Good away win at a good opponent who were made to look very ordinary indeed.
I would agree with those who say it was overall the best display of the season..only Barnsley at home would be comparable but we played better stuff today. Some good one touch moves opened them up & we pressed the life out of them without the ball. Really should have been further ahead but Barkhuizen missed a sitter early in second half that would have been a fairer scoreline at that stage. Nelson, Nyambe & Cashin were all absolute class but everyone worked hard
Bit nervy late on & was surprised by how late subs were but they never really looked like breaking through. Massive couple of games coming up & we should believe we're capable of winning both. COYR 💪🐏
If you want to complain about style of football, possession stats, xG, humour or bobble hats, go for it, however in the results business, our form since the Stevenage game is stupendous.
Played 8
Won 7
Drawn 1
Lost 0
Scored 18
Conceded 3
Nice Article
It has gone past 10pm, Derby County have just lost to Crewe in the FA Cup and their head coach Paul Warne is in the background trying to explain to the media what happened.
Some of the players are starting to leave and nobody could have blamed Kane Wilson for wanting to slip out of the side door with them rather than face the prospect of an interview. But once he finally emerges to talk to DerbyshireLive, any fears that he is in a hurry are quickly extinguished. For the next 15 minutes, he is engaging company - as fun to talk to as it is to watch him play.
It is perhaps the reason why so many Derby fans have quickly taken to the wing-back whose brilliant cameo against Barnsley led the club's media team to post a video of his 'filthy' dribbling qualities.
"I saw that," he laughs. "But that's how it's always been for me. I like to entertain the fans, and being here and playing in front of 28 to 30,000 of them every week is a dream. There weren't that many on Tuesday night for the cup game, but you know what I mean don't you? My favourite thing to do is to try to entertain the fans. I love doing that and I kind of see that as my job.
"Obviously, you want to win games first and foremost, and the manager will always want me to do that as well. But hopefully, the way I play does help us. Playing football is what I love and I hope the fans can see that by how I play whether we win, lose or draw. I think every person in the stands as a kid would want to play for fun and that is what I do.
"But I am not oblivious to all the love from the fans. My family looks all the time and if I can build a relationship with them and take them where they want to go, then that would be beautiful."
It is certainly hard to disagree with Wilson's assessment of what he has brought to this Derby team since his move from Bristol City in the summer. Whether he has played as a wing-back, winger or a traditional full-back, the energy and drive to take players on is a natural instinct. That should come as no surprise given he played as a striker at an early age, but when he moved to West Brom they recognised his ball-carrying ability lent itself to playing in a wider role that brought with it defensive responsibilities.
He made such an impression that he was taken to Austria with the senior squad at just 16. The manager at the time, Tony Pulis, wanted him to learn the position of full-back, and at that stage it seemed that he was on course to being considered a long-term first-team prospect. But while he was on loan at Exeter City to help with his education, Pulis was sacked. Alan Pardew came in and, as is so often the case when there is a change in manager, there were ramifications to deal with.
"West Brom wanted me to be a centre-back at first because I was kind of big and I was good on the ball," he says. "But equally I was also really good at running with the ball too. They then put me into midfield until I was about 12 or 13 and then my mum and dad got pulled into the academy head office. They were told that they wanted to fast-track me into the first team at 16.
"At the time West Brom had players like Darren Fletcher, Claudio Yacob and some big midfielders but they didn't have a right back. They were like he's obviously good at dribbling, he can defend, can we put him there? I was fine with that if I could get to the first team, and a year-and-a-half later, I was on the plane to Austria at 16. Pulis told me that he wanted me to learn the position. so I was loaned out to Exeter at 17. While I was there he then got the sack.
"When I came back, everything had changed. It is pot-luck sometimes. Alan Pardew came in and I don't think he knew my name because I was out on loan. I came back in January and trained for a week but he was never going to call on me because he was fighting for his job in the Premier League. I then went back out on loan again because I don't like coasting. If I hadn't, I would have been in the stands."
Spells at Walsall and Tranmere followed before Wilson eventually left on a permanent move to Forest Green Rovers. There he would become an integral figure under Rob Edwards, now managing Luton in the Premier League, as they won promotion playing what WIlson describes as "total football".
He was voted League Two player of the year and made the team of the year too. It was enough to tempt Bristol City to move for him last summer when he signed a three-year deal. But he never made one start in the league at Ashton Gate, not helped by a knee problem that kept him out for several months. Wilson has no problems about his departure from City and instead feels that Derby may be the team to reap the benefits of his exit.
"Bristol City was a good club," says Wilson. "I had no problems with them. I basically joined with the intention of playing and being a right back in the Championship. But I got unlucky with a cartilage injury, which kept me on the sidelines for like three or four months. When I came back from injury and to be fair to the other lads, they had taken their chance. I fell down the pecking order and didn't even start a league game. I never had a chance and I just think it was just timing really.
"I was unlucky with the injury and for one reason or another Nigel Pearson just didn't take a fancy but that's football. Managers have to make a decision. They can't have three or four right-backs at one club. My face didn't really fit the picture and then they told me I could leave. When I joined them I was going there to be the number one right-back. I had just won player of the season in League Two and I just thought everything was rosy. In my head, I was looking at taking Bristol City to the Premier League.
"But I never want to sit around and not play so I really tried to push for Derby where they can hopefully be the beneficiaries. For me it's beautiful. I am back at home and the goal is to be with Derby in the Championship and then the Premier League. I know we are a long way off from that at the moment, but everything for me here is perfect.
"There is competition. It's a big club, it's a big squad and I really believe we can go up and the idea of being with Derby in the Championship was something I couldn't turn down. When I look around, it would be nice to be a Craig Forsyth kind of thing. He's had an unbelievable career. For me, he is the epitome. He's been here at Derby, a massive club, for 10 years. He's had his testimonial and everything. That's beautiful. He's seen the good times, the bad times. It's been a real journey. But come on, I am miles away from being the new Craig Forsyth but you have to aim for something. If I could have a career like him I would be happy."
Derby's head coach Paul Warne has lavished Wilson with praise for some of his performances this season, but he is yet to establish himself as a bona fide first-team player. You sense, however, it will not be long before he is one of the first names on the team sheet. He is a popular member of the squad and is part of a car school with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing when their music tastes can range from hip-hop to indie to house music. He accepts, however, that there are elements of his game that he needs to improve.
"The manager has been good with me," continues Wilson. "When I first joined, he was honest with me and just said you've come in later than everyone else but if you work hard, you'll get your chance. I got my head down and obviously, I'd had a year of not playing, so I wasn't match fit at all. For a few pre-season games I was blowing a little bit. He says that he sometimes falls out of love with me because sometimes I can be a bit sulky if I'm not playing.
"But he's good and always honest. And you have to bear in mind the competition here is really good. You've got Ryan Nyambe at full-back, you've got Joe Ward. If I'm playing winger, you've got Tom Barkhuizen and you've got Nathaniel Mendez-Laing. There are good players out wide and I'm probably the youngest out of all of them. I've got to kind of work double hard because I've got the experience ahead of me. I keep working hard and hopefully, I can break in there one day and be like a Derby player full-on.
"I know I need to improve the dirty side of the game, like heading, positioning and winning big tackles. But being here is honestly everything I could have dreamed of."
Clarke-Harris is the player we need to go up automatically. If we sign him and Blackett- Taylor and perhaps another midfielder ( Brannagan, who has a release clause of £1 million ) to be financed by Cashin to Brighton with a loan back, not only will we have most posh hyphenated line up in League 1, we will be absolutely awesome.
It astonishes me that some people suddenly think we’re going to boss this league for the remainder of the season. We might well do and, of course, I hope we do but we haven’t managed to up until now and whilst we’re on a good run of results I don’t think anyone would say we’ve turned the corner in terms of performances.
At least 7 points from the next three games (obviously the ideal would be wins against Peterborough and Oxford) and a decent transfer window (with incoming and retaining key players) and I’ll be getting my boarding pass (even if it does have to be checked 3 or 4 times for every game 😀) for Automatic Promotion Airlines.
Most of the teams in this league are s**** and I think we look just as bad as the rest a lot of the time
But we’re starting to have games now where we’re able to put it together for 15/20 mins at a time which seems to be enough to win games
Despite the amount of people on here who spiralled into crisis mode at 1-1, just look at the table tonight
- Joint second most goals scored in the league
- Second tightest defence in the league
- One point off the automatics and into third (for the time being)
We’ve got a lot of room to improve but, if we do improve, we can actually get automatically promoted this season if we have an alright January
Why not us? The rest of them are crap as well
Wilson isn't perfect, but I think we lose so much when he doesn't play. His ability to drive at players makes a huge difference. I'd always play him if available.
I know I’m going to get slated because we have been on a good run but….Warne is not right for us …every time I convince myself he might be ok …I watch us play and then change my mind!! That’s all it takes …watching us play !!
Lincoln are not very good. We should be beating them. These are the games where Warne and the players need to remember who they are and who they play for. Screw your head's on and get at them.
