What Happened Next?
Derby at home in the FA Reserve Team Trophy 3rd Round replay
which we have to play because we couldn’t hold onto a 2-0 lead when we went up
to Derby last week.
I have to admit that I was thinking about giving this game a miss but then my sons football team decided to go en masse so here I am again. We get there and it occurs to that even at 50 years old, once I got in the ground and see all the lights on the pitch and all that, I actually felt guilty for even contemplating not coming to the game. There is a decent enough crowd in with only the Chapel Stand being closed. Since I’d had my will I/won’t I moment about coming to the game, it had been selected for live screening on BBC 1 so I have to admit I was surprised by the amount of people that were present.
But what players will be present? Well, there were a few from the Leicester game with Vestergaard and Stephens at the back, Romeu and JWP in the middle and Stuart Armstrong and Shane Long upfront. These were augmented by Kayne Ramsay, Tyreke Johnson, Cedric, Muhammad Elyounoussi and Angus Gunn. Derby had a few more first teamers as this time around with Harry Wilson and Mason Mount, on loan from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively, in the starting line-up. I still think that it is fucking ridiculous that loan players can play in the FA Cup but that’s a whole other argument for another day. Derby are of course managed by Frank Lampard and have it seems, officially change their name to Frank Lampard’s Derby County because it seems to be in the contract that you can’t mention Derby without mentioning the managers name.
I’m expecting a back four but we appear to have lined up with five at the back and Johnson at left wing-back which is going to be interesting because he plays as an attacking winger for the Under 23s.
I have to admit that I was thinking about giving this game a miss but then my sons football team decided to go en masse so here I am again. We get there and it occurs to that even at 50 years old, once I got in the ground and see all the lights on the pitch and all that, I actually felt guilty for even contemplating not coming to the game. There is a decent enough crowd in with only the Chapel Stand being closed. Since I’d had my will I/won’t I moment about coming to the game, it had been selected for live screening on BBC 1 so I have to admit I was surprised by the amount of people that were present.
But what players will be present? Well, there were a few from the Leicester game with Vestergaard and Stephens at the back, Romeu and JWP in the middle and Stuart Armstrong and Shane Long upfront. These were augmented by Kayne Ramsay, Tyreke Johnson, Cedric, Muhammad Elyounoussi and Angus Gunn. Derby had a few more first teamers as this time around with Harry Wilson and Mason Mount, on loan from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively, in the starting line-up. I still think that it is fucking ridiculous that loan players can play in the FA Cup but that’s a whole other argument for another day. Derby are of course managed by Frank Lampard and have it seems, officially change their name to Frank Lampard’s Derby County because it seems to be in the contract that you can’t mention Derby without mentioning the managers name.
I’m expecting a back four but we appear to have lined up with five at the back and Johnson at left wing-back which is going to be interesting because he plays as an attacking winger for the Under 23s.
We start the better of the two sides and should take the
lead on 10 minutes and JWP whips a corner from the right hand side which was
met by the master header of the ball, Jack Stephens... and so ended up in the
Northam.
If Jack’s heading ability is a recurring theme then so is Shane Long and his finishing as Stephens and JWP combine to put Tyreke Johnson away on the left and he puts over an absolutely perfect cross which Long meets 5 yards out and manages to hit the goalkeeper. The rebound goes straight to Armstrong who manages to play tunnel ball with it as it disappears through his legs and Derby clear it again.
Derby are looking very comfortable and are playing some decent football and create a superb opening on the half hour which is gifted to them by Ramsey just passing the ball aimlessly out of defence and giving it away 20 yards out. The ball is fed into Waghorn it takes a touch and plays Bryson in and he slots it past Gunn with a really good finish and opening goal for Derby. There are no complaints from any of our players and no complaints from our supporters. Time goes by, civilisations rise and fall, continents drift, ice caps melt in and then the goal gets disallowed by VAR. on the one hand, it’s very funny but on the other hand it’s fucking ridiculous.
Half-time and it’s fucking cold.
It is no surprise that Johnson is hooked off at half-time having been booked in the first half and with the Valery incident from last week fresh in the mind. On comes Nathan Redmond with Cedric going to left back in a flat back four.
Long distant shooting seems to be the order of the day at the start of the second-half with Wilson hitting one that Gunn saved relatively comfortably and then Redmond coming in from the left and hammering one near post which brought a decent reaction save from Roos. In the 10 minutes he has been on the pitch you can see that Nathan Redmond is operating at a completely higher level than all of our other attacking players.
The game needs a goal and much to my surprise, it’s us that goes in front as Ramsey wins ball down the right hand side as a Derby player collapsed looking for a free-kick. Long finds Elyounoussi he chips of a perfect across for Long at the back post. Shane does what he always does and finds a way to miss as his point-blank header is cleared off the line but it pops up for Armstrong and the man with the perfect hair nods into the net.
There’s not much from Derby in the way of a response and we go further ahead five minutes later as Stephens breaks up the play in defence and surges through the midfield before slotting the ball through to Redmond. One-on-one with the keeper and there’s only one winner there as he’s chips it over the onrushing Roos to make it 2-0. The difference between a confident Nathan Redmond and last year’s version is huge. There is no way he would’ve scored that last year.
Shane Long has been struggling since picking up a knock at the end of the first half and he is replaced with Sam Gallagher for what should be a fairly simple canter into the next round. Yeah right.
Most of the Derby threat is coming down our right hand side with Cedric playing out of position at left back and Elyounoussi not doing any tracking back at all in the left wing position. Derby full-back Bogle picks up the ball and runs at Cedric and it looks like our man can’t be bothered to tackle him so he kind of body checks in with his arse as he runs past to give away a free-kick just outside the box on the corner of the penalty area. No I don’t profess to follow the Championship but I know that Harry Wilson is left footed and has spanked in about 10 goals from outside the box including a few spectacular free kicks. I know that he’s going to shoot but it doesn’t seem that anyone else, including Angus Gunn thinks he’s going to hit it from there. The two man wall is woefully inadequate as Wilson smashes it across and it nestles in the far corner.
10 minutes to go and can we fuck it up? Of course we can as Wilson is allowed to cross from the right hand side and it’s a goal we’ve conceded so many times before with the ball sailing over Jack Stephens and our right-sided defender not covering round. The forward with the free header is Waghorn and the defendant not covering round is Ramsay.
We do have a great chance to win it on 90 minutes as Redmond plays a quick 1-2 with Armstrong and cuts in from the left hand side. He should shoot but instead he knocks it across the goal and Elyounoussi can’t get there at the back post.
90 minutes are up, extra time is looming and it’s still fucking cold.
The first half of extra time sees Callum Slattery on for Armstrong and there’s nothing much to report other than Gallagher getting brought down and JWP sending a free-kick comfortably over the bar.
15 to go, still fucking cold. Mercifully, we don’t have another half time relay.
If Saints were the better team in the first half of extra time, then Derby are the better team in the second with Lawrence heading a very presentable chance well over the bar and then us nearly falling for a long throw routine as Vestergaard gets beaten in the air, the ball goes over Stephens yet again and Ramsey is not marking his plate yet again and Lawrence yet again heading over the bar.
Having survived those scares, Ramsey collapses with cramp and is replaced with Targett and in the last few minutes we had two glorious chances to win it as firstly Romeu charges through from midfield, gives it to Redmond whose touch is unfortunately heavy and Roos comes running out to block it. In the last second, Slattery who is kind of playing as a right winger perfectly picks out Elyounoussi with a cross but instead of smashing into the net like any relatively competent player would’ve done, our man pulls out the air shot and falls on his arse.
Fuck, penalties it is and it’s still fucking cold.
Here we go, Derby first.
Waghorn smashes it high down the middle
JWP scores comfortably like at Leicester
Ex-Skate fucking knobhead David Nugent comfortably sends Gunn the wrong way and milks it like the fucking hasbeen that he is.
Redmond. I know he scored one in the last shootout and he’s playing with confidence but he has always been a shaky penalty taker and… Fucking hell that’s crap... wide and high and shit
Mason Mount, in off the bar whilst Gunn collapses in a corner. It would be nice if you actually went the right fucking way, even once.
Up steps to 6 foot 7 penalty taker. It will never not look odd but Vestergaard buries it easily enough.
Lawrence.... Gunn goes the wrong way yet again.
Targett.... last seen are missing a penalty in the Everton shootout. This time.... has to score… Straight down the middle but got away with it.
Keogh. Derby captain. Looks about 45 years old… Sends Gunn the wrong way again.
Bollocks, we lost, and it still fucking cold.
If Jack’s heading ability is a recurring theme then so is Shane Long and his finishing as Stephens and JWP combine to put Tyreke Johnson away on the left and he puts over an absolutely perfect cross which Long meets 5 yards out and manages to hit the goalkeeper. The rebound goes straight to Armstrong who manages to play tunnel ball with it as it disappears through his legs and Derby clear it again.
Derby are looking very comfortable and are playing some decent football and create a superb opening on the half hour which is gifted to them by Ramsey just passing the ball aimlessly out of defence and giving it away 20 yards out. The ball is fed into Waghorn it takes a touch and plays Bryson in and he slots it past Gunn with a really good finish and opening goal for Derby. There are no complaints from any of our players and no complaints from our supporters. Time goes by, civilisations rise and fall, continents drift, ice caps melt in and then the goal gets disallowed by VAR. on the one hand, it’s very funny but on the other hand it’s fucking ridiculous.
Half-time and it’s fucking cold.
It is no surprise that Johnson is hooked off at half-time having been booked in the first half and with the Valery incident from last week fresh in the mind. On comes Nathan Redmond with Cedric going to left back in a flat back four.
Long distant shooting seems to be the order of the day at the start of the second-half with Wilson hitting one that Gunn saved relatively comfortably and then Redmond coming in from the left and hammering one near post which brought a decent reaction save from Roos. In the 10 minutes he has been on the pitch you can see that Nathan Redmond is operating at a completely higher level than all of our other attacking players.
The game needs a goal and much to my surprise, it’s us that goes in front as Ramsey wins ball down the right hand side as a Derby player collapsed looking for a free-kick. Long finds Elyounoussi he chips of a perfect across for Long at the back post. Shane does what he always does and finds a way to miss as his point-blank header is cleared off the line but it pops up for Armstrong and the man with the perfect hair nods into the net.
There’s not much from Derby in the way of a response and we go further ahead five minutes later as Stephens breaks up the play in defence and surges through the midfield before slotting the ball through to Redmond. One-on-one with the keeper and there’s only one winner there as he’s chips it over the onrushing Roos to make it 2-0. The difference between a confident Nathan Redmond and last year’s version is huge. There is no way he would’ve scored that last year.
Shane Long has been struggling since picking up a knock at the end of the first half and he is replaced with Sam Gallagher for what should be a fairly simple canter into the next round. Yeah right.
Most of the Derby threat is coming down our right hand side with Cedric playing out of position at left back and Elyounoussi not doing any tracking back at all in the left wing position. Derby full-back Bogle picks up the ball and runs at Cedric and it looks like our man can’t be bothered to tackle him so he kind of body checks in with his arse as he runs past to give away a free-kick just outside the box on the corner of the penalty area. No I don’t profess to follow the Championship but I know that Harry Wilson is left footed and has spanked in about 10 goals from outside the box including a few spectacular free kicks. I know that he’s going to shoot but it doesn’t seem that anyone else, including Angus Gunn thinks he’s going to hit it from there. The two man wall is woefully inadequate as Wilson smashes it across and it nestles in the far corner.
10 minutes to go and can we fuck it up? Of course we can as Wilson is allowed to cross from the right hand side and it’s a goal we’ve conceded so many times before with the ball sailing over Jack Stephens and our right-sided defender not covering round. The forward with the free header is Waghorn and the defendant not covering round is Ramsay.
We do have a great chance to win it on 90 minutes as Redmond plays a quick 1-2 with Armstrong and cuts in from the left hand side. He should shoot but instead he knocks it across the goal and Elyounoussi can’t get there at the back post.
90 minutes are up, extra time is looming and it’s still fucking cold.
The first half of extra time sees Callum Slattery on for Armstrong and there’s nothing much to report other than Gallagher getting brought down and JWP sending a free-kick comfortably over the bar.
15 to go, still fucking cold. Mercifully, we don’t have another half time relay.
If Saints were the better team in the first half of extra time, then Derby are the better team in the second with Lawrence heading a very presentable chance well over the bar and then us nearly falling for a long throw routine as Vestergaard gets beaten in the air, the ball goes over Stephens yet again and Ramsey is not marking his plate yet again and Lawrence yet again heading over the bar.
Having survived those scares, Ramsey collapses with cramp and is replaced with Targett and in the last few minutes we had two glorious chances to win it as firstly Romeu charges through from midfield, gives it to Redmond whose touch is unfortunately heavy and Roos comes running out to block it. In the last second, Slattery who is kind of playing as a right winger perfectly picks out Elyounoussi with a cross but instead of smashing into the net like any relatively competent player would’ve done, our man pulls out the air shot and falls on his arse.
Fuck, penalties it is and it’s still fucking cold.
Here we go, Derby first.
Waghorn smashes it high down the middle
JWP scores comfortably like at Leicester
Ex-Skate fucking knobhead David Nugent comfortably sends Gunn the wrong way and milks it like the fucking hasbeen that he is.
Redmond. I know he scored one in the last shootout and he’s playing with confidence but he has always been a shaky penalty taker and… Fucking hell that’s crap... wide and high and shit
Mason Mount, in off the bar whilst Gunn collapses in a corner. It would be nice if you actually went the right fucking way, even once.
Up steps to 6 foot 7 penalty taker. It will never not look odd but Vestergaard buries it easily enough.
Lawrence.... Gunn goes the wrong way yet again.
Targett.... last seen are missing a penalty in the Everton shootout. This time.... has to score… Straight down the middle but got away with it.
Keogh. Derby captain. Looks about 45 years old… Sends Gunn the wrong way again.
Bollocks, we lost, and it still fucking cold.
As the last penalty hit the net as we knew it would, the FA
Cup adventure was over for another season. It’s a shame in a way as it always
is to go out of any competition but I think in this case we have to look at the
bigger picture. By making an almighty bollocks of the start of the season we
almost gave up our right to have an FA Cup run because the league is more
important obviously. If we were sitting happily in mid-table then you really
should have a go at the FA Cup but being down near the bottom makes it a
different scenario.
It was a strange game with the two teams taking turns to really lack energy and intensity. Of course when it goes to penalties, anyone can win but there does appear to be something fundamentally wrong with Angus Gunn and his penalty saving technique. He is now faced 11 successive penalties in the shootout defeats to Leicester and Derby and in truth, he hasn’t even got close to saving even one. I think you would expect a training mannequin tied to the crossbar to save more than that. Still, it’s not his fault that Nathan Redmond smashed his penalty into the crowd which was a shame because he was by far and away our best player.
It was an interesting debut for Tyreke Johnson who I don’t think has ever played left wingback in his life and I am sure that he would have stayed on if it wasn’t for the booking and his tendency to slide into tackles. He put over a couple of great crosses to be fair and was overall, quite promising. The same can be said for Kayne Ramsey who overall played pretty well but he did get caught ball watching on both the Derby disallowed goal and the equaliser. On the equaliser, he really looks like he been taking right-back tips from Cedric as the ball came over, sailed over Jack Stephens head and Ramsey’s man scored. Cedric had a strange match, at some point looking energetic, at other points looking like he couldn’t be bothered like on the tackle that led to the first goal when he brought the guy down because of throwing his hip at him as he ran past. Very strange.
In midfield, Romeu and JWP were pretty good throughout but we had problems further forward where, aside from floating up a really good cross for the first goal, Elyounoussi again failed to provide any evidence as to why we bought him. He doesn’t appear to be quick, he doesn’t appear to have a trick to get past people and he doesn’t appear to have much composure. I noticed another worrying thing in that when he made any sort of run he appeared to be blowing and struggling to get back. The Derby come back all came down our left hand side in the second half where Moi wasn’t tracking back and Cedric was obviously battling with playing on the wrong side.
Upfront, it was good to see Armstrong get on the scoresheet again and Shane Long did some decent work before he got injured but have a pair of them combined to not put us in front from one of Johnson’s brilliant crosses I will never know..
Fair play to Derby and fat Frank and through to the next round to play Accrington and good luck to them. We have bigger fish to fry in the shape of Everton coming to town on Saturday where we will have Hojbjerg and Valery returning to the team. That will be an interesting one because neither Romeu or JWP deserve to be left out. With Long being injured, the good news is that Danny Ings will be involved and with Austin also available, to take up a place on the bench no doubt. That position is covered with the somewhat rusty looking Sam Gallagher also in the mix. Whisper It quietly but Ryan Bertrand might also be fit.
So whilst it would’ve been nice to win today, I don’t feel that it is the end of the world that we lost. I could’ve done without freezing my bollocks off for 120 minutes plus penalties before we lost but such is life. Did I mention that it was fucking cold?
Bring on the Premier League again and let Ralph work his magic with a full squad. You never know which Everton side it’s going to turn up so it’s a good chance to get another three points on the board.
It was a strange game with the two teams taking turns to really lack energy and intensity. Of course when it goes to penalties, anyone can win but there does appear to be something fundamentally wrong with Angus Gunn and his penalty saving technique. He is now faced 11 successive penalties in the shootout defeats to Leicester and Derby and in truth, he hasn’t even got close to saving even one. I think you would expect a training mannequin tied to the crossbar to save more than that. Still, it’s not his fault that Nathan Redmond smashed his penalty into the crowd which was a shame because he was by far and away our best player.
It was an interesting debut for Tyreke Johnson who I don’t think has ever played left wingback in his life and I am sure that he would have stayed on if it wasn’t for the booking and his tendency to slide into tackles. He put over a couple of great crosses to be fair and was overall, quite promising. The same can be said for Kayne Ramsey who overall played pretty well but he did get caught ball watching on both the Derby disallowed goal and the equaliser. On the equaliser, he really looks like he been taking right-back tips from Cedric as the ball came over, sailed over Jack Stephens head and Ramsey’s man scored. Cedric had a strange match, at some point looking energetic, at other points looking like he couldn’t be bothered like on the tackle that led to the first goal when he brought the guy down because of throwing his hip at him as he ran past. Very strange.
In midfield, Romeu and JWP were pretty good throughout but we had problems further forward where, aside from floating up a really good cross for the first goal, Elyounoussi again failed to provide any evidence as to why we bought him. He doesn’t appear to be quick, he doesn’t appear to have a trick to get past people and he doesn’t appear to have much composure. I noticed another worrying thing in that when he made any sort of run he appeared to be blowing and struggling to get back. The Derby come back all came down our left hand side in the second half where Moi wasn’t tracking back and Cedric was obviously battling with playing on the wrong side.
Upfront, it was good to see Armstrong get on the scoresheet again and Shane Long did some decent work before he got injured but have a pair of them combined to not put us in front from one of Johnson’s brilliant crosses I will never know..
Fair play to Derby and fat Frank and through to the next round to play Accrington and good luck to them. We have bigger fish to fry in the shape of Everton coming to town on Saturday where we will have Hojbjerg and Valery returning to the team. That will be an interesting one because neither Romeu or JWP deserve to be left out. With Long being injured, the good news is that Danny Ings will be involved and with Austin also available, to take up a place on the bench no doubt. That position is covered with the somewhat rusty looking Sam Gallagher also in the mix. Whisper It quietly but Ryan Bertrand might also be fit.
So whilst it would’ve been nice to win today, I don’t feel that it is the end of the world that we lost. I could’ve done without freezing my bollocks off for 120 minutes plus penalties before we lost but such is life. Did I mention that it was fucking cold?
Bring on the Premier League again and let Ralph work his magic with a full squad. You never know which Everton side it’s going to turn up so it’s a good chance to get another three points on the board.
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