“Bobby Zamora! Bobby Zamora!”
The name of QPR’s recently retired hero at Wembley echoed around a silent Loftus Road. It wasn’t Ranger’s fans singing though, but Derby fans taunting them with memories of better times.
Languishing in the bottom half of the table, QPR looked like they were about to be dragged into a relegation battle after a demoralising loss to bottom of the pile Rotherham at the weekend. Any kind of result against Derby would be a good one.
Derby on the other hand should have been high on confidence following their comprehensive dismantling of East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest on Sunday. It was their sixth win on the bounce.
For the most part the match went against the form book. Ian Holloway’s team were organised with military precision. From the first whistle QPR pressed high up the pitch in an attempt to prevent Derby from passing the ball out from the back and were very successful in doing this.
Richard Keogh and Alex Pearce were basically standing level with Carson on the edge of the box to pick up the ball and due to the high press were more often than not forced to pump the ball long. Holloway has mentioned in the past while working as a pundit that Derby struggle when pressed high up the pitch and here he was putting this theory into practise.
QPR’s centre-back pairing of Joel Lynch and Nedum Onuoha were dominant in the air, beating Darren Bent to everything. This gave the home team a platform to dominate possession, but they were unable to create any clear-cut opportunities and their best chances came from Derby giving the ball away in dangerous areas.
QPR do have problems in front of goal – they are one of only three teams in the Championship to have scored less goals than Derby so far this season – and this showed against Derby. Time after time they would pinch the ball off the toes of Derby’s midfield and drive forward only to shudder to a stop at the edge of the penalty area.
Credit must go to the Derby defence for keeping them at arm’s length, but there was a feeling that the main thing keeping the scores level was QPR’s lack of quality going forward rather than Derby’s defensive solidity.
There was a definite disconnect between the defence and the rest of the Derby team. A combination of poor passing from the defence while under pressure and a lack of movement from the likes of Will Hughes and Jacob Butterfield meant Derby simply couldn’t get a foothold in the game.
Saying this, Derby still looked dangerous on the counter-attack. combination play between Bent, Andreas Weimann and Tom Ince led to Ince putting the ball in the net, but it was ruled out for offside. This was the correct decision, but it was still a timely reminder of what Derby are capable of.
Derby started the second half strongly, obviously fired up by the words of McClaren and Co. in the dressing room. However, the natural order of the game was soon restored and it became a case of waiting to see which manager would blink first. Would Holloway go hell for leather in his search for goals or would McClaren bring on reinforcements for the struggling midfield?
In the meantime Keogh and Pearce continued to justify their places as Derby’s first choice centre-back pairing. Keogh was dominant in the air and on the ground, while Pearce made a superb block to deny Tjaronn Chery after Carson had spilled a tame shot (not for the first time in the match either).
Keogh and Carson had a shouting match in the aftermath of that incident and McClaren clearly decided he had seen enough. Bent was replaced by Matej Vydra up front and the game became more stretched. Holloway countered by bringing on the large figures of Ben Gladwin and Sebastian Polter up front in an attempt to batter down the door.
Derby were forced back but again QPR couldn’t create anything. Suddenly there was a Derby chance. The very definition of route one football, Carson launched the ball downfield on the counter attack and Ince’s first touch took him into the penalty area. Just as he swung for goal James Perch leaned on him forcing him off-balance. The ball dribbled wide and Ince appealed for a penalty that maybe should have been given but ultimately wasn’t.
McClaren had one last swing of the dice (or two, to be precise). Hughes, clearly struggling to exert his influence on the match (perhaps due to the cast on his hand) and Weimann made way for Craig Bryson and Abdoul Camara. It would be a telling change.
All the substitutes were involved in Derby’s late winner. Vydra latched onto a weak clearance by Perch and passed it to Bryson who moved the ball onto Camara. Camara took one touch, opened up his body and whipped an outswinging ball into the area. The first cross of quality by either team in the match, QPR’s defenders just stood and admired the ball fly across the penalty area.
Ince, however, did not. Sneaking in at the back post, he tucked the ball right into the corner of the net and four QPR defenders stared at each other asking who was meant to be covering him. Derby didn’t care though – the game was over as soon as the ball went over the line.
QPR tried to get back on level terms, but McClaren’s side simply shut up shop and said “Thank you very much.” There was never any doubt about the result once Derby got their noses in front.
“Bobby Zamora! Bobby Zamora!” the away fans chanted. The irony won’t have been lost on anybody in the ground – Derby scoring a late winner against the run of play against a QPR side that had dominated possession.
That makes it seven wins in succession for Derby. Two more and the team will equal the club record set by Brian Clough’s Derby side in 1969. This run will surely come to an end and there were signs that it might be coming sooner rather than later.
Many of the players looked tired against QPR, missing that extra yard of pace and the quickness of thought that has characterised McClaren’s return to the club. It may simply have been a poor performance though and if that’s the case, then many will hope all poor performances end up being that comfortable in the end.
Man of the Match – Bradley Johnson
Johnson has really pushed on and made that defensive-midfield position his own since McClaren came back. Against QPR he was superb defensively. He won every ball in the air and his tackling was sublime. He did get caught on the ball several times and he was lucky that QPR were unable to take advantage of these chances, but his overall performance more than made up for these lapses in concentration. George Thorne may have finally met his match in that position.
DCFC Weekly 