Ramballs

Following last Tuesday’s slightly damp outing to Meadow Lane, RamBalls decided to have another soggy evening out of the house watching The Rams. Peter Kay would say the rain was “that fine rain that soaks you through”.

Finding the ground was a bit of a mystery; google maps sent us to a housing estate and the sat nav parked us at a chip shop. Eventually we found the ground, paid the £5 admission and found a seat amongst the few other Derby fans (around 25 of us) who were strange enough to make the 40 mile journey.

The match kicked off with former Stoke striker, Mark Grocutt, playing as a lone striker. Kris Commons played down the right with Ben Pringle on the opposite flank. Arnaud Mendy, the last minute goalscorer against Stoke, played in midfield alongside the trialist David Toukam, a young Cameroonian who plays for the Juventus youth team.

Kris Commons was the creative outlet for much of the first half and the Scottish international danced past a the Solihull defence on the right and shot just wide from outside the box on 20 minutes.

Arnaud Mendy used his power well in the middle and showed some neat control and some good exchanges with Toukam. Toukam also looked lively, showing for the ball and generally looking composed when on the ball.

The next attack came as Jordan Stewart picked up a loose ball, brought it out towards the left and crossed low to Commons who set himself up for a volley. He struck the ball on the turn and it was always going wide.

Minutes later and Commons was beating the Solihull defence again. He skirted across the 18yrd box, took a shot which was parried by the keeper back to Commons who then tried to chip the keeper only to see the ball cleared off the line.

The Rams took the lead through a penalty on 33 minutes. Mark Grocutt had the ball in the box only to be fouled and brought to the deck, right in front of the ref. Kris Commons was the man to step up to the plate and he slotted the ball away with ease, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.

That was the first half. The second half was less eventful.

I could probably write more about the strange odours that my nose kept on being introduced to than I could the second 45 minutes. Honestly, whoever it was that kept on producing those less than delightful aromas should seek urgent medical advice.

I can’t remember us troubling the keeper in the second half. Commons was frequently on the ball although he didn’t have much to aim for in the middle. Pringle was subbed off for Ojamaa early in the half but his first half performance was good.

The closest Derby came to scoring in the second half was when Solihull defender and ex-ram, Theo Streete, nearly put the ball in his own net from a low cross.

The home side managed to grab a goal around 75 and a good one it was too. The ball found it’s way to John Pugh around the penalty spot and he struck it with a sweet volley beyond the helpless Atkins.

Full time score 1 - 1

RamBalls little camera struggled to get any decent pictures but you can see the gallery here.

Have you seen the latest range of Rams leisurewear? Check it out now.

You’ll know by now that the score was 2-2 and our goals came from Stephen Pearson and Arnaud Mendy. Barnes got a short run out before being taken out of the game by a standard Stoke challenge; high, dangerous and down right dirty. I won’t write a full match report, the official site and therams.co.uk can give you a much better account that I can on a Monday morning.

I would like to highlight some key points from the day:

- The match day announcer got just about everything wrong. Before the game he announced their would be a minutes silence in memory of Sir Bobby Robson. As the ground went silent he said “let’s start the applause”. He also said announced Derby County onto the pitch when Stoke came running out and Derby were still in the changing rooms. Better luck next time Mr Announcer.

- The boo boys were once again in attendance. Giles Barnes received a few boos from the home fans when his name was read out before the game yet Danny Higginbotham got a cheer. Unbelievable.

- Stoke aren’t a good team. We were the better team on the day, by a fair margin I thought, we just lacked the bodies in the final third.

Our passing was good from the start; Bywater was looking to roll the ball out quickly to the defenders, Addison was prepared to come out of defence with the ball, Buxton looked comfortable on the ball and solid at the back, Sav covered a lot of ground and passed the ball well, Green and Pearson both got forward and Steve Davies did well up front although he did stray into midfield a few times leaving us with no one up field.

It’s good to see us playing football. Stoke allowed us to have more time on the ball than we’ll get against Peterborough next week but, providing we keep the tempo up like we did for the first 60 - 70 minutes against Stoke, we should be just fine.

Roll on August 8th.

Check out a selection of photos from the Bass Vase final from the Pirelli Stadium. Burton Albion won the game from a first half penalty and looked good for the win. Derby did have some chances, mostly when Kris Commons was on the pitch, but the finishing touch was missing throughout the game.

Kris Commons hit the post from a free kick and almost scored with a volley from inside the area but neither chance found the back of the net. Burton had several chances and could have won the game by more had it not been for some poor finishing.

Click here to open the full gallery in a new window

Read the official sites match report here.

As I left my apartment to head towards Nottingham, the heavens opened. It was a Tuesday evening and here I was, driving down the A52 towards Nottingham in the pouring rain to watch a pre-season friendly against league 2 opposition. Does life get any better than this? Yes. Yes it most certainly does.

By the time I arrived in Nottingham the pitter-patter of the rain had at least stopped. In it’s place was the sound of gun shots and stab victims screaming for dear life. Welcome to Shottingham: Gun capital of the Midlands.

I made my way over to the Wheeler bar at Meadow Lane, ordered a pint and prepared for the big match. Having checked the starting eleven online, I was expecting Varney to play as the lone striker and Davies to be out on the right but I was wrong; the roles were reversed. Teale was on the left, Varney on the right with Green, Pearson and Savage in the middle. The back saw Addison and McEveley play in the centre, Moxey on the left and Conners on the right. Shaun “Reggie” Barker was left out of the squad due to picking up a knock earlier this week.

The battle between Lee “the hit man” Hughes and Jay McEveley was one the watch. Jay battled well with the former Oldham front man but it was clear that he was playing out of position as Hughes got past him on more than one occasion. Based on last nights display, Hughes will do very well in league two. He’s still got a lot of quality and likes to pass and move, or as he knows it, hit and run. It was Hughes who made the first goal. He crossed from the left hand side and McEveley could do nothing except turn it into his net. 1-0 to County.

Six minutes later and the Rams were level. The Notts defence and goalkeeper got it all wrong as a dreadful back pass was pounced on by Steve Davies who calmly slotted the ball home. Davies put in an excellent display up front. He held the ball well, battled hard and he isn’t afraid to have a crack at goal. After the game, Nigel Clough said he was “very, very pleased” with Steve’s display. The one negative for Davies would be his failure to get himself on the score sheet again despite his penalty effort. The Rams were awarded a penalty after a handball in the box but Davies could only clip the top of the bar from the spot.

On 35 minutes we took the lead in superb style. Savage, being the old pro that he is, saw an opportunity to shoot from distance. Using all his experience he craftily disguised his shot as a miss-hit cross and it worked a treat as the Notts keeper flapped his arms around to no avail. The ball found it’s way into the net and the Rams were 2-1 up thanks to the ever cunning Robbie Savage.

The magpies continued to look dangerous and should be pushing for promotion this season. The Rams largely dealt with the pressure but the movement of the County forward line certainly caused problems during the first half.

In the second half, Derby began to show their quality as they kept possession, passed the ball well and looked the better team. Some things still confuse me though:

1) Why do we sometime do short corners? I don’t remember a time when they’ve been successful for us (feel free to list the dozens of goals we have scored from short corners in the past few years)

2) Why did Teale, when presented with a perfect opportunity to cross, play the ball back along the floor to Savage who was only just inside the Notts half. Maybe, given his earlier most-certainly-deliberate strike, he assumed Savage would shoot?

3) What does Luke Varney bring to the side?

I don’t like moaning about individual players on, and I’ll try to avoid it throughout the coming season, but Varney doesn’t do enough for me. I hope he turns in on during the season but, so far, I’m not entirely convinced.

Poor defending seemed to bring about the Notts County second goal. A failure to clear the ball enabled County to slot the ball home with ease.

The final goal came from the substitute Kris Commons who was a late addition to the squad. He was clearly off the pace but even a half fit Commons was a handful for the league two outfit. He ran the left hand side well and put balls into the box with little end result. So, clearly inspired by Robbie Savage earlier goal, Commons followed his lead. He fooled everyone into thinking he was crossing the ball towards the back post when in actual fact he scored by lobbing Russell Hoult. Sublime stuff.

And that was that. The Rams beat Notts County in front of Sven, which is more that Forest managed. Ultimately though, this game doesn’t matter as pre-season games aren’t important, although it’s still nice to see a Derby win, whatever the circumstances.

STARTING XI: CARROLL, ALBRECHTSEN, JOHNSON, STEWART, BUXTON, MENDY, BEARDSLEY, VARNEY, PRINGLE, PRIJOVIC, MILLS,

Subs: DEENEY, DUDLEY, GARTON, OJAMAA, KELLY

Alex Prijovic and Arnaud Mendy continue to impress during pre-season as the Rams XI beat Matlock Town 3-2 tonight. The third Derby County goal has been credited to Greg Mills although one fan at the game said “Giving it to mills i think is a little charitable! Both the goalie and centre both looked at each other and asked who touched it last!” (Thanks to Popsides Blondie for the updates)

Check out the DCFC Official Site match report here.

Click here to see a gallery of photos from the game