REPORT: Derby 2 City 0

When you come to think of it, this season could have been a lot worse. Despite the ritual lack of pre-season investment, the alarmingly dreadful first three months or so of the campaign which resulted and our owner in one of his rare media interviews giving what some might describe as a most passable impression of being a pathological liar there has been much cause for quiet satisfaction at the way that things have been turned round. On the whole, it’s probably fair to say that, wherever we end up in the final reckoning, it’s all turned out better than expected.
But not yesterday which, frankly, was something of a shitshow.
Derby, for all their investment in players, were not honestly any great shakes. They were in fact not really any better than Sheffield Wednesday or Stoke, and not as good as Leeds, all of whom have of course received a summary swatting aside at our hands in recent weeks. More about our hosts later, but this was a game which we were eminently capable of winning but in which we looked decidedly off-colour throughout. The problem didn’t seem to be the tactics or formation but rather some very below-par individual performances, particularly among those who have been instrumental in our surge up the table.
There was a bit of talk, en route from pub to ground, about how this game would likely to be a pointer as to where City would find themselves come the season’s end, in some ways akin to the West Brom away game in 2008. And you probably have to conclude that, certainly on yesterday’s showing and in light of the relative stutterings of the last three weeks, making up the ground that presently lies between us and sixth place is looking too tall an order.  Some might say though that that’s not necessarily a bad thing, lest it result in the largesse bestowed upon us in the event of a successful play-off campaign not disappearing into the trouser pockets of the Allams – because they have never taken a penny out of the Club, oh no – but mysteriously not finding its way into the playing budget either. So, not quite managing to whelm the Tiger Nation were the following: the same starting XI, in fact, as had so summarily dispatched Stoke:-
Marshall
Kane                McKenzie            Lichaj            Kingsley
Irvine            Henriksen            Stewart

Bowen                                                                    Grosicki
Campbell
The high winds which had battered the East Midlands all night and morning (I live about 12 miles from Pride Park and was most amused that my next door neighbour had chosen yesterday to replace his garden fence) had subsided to an extent by kick-off time and we got under way with City playing towards the corner in which the noisy away contingent of, I would say, 1,200 or so were encamped.
The early stages seem pretty cagey, both main talking points in the first few moments surrounding Tom Huddlestone, namely the elegance and accuracy of his dist...