Match Review - Birmingham (h)

[Jourdan]

Derby 1-2 Birmingham
By Jourdan Rhule

Cameron Jerome scored twice to earn Birmingham their first win of the season and leave Derby rooted to the bottom of the table.

The hosts suffered the worst possible start, as with a mere 32 seconds gone, the visitors took the lead. Cameron Jerome found space on the left and fed the ball to Mikael Forssell on the edge of the area. Jerome timed his run into the box with perfection to steer Forssell’s return pass into the far corner of the goal from an acute angle.

Derby never looked close to an equaliser in the first half, as they lacked ideas and were frustrated by an organised Blues defence. Their two best chances fell to Gary Teale. But Maik Taylor produced an athletic save to divert his fizzing strike away from goal on 11 minutes and he could only find the side netting when ideally placed in the box after Kapo mistimed his clearance from a corner. Stephen Pearson also blasted over from the edge of the area and Matt Oakley’s long range effort dribbled wide as a promising move broke down to epitomise the lacklustre performance of the Rams during the first half.

In truth, Birmingham looked far more menacing going forward compared to the home side and could have been 2 or 3 ahead by half time. On 23 minutes, Forssell was freed in the area by a defence splitting pass but the Finn was hounded into a tame shot thanks to Stephen Bywater who raced off his line to close the striker down and make a save. Moments later, gargantuan defender Radhi Jaidi met Olivier Kapo's corner with a firm header only to see it cannon back off the bar. On the stroke of half time, McSheffery was at the heart of the move again as he threaded a clever through ball into the feet of Fabrice Muamba. The 19 year old had escaped the Derby defence but before he could muster an effort on goal, Bywater rushed out to deny him

The second half began with the Blues continuing to dominate as the three-pronged attack of Jerome, Forssell and McSheffery pinned back the opposing defence. The Blues caught the Rams on the break and as the Derby defence back-pedalled, Jerome carved the ball into space for Forssell who bustled into the box before snatching at his shot which subsequently went wide. Forssell was rueing another missed opportunity soon after as he saw his close range effort deflected wide.

But after being on the back foot for large parts of the contest, Derby hit back seven minutes into the second half. Debutant Eddie Lewis wriggled into space on the left before steadying himself to sweep a precise cross to the far post where captain Oakley was ready to pounce, smashing a fierce volley back across goal which glided past Taylor and into the roof of the net.

But as the home side looked to be wrestling back the initiative, Claude Davis was forced off through injury to be replaced by Darren Moore. City manager Steve Bruce responded to this with a change of his own, as Forssell was substituted for Sebastian Larsson. The substitutions proved to be a turning point as the away side found themselves in front once again. Stephen Kelly was afforded too much room on the right wing which allowed him to pick out Sebastian Larsson who flicked the ball into the path of Jerome, who arrowed an acrobatic volley comfortably past the despairing dive of Bywater.

Needing to claw their way back into the game, Rams manager Billy Davies sent Robert Earnshaw on for Eddie Lewis to increase the hosts’ cutting edge up front. Meanwhile, Medhi Nafti came on for McSheffery as the Blues looked to protect their precious lead.

Derby pressed and pressed and even played Darren Moore in an advanced role in their desperation as Leacock replaced Teale for the final 5 minutes. But as Taylor dived low to his right to push Oakley’s snapshot round the post, defeat beckoned. The visitors clung onto their slender advantage to claim a deserved victory.

Overall a bitterly disappointing day for Derby, in a game that would have been viewed as very winnable beforehand. Severely lacking in creativity and firepower and looking incapable of keeping a clean sheet, Derby need to regroup pretty quickly if they are to avoid a hammering at Anfield next Saturday. Today was their third straight defeat and their fourth game without a clean sheet and its likely that the trip to Anfield will be one to forget unless drastic improvements are made.

Player Ratings

Bywater – 7 – Made some instinctive saves to keep his team in the game but his distribution was very wayward.

Griffin – 5 – Circumspect in defence and offered next to nothing going forward.

Todd – 5 – Couldn’t handle the pace and strength of Jerome & Forssell.

Davis – 6 – Valiant performance considering he appeared uncomfortable and injured throughout.

McEveley – 5 – Got forward well but was hindered by a lack of understanding with new signing Eddie Lewis. Needs to show more composure & maturity in defence.

Teale – 8 – MOTM – Full of energy and commitment. Never afraid to run at defenders and always looking to get to the by-line and cross the ball. Trademark winger’s display but he will have felt unfortunate not to score and create more genuine opportunities.

Oakley – 7 – Driving force in the midfield, looked at ease on the ball and spread the play well. Also was ideally placed to thump home the Rams’ equaliser.

Pearson – 5 – Disappointing – struggled to make an impact.

Lewis – 7 – Tidy debut for such a limited player. Kept it simple and hardly ever misplaced a pass. Lacks the pace to beat a defender, but still managed to put in some dangerous crosses.

Fagan – 6 – Worked hard but never posed a threat.

Howard – 5 – Anonymous, rarely won a header and was contained all too easily by Ridgewell & Jaidi.

Subs.:

Moore – 6 – Looked worryingly shaky in defence, but showed the right attitude – playing out of position for the team’s cause late on, closing down and harrying the opposition to win the ball. Showed more effort in his 30 minutes than some did during the whole game.

Earnshaw – 4 – The game passed him by, he never settled and never troubled the Blues defence.

Leacock – 5 – Had little time to make impact with only a few touches on the ball.

[Ramshackle]

Good and fair review that Jordan

I was very impressed with Eddie Lewis, and i said i thought he was a really poor signing, but he was 1 of our better performers yesterday.

This was the first game I have seen this season, and the real big worry is that Steve Howard just aint upto this standard of Footie! IMO he needs to be ridded this week before deadline day...... BUT MOST OF ALL WE NEED MORE QUALITY SIGNINGS!!!!!!! SO COME ON BILLY AND CO FIND US SOME TALENT

[heanor_ram]

My match view was that everyone got it wrong, even billy.

people can say oh stop criticizing billy just because he bought us to the play offs but when you lose like that against a team like birmingham and it was clear where the mistakes were what do you expect?

he bought both of the wide men off which was a huge mistake as thats where the service was coming from. he left earnshaw on the bench well too long, in my eyes this was a game he should have used to prove himself and should have been starting as we all know what fagans about and lets be honest fagan didn't have the best of games.

he put moore up front as a last ditch attempt which was the right move but putting him on the left? darren moore? so what if howard doesn't have the pace he has more experience up front than moore, stick moore in the middle as ridgewell and jaidi would stuggle to win the flick ons.

forget the formation at the end the play was still negative, when you got the ball in your own half dont play it to bywater punt it up field youve got moore and howard in the air

its not all billys fault as the team that billy put out could hav and should have beaten birmingham.

for example you would think todd and davis could win headers against jerome and handle forsell but neither could do any.

Mceverly seemed to put too much on his crosses and wasted a lot.

i think we missed a battler in midfield also. as much as i like pearson and oakley, muamba had a field day and no one made a hard tackle all game which i found disappointing, when i grew up playing football no matter where i played, i got told to make the first tackle count, let them know they are there, i don't think either of the two made a tackle never mind let them know they were there.

Howard is proving many critics right, premiership is a class too high for him, he hasn't got a good touch and to my surprise hes getting muscled off the ball, in comparison to crouch you can tell the difference in class now.