Derby lose out to Forest in feisty encounter
Saturday 29 August, 2009 in Campaign
Nottingham Forest 3 Derby County 2
There are few matches in the modern game that are anticipated with such intensity by the fans as the East Midland’s Derby. This encounter was no exception.
The game got off to an electric start, unfortunately for the Rams it was more of an electric shock. With in a minute of kick off Forest’s Polish midfielder Radolsaw Majewski scored an absolute peach of goal from the edge of the box.
With any game plan completely out of the window, Derby were understandably shaky; and in a ‘lesser’ game Gary Teale would have been expected to make the most of all opportunities; but instead when Stephen Pearson played the Scot through Teale was unable to bury the ball, and instead scuffed his shot wide.
The day got worse for the Rams just before the half hour mark, as a Cohen free-kick curled into the box was met by the head of Rob Hulse and found its way into the back of the Derby net.
Derby were now no worse off than in last seasons F.A. Cup clash; so time for a comeback, right? Well almost. Hulse eager to cancel out his earlier mistake did find the back of the Forest net, but the goal was harshly ruled out after it was judged that Hulse had pushed Wes Morgan as he went for the ball.
A poor half time result for the Rams quickly turned into a complete disaster when just minutes before the break Kris Commons capped his poor performance against his old club, by losing the ball to ex-Ram Dexter Blackstock. Blackstock timed a perfect pass through the Derby defence into the path of the charging Tyson who rounded Bywater to finish with embarrassing ease. The Derby defence were left watching helplessly after the offside trap had suffered complete and utter breakdown.
Thankfully the Rams side which appeared after the half time break had completely ridden itself of its earlier jitters; Croft came on to replace the poor Commons and Derby looked much better for the change.
It took just six minutes for the Rams to get back into the game. Miles Addison attempted a bicycle kick off Jake Buxton’s flick on, rather than fly spectacularly into the Forest net the ball took a huge deflection off Wes Morgan and rolled past the helpless Lee Camp. Whilst not the most spectacular goal, it introduce the whiff of a comeback into the air and the atmosphere within the ground changed accordingly.
Just over ten minutes later and the Rams had pulled back another one. The Forest defence failed to deal with Lee Croft’s cross in a timely manner and the ball fell to perfectly positioned Livermore whose low shot deflected off Murphey to give the Spurs loanee his first Rams goal.
The final half hour was fought like any self respecting local rivalry should be. Derby continued to push ferociously for the equaliser and even brought veteran striker Paul Dickov out for his Derby debut, but even he could not grab that elusive goal.
The game itself ended in disarray when firstly Savage and Majewski ended up in a heap on the ground, whilst the pair helped each other up, argy bargy ensued as Savage was shoved by several Forset players. Shenanigans continued after the final whistle as Derby players reacted to Nathan Tyson’s gloating directly in front of the travelling Derby masses.
