It’s still six games without a win but a draw and clean sheet at a bright Derby will go along way to finding some confidence. After the match the team celebrated the point, delighted to have got away with a point and even more delighted to have a clean sheet under their belt.
Firstly Derby are a shambles. Not on the pitch but off it. They make away supporters park half a mile away from the ground - and they still take £4 for it - in the pouring rain you get to the ground to find a queue of about 80 people waiting for tickets. It takes ten minutes to get your tickets and the queue is getting longer! The ground is all very nice, probably the best in the division, but when you can’t handle 800 Crewe fans then you’re pretty fu*cked when the likes of Cardiff and West Ham want to pack out the 3,000 seater away end.
Anyway, onto the match and Dario named a re-shuffled side to the one he named last week against Sheff Utd. Anthony Tonkin was the one who lost his place as he was relegated to the bench. Billy Jones came in for him whilst Rix and Walker came in for injured Vaughan and Moses…
Ince
B.Jones - Walker - Foster - Wright
Hignett - Sorvel - Lunt - Rix
Ashton - Jones
The game was quite open to start off with. Billy Jones had trouble keeping Marco Reich quiet down the left. Osman being pacey gave the 16 year old a tough test but despite looking to have got the better of Billy many times Billy always recovered to stop the cross going into the box. It seemed to cut out most of Derby’s chances… for now.
So the first chance of the match fell to Steve Jones. A flick on from Dean Ashton found Jones on the edge of the box, to the right of the goal. A Derby defender managed to get in front and put Steve Jones off as he skied it into the away end.
Dean Ashton then showed a moment of magic. Holding off two challenges on the edge of the box he took it across the face of the goal skipping out of a sliding tackle before drilling a shot within a whisker of the far left post.
By the end of the 5th minute Derby had started to take control. A corner saw Billy clear, Leon Osman fired it back in before Tudgay fired it at goal from the left. The Derby crowd lept to their feet in celebration but within a split second David Wright smashed it off the goal line and clear of the goal.
Within a minute Leon Osman fired a foot over the bar from 25 yards and straight at Ince from 6 yards. Our defending was extremely poor and the Derby crowd knew it as the 19,000 fans urged their team to pressure us more. They did but whilst knowing of the threat Dean Ashton and Steve Jones were to pose should we counter attack.
Ince all of a sudden realised if we were going to get something from this game it would have to be through him. Candido Costa saw his shot from the edge of the area tipped round the post by a out stretched Ince on the 15th minute. Ince then gambled on the half hour mark going into a group of Derby players to punch clear a corner.
Leon Osman lined up his shot from 20 yards only for Ince to parry and collect in superb fashion. Even Billy Jones was not to fool him; a short corner saw Billy close it down but the cross bounced off Billy and looked to be heading just past Ince’s left but he once again managed to get down and scoop it up with one hand.
Tudgay fired straight at Ince and in stoppage time Leon Osmans threatening cross was plucked away by Ince.
We failed to get many decent chances. Hignett was absolutely appalling on the rightwing whilst Ben Rix seemed more intent on seeing if he could cheat by diving and letting the ball go out for a obvious Derby throw-in, only to appeal for a Crewe throw-in.
Kenny Lunt wasn’t there… failed to make a tackle. Sorvel wasn’t as bad as some inside the ground thought whilst Dean Ashton had the Derby defence shitting themselves. In defence Foster and Walker were superb and seemed to get everything that went down the middle. Billy was having a tough game but improving and Wrighty was his usual committed consistent old self.
Second Half
The second half started with less of a bang for Crewe and more of a whimper. More of the same as Derby looked a lot more committed and physical . The Derby crowd were in good voice, as they had been all through the game, the Alex fans just didn’t want to see us lose - anything but!
Costa fired over in the first minute by about 10 inches and Billy Jones got booked for Costa’s diving. Derby attacked attacked attacked whilst Ashton tried his hardest to get something moving upfront but it was obvious we had come for the point and clean sheet. We were defending deep and they just weren’t going to get behind us if we carried on playing all night.
Foster was excellent as he cut out chances that were being teed up on the edge of the area. He pulled no punches.
On the 54th minute Dean Ashton fired a overhead kick well over the bar - but a good effort from 4 yards out. Dario was in a state of confusion what to do with Billy, he had good and bad patches was swapped from left to right and must have been dizzy by full time.
He still showed why Dario thinks he’s the best crosser he’s ever had at Crewe as he teased the Derby defence with, er, teasing crosses. Tudgay, meanwhile, carried on firing 25 yard shots straight at Ince whilst Costa tried to lob the Trinidadian from the edge of the area whilst Ince couldn’t have been nearer to his goal line if he was on it.
With it continuing and Derby just not scoring you thought it was going to be one of those games where we nicked it without deserving it. Blackburn springs to mind. But Colin Cramb was nowhere in sight for this one, instead another died hair fans favourite sprang up to Steve Jones’ cross from the right. Craig Hignett’s header looped and everyone in the away end was shouting “It’s in!!“Gooo oon” and “Dammit” as Grant, in the Derby goal, pounced across the goal to get nothing more than his finger nails to it so it went out for a corner.
Ben Rix went off for Justin Cochrane as Dario thought maybe it wasn’t our night - tighten up. With 20 minutes to go Paul Boertein tried to test Clayton Superman Ince but he failed as his curling shot was saved by a diving parry from Ince. Ian Taylor then tried a cross low across the face of the goal but Ince was wise and saved it.
These chances seemed to get to the Derby fans as all 19,000 of them irrupted urging their team on. It go to the Crewe players as Walker, Hignett and Wright tried to rally round and get the players on alert. It didn’t bother Ince though. His confidence was flowing and so much that kick after kick went down the middle of the pitch.
The last 5 minutes were a testing time but who do you call on for them situations? Crosses and corner went in time and time again but Ince flew up and plucked them out of the air. Fortunately, with 3 minutes to go, he had nothing to with denying Derby of their best chance of the match. It was down to the defence who backed away from McLoed as he charged into the area and with a free sight of goal smashed it… in the 87th minute, we had probably done it again - lost it in the dying second. The Derby crowd irrupted but smack; the ball bounced out off the crossbar and David Wright cleared. Sighs of relief were heard from the away end… and before you knew it the final whistle had gone.
The players were ‘congratulated’ by Baker and Dario as the fans showed their appreciation to the travelling fans.