Derby County v Lincoln City: Player Ratings

[Ilsonram12]

1 Wildsmith 6 

12Smith 6 

3Forsyth 7 

6Cashin 5

15Roberts 6

17 Sibley 6

38Knight 5

4Hourihane 6

11Mendez-Laing 5

10McGoldrick 6

18Dobbin 5

7Barkhuizen 6

9Collins 5

23White 6

[gfs1ram]

1Wildsmith                    7    Did nothing wrong. couple of good saves.

12Smith                        5     not his recent self. arguing with NML a lot first half

3Forsyth                      7.5     just MoM on basis of fewer mistakes 

6Cashin                       3     Just very poor. Worst he has played.

15Roberts                   3     Again very poor, nothing like his last few games

17 Sibley                     6    A few wayward crosses but at least got forward. Hit crossbar.

 38Knight                   5    Maybe early booking effected his game. Not usual self.

4Hourihane                6   Steady when most around him were falling apart

11Mendez-Laing       5   Not much joy against his fullback. Lucky not to be subbed.

10McGoldrick           6   Seemed to be trying too hard but still our most likeliest scorer.

18Dobbin                  5  Showed good pace at times bit unlucky to be subbed.

7Barkhuizen             6  Should have scored and super cross for Didzy 'goal'

9Collins                    6  Thought he was ok in a poor first half, without threatening to score (as usual)

23White                   6  Added some composure to midfield.

What an awful match to watch. Thought Lincoln did a good job on Derby first half by closing us down. Far too many not 'on song'. Slow build up , poor passing. Lincoln a yard quicker to the ball. Never seen Cashin play so poorly, concerning, didn't think he had that in him. West Stand Linesman shockingly bad. Still should have won it second half. Not Warne's best tactical match.  We move on.

[Premier ram]

17 hours ago, Ellafella said:

Half-marks allowed; please rate all subs. Closes Thursday @ 18:00. Results by Thursday 22:00. Average is 6.00. Therefore, when a sub steps on the pitch he is on 6 - that's the baseline.

1Wildsmith-6

12Smith-5.5

3Forsyth-8

6Cashin-5.5

15Roberts-5

17 Sibley-6

38Knight-5.5

4Hourihane-6

11Mendez-Laing-5.5

10McGoldrick-6.5

18Dobbin-5.5

7Barkhuizen-6.5

9Collins-5

23White-6.5

 

[Crewton]

1Wildsmith     7.5

12Smith          6

3Forsyth        6.5

6Cashin         5.5

15Roberts      6

17 Sibley        6.5

38Knight        6.5

4Hourihane    6

11Mendez-Laing   5.5

10McGoldrick   7

18Dobbin   6

7Barkhuizen   6.5

9Collins   5.5

23White   7

More of a below-par team performance than too many below-par individual performances, bar NML (leggy), Cash (careless) and Collo (isolated)

[Ellafella]

1Wildsmith 6.5 Joe probably "smarting" a tad after leaking 3 goals to the Ambulance-chasers last saturday. Not at fault for the goal; always looked to re-cycle the ball quickly and distributed it accurately and well. Read the game and was always in the right place to comfortably catch the few shots that the Imps managed including a finger-stinger which he juggled and caught safely. 

12Smith 7 Had a good game; involved throughout mostly in an attacking outlet but notably although delivering at least a dozen crosses none found a white shirt in any significant way. Suggests a development area is to look up just prior to crossing to pick out a target although in mitigation I could see from my seat that our attackers tend to be motionless and few late runners in to the box. 

3Forsyth 8 MotM Headed, blocked, cleared and a couple of very significant and timely covering tackles.  

6Cashin 7 Not the usual thoroughbred Cash, compared to his normal very high bar standard but still a robust performance in contradiction to other raters.   

15Roberts 6.5 An early dis-possession when he was turning his man led to the Imps man hitting the post giving them early impetus and encouragement to attack and press him. Made up though by subsequent endeavour but also afflicted by "hit & hope" crosses.   

17 Sibley 7 When he came on he reminded me why we need him to start; He is a very effective possessor of the ball and his "abrasive" running causes opponents to panic. Unlucky to see his shot crash of the bar and rebound safely. 

38Knight 7 He has a tiger in his tank and gets through miles of pitch but team formation/tactic first half when he was playing deep deprives the team of the advantage he provides when played in an advanced midfield role. 

4Hourihane 7.5 Scored the important equaliser; his magic wand of a left foot though has lost some of the shine of late though he is notably getting futher forward into the box more often. 

11Mendez-Laing 6.5 Immense skill but was marshalled well by their left FB although still managed to power by him on several occasions and get crosses in but blighted by not finding a white shirt. Significantly turned a dangerous offensive breakaway accompanied by 3 potential passes to speeding team mates into dis-possession with a stray pass that led to their "goal" {2 yards offside}. 

10McGoldrick 7 Led them a merry dance at times whilst weaving passes in advanced positions; and configured shooting opportunities which he didn't quite connect with. Belted a long-shot first half narrowly over and was very unlucky to have a goal chalked off by the west stand lino who failed to spot an offside of over 2 yards for the Imps' "goal" but had x-ray vision when it came to spotting that McDick's leading elbow was blatantly gaining a 3mm advantage on the last defender and raised his flag in a flash.   

18Dobbin 6.5 didn't quite have the bit between his teeth and seemed a tad jaded. 

7Barkhuizen 6 Came on late-ish and put in a frenetic 15 minutes without much return.

9Collins 6.5 Does a lot of unselfish work but the downside cost is that he's less able to read the game and take-up that threatening space when we are in advanced attack.  

23White 7.5 A clear Max Bird stand-in with the potential to start and make a big impact. He has balance, vision, confidence and a rare, stylish left peg. I can understand Warne not wishing to flood him with responsibility but this guy I think will thrive if fully utilised. In some ways your first couple of appearances are easy insofar as adrenalin is pumping and concentration level high. Last 2 games we have missed Max Bird so now we have seen that we need to see the White-Knight combo running teams ragged with Knight's turbo and White's 360 degree vision. 

My Take

Clearly those who deny the Manager of the Month "curse" as "superstitious claptrap" are reading the word "curse" too literally. The "award" has diminished our performances in the last couple of games by 5-10% sufficiently to enable highly motivated teams to compete with us successfully. This has been aided by the extraordinarily poor standard of refereeing which was blatantly obvious last night. I thought that the Imps were impressive in the application of their game plan to press and harangue us and their mid-press was effective.

That said, their gamesmanship {keeper spontaneously hits the ground when their man was sent off even though he was not involved in any play nor was there a Rams player within 40 feet of him, as if suddenly hit by a sniper, would have earned him an order to receive his treatment off the pitch whilst the game resumed if I was the ref, and a subsequent booking for "unsporting behaviour" if he immediately recovered - one example of many with other Imps' players also going down with sudden onset injuries with no other player involved) }. It was so blatant that I was actually embarrassed for their fine body of fans who supported their team admirably. 

Despite my praise for their play, we still should have won given our possession and threat BUT, almost contradictorily, our attack once we got the slight jitters of a poor result in the offing, had the cutting edge of a warm sponge. No reason to panic but Warney, we need to see a Plan B V Charlton and that means Harvey White and Knight combo from the start.