Bristol City vs Derby County

[angieram]

19 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

An outstanding result, one I suspect even the most optimistic Derby fan was unsure we would get. I knew it would be a season defining game, but with our away form, it seemed unlikely in the extreme that we would come away with a win. I sort of expected a draw. When Tomori went off injured, I have to admit I was hoping to scrap out a draw. I think it was the perfect game for us for a number of reasons:

1) I pointed out before the game, in the Carson/Roos thread, that Roos has a decent record since he became number one but hasn't been challenged. In fact, he had the lowest save count per appearance out of any Championship keeper to make more than one game. He showed that he can be relied on when under the cosh. 11 saves, equating to a clean sheet. 

2) George Evans proving his worth. When we signed Evans, it was one of those headscratchers because we signed a player for next to nothing from a rival in our division and he'd struggled to establish himself. He started his career quite brightly, although more recently he has shown some worrying signs. This game was really make or break for the lad, if he had a bad game and we lost - can you imagine the vitriol that would have been levelled in his direction? It's not worth thinking about. He showed a lot of character and showed that he may well be a long-term prospect at CB even as a number 3 or 4. Regardless, I think that performance and result has almost made his negligible fee worth while on its own. 

3) Character! We're Derby County. The proverbial bottlers. We bottle it year-on-year. We perhaps don't have the ceiling we had under Mac1, but the character is really showing through at the moment. We can scrap with the best of them, plus we have match winners that can make a difference if given half a chance. 

4) Mason Mount. When you think about standout players in the Championship, not many hold a candle to this guy and he's in form at the most important time of the season. He had a huge influence in both goals. 

Finally, 5) Form! we're hitting form at the right time. It's not just the results are going our way, barring some hiccups, but we're playing a lot better. I don't believe we're playing at our best, but we're doing the right things and making the right decisions more often than not. A league away from where we were throughout our slump.

We have a couple of games left, the Swansea game will be the most difficult. WBA have checked out of the regular season, so will be taking no chances playing against a motivated and undoubtedly aggressive Derby side at home. Swansea have been in decent form recently and will no doubt want to put on a show for their last home game. It will be highly competitive. WBA, I imagine will be a game we need to win and will. 

6) The fans. I don't wholly know what's changed but when we were struggling to get out or mis-placing passes esterday there were no groans around me - we just sang louder! 

We're going to be needed again on Wednesday night; whether you believe it or not, we can make a difference.  

 

[Rev]

5 minutes ago, angieram said:

6) The fans. I don't wholly know what's changed but when we were struggling to get out or mis-placing passes esterday there were no groans around me - we just sang louder! 

We're going to be needed again on Wednesday night; whether you believe it or not, we can make a difference.  

 

It feels like we've closed ranks around the team. Sounds daft I know, but I'm sure we've been more audible and supportive at games since Blackburn.

[Comrade 86]

45 minutes ago, angieram said:

6) The fans. I don't wholly know what's changed but when we were struggling to get out or mis-placing passes esterday there were no groans around me - we just sang louder! 

We're going to be needed again on Wednesday night; whether you believe it or not, we can make a difference.  

 

 

38 minutes ago, reveldevil said:

It feels like we've closed ranks around the team. Sounds daft I know, but I'm sure we've been more audible and supportive at games since Blackburn.

Definitely! The fans have been awesome the last few games, as loud as I can remember in recent times. Watching them sing to Lamps post-match will stick in my mind for a long time. There's some growing unity on and off the pitch right now and I'm praying it continues to grow whether we get promoted or not. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

23 hours ago, Davide said:

Hard fought win but let's face it, we got away with it a bit. We looked dangerous on the counter attack and deserved our goals but cannot believe Bristol didn't score. There was a lot of hard work and determination from our team but some of the quality (winning 2nd balls etc) wasn't there or limited. Loved the heroic defending when needed. Didn't think Bristol deserved to lose but that's football!!

That seemed to be the view of my brizzle supporting colleague who was at the match in the end opposite the rams fans.

He thought that we were clinical,  they weren't. Also said that they couldn't see from that end what the sending off was for,  which killed the game off in his view. 

[Dethorn]

On 27/04/2019 at 15:35, SaintRam said:

 

That is not accurate. Keogh is RCB still. 

I thuoght I saw Keogh signal to GE to swap after he had been on about three minutes - weird they did not do it from the start though!!

[Brizzle]

Hope you all had a good day out - I effin didn't.

Doesn't matter who was the better team or how many chances, 10 men etc etc. It was one of those games where only the result counts and you got it fair play and saw it out fairly comfortably in the end.

Congrats and best of luck at Swansea, win it and its done.

Lose it and we win at Millwall and all you do is prolong the agony for us (and yourselves) ?

Boro have an easy game left on paper but I think its now yours to lose and Leeds in the play offs. They are looking nervy whereas Derby should be full of confidence now.

Best of luck.

 

[Ghost of Clough]

3 minutes ago, Brizzle said:

Hope you all had a good day out - I effin didn't.

Doesn't matter who was the better team or how many chances, 10 men etc etc. It was one of those games where only the result counts and you got it fair play and saw it out fairly comfortably in the end.

Congrats and best of luck at Swansea, win it and its done.

Lose it and we win at Millwall and all you do is prolong the agony for us (and yourselves) ?

Boro have two easy games on paper but I think its now yours to lose and Leeds in the play offs. They are looking nervy whereas Derby should be full of confidence now.

Best of luck.

 

Boro only have 1 game ?

[Brizzle]

5 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Boro only have 1 game ?

Yeah - they won the other easy one ?

Got to assume they'll win at Rotherham as well.

[Dethorn]

My first game for a long time. Think it was Wolves at home last season, and not sure I have seen the boys win for a couple of years, so all of this maybe a bit rose tinted. But.... I will go on

I think it was a great team performance all round. I was expecting Bristol to come at us for the first quarter of an hour, I am not sure how we did it but we did kind of take the sting out them and then Mount's bit of skill on the right was excellent to tea up Lawrence (not usually one of my favourites)

The 7 minutes of injury time in the first half had me absolutely sure that we would go in 1-1 but we held on.

Second half and I am sure if Bradley had gone through on his left foot we would have been two up.

The sending off looked a little harsh to me but the ref was very well positioned. It was funny how the ref seemed to swap sides at half time, giving them everything before half time, then giving us the run of the green after it. That is until he booked Lawrence for what looked like a genuine slip to me.

Still as frequently happens the side down to ten men had a bit of a bounce and just when I thought that 1-1 was inevitable what a break and what a goal. Mounts pass sublime, Mason Bennett running straight at me and just when I thought he was going down a blind alley "that pull back" at pace and Bogle - how cool was he!!

The celebrations at this point were mental, I think almost as much out of relief.

From then on we were relatively comfortable - ole ole keep ball at one point wtf!!

Lawrence's offside goal looked like it was on to me, but from memory it was also possibly our best move of the game.

Bennett's offside goal - he was offside but I thought the final ball through was off a Bristol player - which I thought plays him on.

General Points

Possible MOM performance for 15 minutes to Mason Bennett catalyst to change a potential drawing  position into something that was in the end a comfortable win

Evans stepped into the breach - was he a CD all along.

Bogle, Mount, Keogh were outstanding

Special mention to Roos, nothing too spectacular but steady, commanding and no mistakes

and Waghorn, who I thought worked tirelessly and was a thorn in the side of the Bristol defenders, he held it up well and the header off the line was of equal value as a goal.

But two things really stood out for me as a long distance (see more games on the tv than I do live) fan

1) The teamwork, hard work, in it together ethic !!  

2) The fans - were awesome, it felt like we out sang the home fans all the way through and I heard hardly any negativity

Thanks to the club, the players and the fans (and one steward in particular) for a great day.

I am 48 and do not think I remember having enjoyed a Derby game as much.

 

[angieram]

On 28/04/2019 at 11:50, Davide said:

We definitely looked dangerous on the counter, I agree. I wish I could see the disallowed goals again, great moves. What I mean is Bristol should have worked Roos harder, they got into some good positions and had a number of shots which should have done better.

This is best angle of Lawrence disallowed goal. It's tight, but level I think. 

 

[Ghost of Clough]

 

8 minutes ago, angieram said:

This is best angle of Lawrence disallowed goal. It's tight, but level I think. 

 

Very tight

[DesertRam]

On 28/04/2019 at 04:22, Animal is a Ram said:

Unbelievable to flick that up and pass it that accurately.

The lad's different class. Can you imagine if we'd had him available all season?

You have to think that we would have got at least another 6/7 points on the board