Derby County 1 Blues 1

Oct 1 2008 By Colin Tattum

IN A league where inconsistency is king and you never know quite what might happen on any given afternoon or evening, we are generally coming to know what to expect from Blues.

Even if we consign the Blackpool performance as a one-off and accept there are areas yet to fine-tune, Blues still have the basics right and are continuing to shape up better than most.

They do not fluctuate from one extreme to the other, they are ploughing a relatively even furrow, which you need to do to negotiate the demands of such a tough division.

Steve Davies’ 86th-minute equaliser ruined what would have been another impressive away victory and taken Blues to top of the Championship on points with Wolves.

It was a bitter blow, and served as a warning that Blues cannot always expect to hold out defending slender margins in the second half of games, as they did at Cardiff City on Saturday and Bristol City before that.

Developing a ruthless streak and finding a way to really cut loose wouldn’t go amiss.

Last night Blues went ahead through a wonderfully-crafted goal by Quincy and were in such control for 65 minutes that you felt they would ease in, if not pull further away.

However, erratic, fussy refereeing made for a jittery finale, Derby fed off their crowd, who got on top of official Michael Oliver for waving away a couple of penalty appeals (correctly), and Blues retreated in yardage.

So they ended up leaving Pride Park with the collective hump, which is a good sign in itself as they were not satisfied with what many others would have taken as an excellent result, and they do still remain unbeaten on opposition turf.

The loss of Sebastian Larsson in the warm-up meant a recall for Mehdi Nafti in a 4-4-2, with Kemy Agustien – who gave a fine, mature performance – tucking in from the right.

Blues were smooth and assured, and really did look the part of genuine promotion contenders.

Derby, who had to readjust due to Martin Albrechtsen’s 18th-minute hamstring injury, couldn’t get any sort of foothold.

Lee Carsley was inspiring, scooting around to all the right places and helping the ball on correctly here and there, and James McFadden and Quincy did the conjuring act.

In the 26th minute Quincy won a tackle deep in his own half and started a raid that ended with him sweeping the ball high into the net when McFadden teed it up with an astute return pass.

Blues’ target Stephen Pearson had a low-key game and was substituted just before McFadden took a swing with his right foot at a ball that dropped invitingly and sliced over the crossbar. It came off the back of another good passing inter-change by Blues, and proved to be a pivotal moment.

More substitutions followed from both sides and Oliver, perhaps feeling the heat from Rams fans for the perceived penalty injustices, seemed hell-bent on blowing for soft free-kicks whenever a Blues player went up to head the ball.

It annoyed them and Liam Ridgewell for one got decidedly ratty. Blues’ failure to hold on to the ball as well as they had done, and an inability to stay up the pitch or make the most of promising situations on the counter-attack, also meant Derby came right into it.

Miles Addison flipped the ball off the outside of the post and as Derby exerted more pressure, the equaliser came from a well-delivered free-kick (although it was another dubious decision, against Agustien). Davies was there, alone, to almost run the ball in from close range.

It stung Blues, and a late rally saw Marcus Bent hit the post after getting the better of Roy Carroll from David Murphy’s high, hanging ball (ridiculously he was penalised for a foul), and Carroll then tipped over a back header by Ridgewell in the fifth minute of stoppage time to end a furious scramble at a corner.

BLUES (4-4-2): Maik Taylor 7, Parnaby 7, Ridgewell 7, Jaidi 7, Murphy 7, Nafti 7, CARSLEY 8, Agustien 7, Quincy 8 (Phillips, 81), McFadden 7 (O’Connor 60, 6), Jerome 7 (Bent 66, 6). Not used: Martin Taylor, Doyle.

DERBY (4-4-2): Carroll, Connolly, Leacock, Albrechtsen (Nyatanga, 18), Stewart, Barazite, Green, Addison, Pearson (Davies, 55), Hulse, Villa (Ellington, 59). Not used: Bywater, Kazmierczak.

Referee: M Oliver (Northumberland).