Matchday Thread v CARDIFF CITY (AWAY)

[Premier ram]

was there last night , lads gave everything again , just not happening for us in final third , could be something as simple as an own goal or deflected shot to get us going again , Ravel , Byrne and Cashin stood out for me last night , keep supporting the lads we can still do this , we will fight till the end

[DavesaRam]

So here I am late again - because of my job. 

I watched on SkyGo, so shared with many the banal wafflings of the commentators and pundits! The opening salvo's were rather tentative, with not a lot between the sides, but overall Derby seemed comfortable, and controlled large parts of the match. But as many have said on here, the majority was i our own half, and most of that was around our own penalty area! Sky even informed us that Ryan Allsopp had the dubious honour of having more touches of the ball than any other keeper in the championship! And we absolutely mullered the possession stats!

Our faffing about at the back isn't as infantile or dangerous as it used to be, maybe because teams have not been pressing and closing us down quite so intensely, so we tend to do it further up the pitch - by about 5 - 10 yards. But it still ends up with Allsopp lumping a long ball upfield! In some ways it was appropriate last night because Cardiff sat deep and played for the counter attack. They worked hard at defending, making our progress difficult, and you could actually see our "possession" slowly drawing Cardiff out of their own half. Unfortunately what to do once Cardiff have been drawn out wasn't in the game plan, so we kept on going back to Allsopp far too often, so any forwards momentum being lost. WE have in the past been able to move the ball forwards at pace, and we look good when we do that - but we don't do it anymore. Probably coinciding with Louie Watson and Louie Sibley being confined to quarters.

What was apparent last night was the fact that we got a load of good crosses into the box from both wings. Sadly we didn't have anyone who was prepared to get into the box ready for any cross coming in, and no-one was prepared to take a gamble either. So we were left with crosses wizzing across the area just a fraction away from anyone making contact. And there is a major reason for us not scoring. Along with us not shooting. Although Max Bird has let fly a few times in recent matches,  but been really unlucky, which highlights another issue, which is that the ball simply will not fall kindly for us, almost anywhere on the pitch - Morrison's header, followed by CKR putting it back across goal, but the two strikers in the area being on the back foot instead of anticipating the possibility of the ball being loose in the area.

And so to the contentious issue of the night. I didn't write the script for Wayne's interviews, honestly, but I could have done! Expect a 5 point deduction being imposed for daring to speak out about the match officials, and "the agenda"! We arrived at kick-off aware of Cardiff's tendency towards the physical aspects of the game, but actually there was nothing particularly violent, with Cardiff restricting themselves to sly pushes in the back, pull shirts, and so on - with the ref spotting a surprising number of offences which are not normally given in Derby's favour! He did little to stop the professional fouls to stop Derby building up a head of steam, or going on the counter attack. I even said at half-time that the ref was all right! This continued until Ikpeazu came on to the pitch. Ikpeazu leant back into Cashin (?) pushing him back about 5 yards or so, until Cashin simply stepped sideways, with the big guy falling to the floor. Cardiff were shouting for a free kick, but it wasn't forthcoming. then Cardiff went on a very dangerous breakaway, so Curtis moved across to out a challenge in, and Ikpeazu simply steamrollered straight into him and cleaned him out. He was nowhere near the ball, and nowhere near where play was heading, and was a clear professional foul, right in front of the ref, who did ........................... absolutely nothing about it. Then we had the double offence leading up to the goal. That there was only the slightest of contacts on Festy, but down he went. To to stop someone getting away doesn't necessarily need anything like running studs all the way down his calf muscle, it just needs the tiniest of contacts. Which is all there was. And the goal - that the penalty area has been turned into a WWF ring in most matches is neither here nor there - there was a lot of arm wrestling going on, but Ikpeazu's aggressive moving Davis out of the way was so obvious, even Frank Lampard's 3 year old daughter could have seen it. Sky had Gabbidon there as the Cardiff-ex pundit, and when asked whether or not it was foul he said "No it wasn't", then in describing the goal he said "Ikpeazu THREW Davis to the ground". Which is a pretty good description of a foul! "Oh, Mr Gabbidon. So it was a foul after all, wasn't it?" is what the other pundits should have asked, but didn't.

But the goal shouldn't have happened because we should have defended far better than that. And it was a demonstration of a weakness of how we defend when under attack. We consistently leave opposition wingers unmarked in acres of space near or down the side of the penalty area. We do it on both sides, and we do it regularly, as a matter of policy. And last night, having thwarted one attempted cross, as the ball was played out to the wing again, instead of a Derby player going out to cut that option out, we had two players running back into the area, with one eventually turning to go and challenge him has the ball went floating over the penalty spot. Too late. Very poor.

In the end, it can be argued that we lost the match because we weren't prepared to shoot, get into the area for crosses and defended poorly for the goal. An d that is a valid viewpoint. But it still doesn't mean that the match officials didn't have an influence on the result.

[Crewton]

I assume this ref is on Gibson's payroll, just like Ikpeazu. ? 

[Jimbo Ram]

4 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

So here I am late again - because of my job. 

I watched on SkyGo, so shared with many the banal wafflings of the commentators and pundits! The opening salvo's were rather tentative, with not a lot between the sides, but overall Derby seemed comfortable, and controlled large parts of the match. But as many have said on here, the majority was i our own half, and most of that was around our own penalty area! Sky even informed us that Ryan Allsopp had the dubious honour of having more touches of the ball than any other keeper in the championship! And we absolutely mullered the possession stats!

Our faffing about at the back isn't as infantile or dangerous as it used to be, maybe because teams have not been pressing and closing us down quite so intensely, so we tend to do it further up the pitch - by about 5 - 10 yards. But it still ends up with Allsopp lumping a long ball upfield! In some ways it was appropriate last night because Cardiff sat deep and played for the counter attack. They worked hard at defending, making our progress difficult, and you could actually see our "possession" slowly drawing Cardiff out of their own half. Unfortunately what to do once Cardiff have been drawn out wasn't in the game plan, so we kept on going back to Allsopp far too often, so any forwards momentum being lost. WE have in the past been able to move the ball forwards at pace, and we look good when we do that - but we don't do it anymore. Probably coinciding with Louie Watson and Louie Sibley being confined to quarters.

What was apparent last night was the fact that we got a load of good crosses into the box from both wings. Sadly we didn't have anyone who was prepared to get into the box ready for any cross coming in, and no-one was prepared to take a gamble either. So we were left with crosses wizzing across the area just a fraction away from anyone making contact. And there is a major reason for us not scoring. Along with us not shooting. Although Max Bird has let fly a few times in recent matches,  but been really unlucky, which highlights another issue, which is that the ball simply will not fall kindly for us, almost anywhere on the pitch - Morrison's header, followed by CKR putting it back across goal, but the two strikers in the area being on the back foot instead of anticipating the possibility of the ball being loose in the area.

And so to the contentious issue of the night. I didn't write the script for Wayne's interviews, honestly, but I could have done! Expect a 5 point deduction being imposed for daring to speak out about the match officials, and "the agenda"! We arrived at kick-off aware of Cardiff's tendency towards the physical aspects of the game, but actually there was nothing particularly violent, with Cardiff restricting themselves to sly pushes in the back, pull shirts, and so on - with the ref spotting a surprising number of offences which are not normally given in Derby's favour! He did little to stop the professional fouls to stop Derby building up a head of steam, or going on the counter attack. I even said at half-time that the ref was all right! This continued until Ikpeazu came on to the pitch. Ikpeazu leant back into Cashin (?) pushing him back about 5 yards or so, until Cashin simply stepped sideways, with the big guy falling to the floor. Cardiff were shouting for a free kick, but it wasn't forthcoming. then Cardiff went on a very dangerous breakaway, so Curtis moved across to out a challenge in, and Ikpeazu simply steamrollered straight into him and cleaned him out. He was nowhere near the ball, and nowhere near where play was heading, and was a clear professional foul, right in front of the ref, who did ........................... absolutely nothing about it. Then we had the double offence leading up to the goal. That there was only the slightest of contacts on Festy, but down he went. To to stop someone getting away doesn't necessarily need anything like running studs all the way down his calf muscle, it just needs the tiniest of contacts. Which is all there was. And the goal - that the penalty area has been turned into a WWF ring in most matches is neither here nor there - there was a lot of arm wrestling going on, but Ikpeazu's aggressive moving Davis out of the way was so obvious, even Frank Lampard's 3 year old daughter could have seen it. Sky had Gabbidon there as the Cardiff-ex pundit, and when asked whether or not it was foul he said "No it wasn't", then in describing the goal he said "Ikpeazu THREW Davis to the ground". Which is a pretty good description of a foul! "Oh, Mr Gabbidon. So it was a foul after all, wasn't it?" is what the other pundits should have asked, but didn't.

But the goal shouldn't have happened because we should have defended far better than that. And it was a demonstration of a weakness of how we defend when under attack. We consistently leave opposition wingers unmarked in acres of space near or down the side of the penalty area. We do it on both sides, and we do it regularly, as a matter of policy. And last night, having thwarted one attempted cross, as the ball was played out to the wing again, instead of a Derby player going out to cut that option out, we had two players running back into the area, with one eventually turning to go and challenge him has the ball went floating over the penalty spot. Too late. Very poor.

In the end, it can be argued that we lost the match because we weren't prepared to shoot, get into the area for crosses and defended poorly for the goal. An d that is a valid viewpoint. But it still doesn't mean that the match officials didn't have an influence on the result.

But what did you really think ?