham's 4-0 defeat at Leeds last Sunday - only one meaning to the word ‘missed’ in this case. I figured I hadn’t quite suffered enough watching Blues lately, so I booked my tickets for Derby. A trip to Pride Park is one of my favorite away days on the calendar. Not too far, the locals are usually quite friendly, and there’s that pleasant walk along the canal to the ground.

I say that, but the main reason I like Derby away is probably that every time I’d been, we have won. I fondly remember my first time there. It was a similar time of year, about October, and Steve Bruce was under a lot of pressure. On the Tuesday night before, we had lost 1-0 at home to Norwich after a sequence of poor results. St Andrews was a horrible place to be that night, as a few boos, and premature chants of ‘Bruce Out’ began to filter around the ground.

So I went to that game very nervous, although me and my dad were in full support of Steve Bruce. I’ll always remember one idiot at the back trying to start a Bruce Out chant at 0-0, and some bloke behind me shouting:

“Sing your own fookin’ songs!”

We got a winner towards the end, as Stephen Clemence hit a shot from far out, it deflected off the back of a Derby player and seemed to take an age to go in. A massive three points. We then went on about a ten match unbeaten run, and got promoted that season. Happy days.

I headed off for New Street a little bit worried about the game, with Derby looking strong so far under Steve McClaren. It is easy to pick on McClaren for his failure with England, but he did well at Middlesbrough, FC Twente and had been assistant manager to Ferguson at United. He has a lot of experience, still a reasonably young manager – I think he’ll learn from his time with England. In any case, Derby were the league’s joint-top scorers and thirteen places above ourselves, so much to be concerned about. 

After a crushed 40 minute train journey of standing, I arrived in Derby for one o’clock. I’ve always thought Derby is generally a nice place. A lot of the home fans seemed quite friendly - they're northern enough to be happy to talk to away fans, but not so northern that you’re worried about your personal safety! The town itself had very much a post-industrial feel, the pub I stopped at looked like it might have been an old mill or something.

I got myself a bottle of beer and stood outside, chatting to a few fans. I probably wouldn’t describe myself as your typical ‘Brummie lad’, and one thing I’ll never understand about football fan culture is the obsession with drinking! I barely managed to finish one bottle of beer after an hour of tentative sips, whilst others next to me were probably spending more time queuing for another one at the bar than actually drinking it!

Anyway, after a while I made my way towards the bridge and over the river bank. Surprisingly there weren’t that many football fans walking by the river, most must have walked through town, but it was really quiet. It had the feel of a walking trip, rather than going to a football match. I stopped at the burger van along the way, as the man serving asked me:

“Whose your owner now, is it still the Golds?”

If only.

The noise built as I turned right onto the roundabout and neared the stadium, a rendition of ‘Keep Right On’ grew louder, I got to my seat with plenty of time for kick-off.

In the first half, Derby were much the better team. Their movement was superb, and passed it around well for such a young side. Nigel Clough did do a good job at Derby revamping the youth academy, and on that evidence they looked more than capable of reaching the play-offs. In the centre Elliott and Reilly were getting a little bit overrun against Derby’s midfield trio, who pressed them both back into a more defensive role. Our game plan quickly became ‘lump it to Zigic’, because we didn’t have the numbers in midfield to have much of the ball and dictate play.

When their kid Will Hughes played a ball over the top for the number nine Chris Martin, (who was declared fit after having just left Coldplay), I took a inhale of breath. It was only two minutes in, and if he had scored, another Leeds was probably on the cards. Thankfully a great stop from Randolph saved us, and Dan Burn desperately cleared it off the line. I was impressed with Burn. He won a lot of the headers and there was a massive improvement from his poor performances against Bolton and Leeds.

But Derby dominated, and a mistake from Paul Caddis allowed them to cut in down our right, and after a bit of a scramble, their forward Jamie Ward volleyed it in. He stupidly celebrated his goal in front of us, provoking a few ‘gestures’, and rightfully so. It annoys me when footballers celebrate in front of the opposition fans – there’s no need. A mistimed tackle for their goal topped a bad day for Caddis. Whenever he got the ball on the right he could never seem to hold onto it, only ever clearing his lines when a short pass to Callum Reilly was available. Caddis hasn’t looked quite as confident as he did last season, when he would just run at defenders and attack the flank.

When losing, an injury to Chris Burke is never good news, and on came academy graduate Demarai Gray. A lot of people on social media seem to be saying he did well, but I get the feeling that comes with a hint of bias, for wanting someone from the youth system to do well. I thought he struggled to adapt physically, was barged off the ball a lot of times. At 17, he still has a lot of developing to do.

Considering they were treated to a lot of good football, the Derby fans weren’t vocal at all. Having had the fourth highest attendance in the Championship last season, I at least expected the block of Rams fans next to us to be in good voice. They hardly made a sound all game, making the persistent drummer’s job a little bit hollow. Whereas, when their fans briefly teased us about the goal, we responded with typical Blues humour: “you’re nothing special, we lose every week.”

Into the second half, we worked a lot harder without the ball to deny Derby any chances. Credit to the players for the effort. After back-to-back defeats, and 1-0 down against a good, possession side, it would have been easy to cave in. But a high ball over the top found substitute Novak, he finished really well with his first touch.

I wanted to say to him: “come on mate, who are you and what have you done with Lee Novak?”

Everything about that finish went against my thoughts on his playing ability. Because his shooting had been so poor, I was expecting him to buckle under the pressure and either have too heavy a first touch, or mishit the shot. But the confidence he took the goal with was staggering, and if he starts banging them in now, a slice of humble pie is required on my part.

We were holding on at the end. Derby had a couple of free-kicks, which I had a horrible feeling would go in, but we survived the pressure and came away with a draw.

The train back was filled with happy Bluenoses who sang for most of the journey. Starting with: “we’ve come to Derby and we’ve taken a point” to pointing and singing ‘Russell Brand’ at a man with long, black hair, who was now looking a rather embarrassed, and then of course a final rendition of ‘Keep Right On’ as we marched triumphantly through New Street. Overall, it was a pretty good day out. A nice town, it didn’t cost much at all on the train, but most importantly, it’s a welcome point towards keeping ourselves in this second tier.

This Tuesday night, it’s a different agenda as we play Stoke City in the cup. My prediction for this game depends a lot on how strong a team the managers put out. I’m sure Clark will go with his best players, but Stoke have got a tough, but important game against Southampton next week which Mark Hughes might want to rest a few for.

I would absolutely love it though, if we could reach the quarter-finals. It would give us all a reason to feel happy about our season, I would be really proud. And then who knows? The good thing about this competition is that the top clubs aren’t that bothered about it. It’s essentially a reserves game for teams like United and Chelsea, and that gives clubs like us a chance. If I was putting money on it, I would say that Stoke have a big enough squad to cope with our lot, who will be tired from a hard shift against Derby. But I’m not and I thought that about the Swansea game - look what happened? Stoke haven’t scored many goals this season either, so I’ll back my boys in Blue to grind out a 1-0 win.