Ramballs

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.