Derby have struggled away from home so much this season that surely it’s time to reach for the hyoscine. The Rams travelled to South Wales on a blowy, dank mid-November evening, to play the inform team of the Championship. Derby’s tactics were clear from the off; stifle the opposition. The limp, lifeless attack from the Rams summed up their efforts and it was a small miracle that the damage was limited to a single goal.

Swansea applied pressure on Derby right from kickoff. The positive football on display from the Swans was almost rewarded after just eight minutes; Nathan Dyer capitalised on a horrible backpass from Gary Teale by latching onto the ball and rounding Bywater only to hit the post from the narrow angle he had left to play with.

Swansea came perilously close again on the half hour mark; only Bywater’s excellent low dive could stop Craig Beattie’s rocket shot from the edge of the box.

The second half continued much the same with Derby still playing the role of a saturated sandbag holding up against an oncoming flood; a breach was inevitable, it was just a matter of when. In light of this Derby actually defended well with Barker making some particularly heroic blocks to stop Pratley, Beattie and co.

Swansea finally broke their duck just nine minutes from time. Joe Allen spotted Fede Bessone on a surging run, leaving the Argentinian with task of finding the net; his thundering shot shuddered off the underside of the crossbar beating Bywater and crashing into the net.

Derby may count themselves unlucky to have held on for so long only to concede at the death, but any game plan that sees the Rams muster just a single shot on goal needs to be held up for scrutiny. The bottom line is that the Rams appear to lack any confidence when away from the Pride Park cauldron and need to see drastic improvements if they are to move up the league table.

Derby’s defence frailties were ripped open at Bramall Lane as the Blades scored four. 

Despite early attacking flourishes the Rams found themselves behind on seven minutes. David Cotterill found himself with the ball on the wing and under no pressure his pass across to Kyle Naughton  also in acres of space set the youngster up to shoot across the goal and past Bywater to give United the advantage. 

Just 14 minutes later the Blades doubled their lead with a Darius Henderson header from 6 yards. Once again Cotterill had been able to find space on the wing to put in the necessary cross. 

It took Derby until the second half to conjure up any sort of reply. On 52 minutes Gary Teale’s shot had Kenny beaten only for Chris Morgan to clear off the Sheffield United line; his clearance fell straight to Hulse who will face few easier chances as he fired home from close range. 

The ray of light offered by Hulse’s goal was soon cancelled out by another act of absent defending.  Cotterill again found space down to play in Henderson who easily turned Albrechtsen to shoot low into the goal. 

As if highlight the differences between this Derby team that of earlier in the season the Rams did not give up and kept their heads high continuing to attack.  This perseverance paid off just six minutes later with a goal from new boy Barry Bannan.  A darting run from Davies into the box gave him the opportunity to pull the ball back to Bannan who buried the ball high into the roof of Kenny’s net.  

With Derby continuing to attack it would not have been unexpected had they succeeded in grabbing an equaliser; but any late celebration went the way of the Blades as late into injury time as Craig Beattie took United’s tally to four driving low past Bywater. 

Ultimately the result may have been harsh on a Derby side who attacked well throughout the game; however this only serves to highlight the frailties in the Rams’ defensive line something which must be seriously addressed before next weeks visit of Barnsley. 

Still on a high from the League Cup win over Stoke in the week, Derby had to come back to reality quickly with a clash against Crystal Palace on home turf. As mentioned previously, our home run was quite impressive but away performances not as much. Derby had to maintain that streak.

Things didn’t really pan out that way though.

Crystal Palace took the lead when Paddy McCarthy whacked in a blinding shot from 40 yards, giving Palace the edge.

Controversy came though when Luke Varney was rewarded an equaliser after Palace keeper Julian Speroni appealed to have kept the ball over the line. The referee didn’t agree – it was 1-1.

After much protesting, Palace managed to squander Derby’s chances when Shefki Kuqi connected with Craig Beattie‘s cross, putting the travellers ahead 2-1 and taking all three points.