Despite Derby reckoning its in the Midlands all the accents were very whippet sounding and the Salvation Army band really were playing before the game. They were a hundred times better than the bloke who worked the PA system at Derby. He put himself up for rubbish announcer of the season with the classic 'And now lets welcome the Derby County ball boys!!!'. They then did themselves no favours by running down the Centre line and then branching out round the Centre Circle. This would have been fine if they were cheerleaders, or maybe primary school age ballboys but as they were hulking great teenagers it looked naff and camp, but mainly just naff. Then we had a Peter Kay-esque mega mix of all the songs you are ever likely to hear teams run out to. The famous bit from Carmina Burana, the Boys are Back in Town and One Vision were just a few of the delights served up. We were even inflicted with two doses of Mariah Carey but luckily not in the opening montage.Derby included both Stewart and Ellington in their line up. Stewart received a mixed reception whilst Ellington got precisely what he deserved. He didn't dissapoint the away
support either. We really shouldn't have given him the three easy chances to score that we did, but each one ended nearer the corner flag than it did the Watford goal. What a waste of money indeed. Interestingly the Derby fans didn't exactly seem to have taken to him either, with no obvious 'Dukes' shouted when he was on the ball.Jon Harley was brilliant for Watford and even survived getting kicked in the head during the first half. Incredibly our only reward for this was a free kick. Neither Priskin or Mariappa faired as well, both having to come off with knocks.
Its interesting how much of a difference Priskin seems to make to us under Rodgers. He was a constant pain in Derby's side and whilst he was on the pitch we looked like we always had a chance. As soon as he went off, despite all Hoskins enthuiastic running, it always looked like 0-0 was the best we were going to do.
However, our defence still looks shaky at best. Had we gifted those chances to a striker better than Ellington we would've been 3 down by half time. One problem is that when we are attacked we play so deep. We invite teams onto us by only getting tackles in once in the last quarter of the field. This is especially annoying once we've gone a goal down as we did with 7 minutes left when Hulse headed past Loach. To still then be defending so deep makes it look like we've given up.
Special mention should go to Lloyd Doyley who, despite being the least likely player to flourish under BR, looked like his new boss is rubbing off on him. During the second half he received the ball in an awkward position on the wing with two Derby players closing in. There was a slight groan in the away end that turned into a 'Doyley for England' chant as Lloydy turned both of them!
Minutes later though he showed that he is still our Lloyd by accidentally putting the ball out for a throw in when he meant to pass it to the opposing keeper following an injury. This led to the unusual sight of the Derby keeper taking a throw in. Wonder what the odds on that would've been?
I assume Nick Wright was in the Hornets contingent as at one point we broke out into a 'Nicky Wright Wright Wright' chant. Either that or I've missed the news that we are doing a retro chant once a game. Another old boy, Craig Ramage, did the Derby equivilent of Harry's 50/50 draw at half time to lukewarm appalause from all sides of the ground.
Like the song by the Dream Academy the whole afternoon and team had a lacklustre feel about it. Recently on bHappy it has been stated that the we are completely lacking in anyone with the aggressive passion of a Mooney or Robbo. I'd stated previously that I thought Bridcutt might be our version but as the weeks go by he looks more like the rest of them. Where has his arrogant streak gone? He looked totally ineffective when he came on for O'Toole.
Its great that Tommy Smith is currently wearing the armband but I have to agree that we need a cheerleader just to get everyone going, the team and the fans. Wouldn't it be nice if we could bag Helgusson once his loan at QPR finishes.
