I said in my reaction piece from the Wrexham game that I hoped we wouldn’t see that team again this season, well we didn’t see it today at Derby. However, a combination of a run of appalling luck when it comes to the centreback area and another week of inactivity on the incoming transfer front left us with a squad that was weaker than Monday’s.
Our problems at centre back were made complete when Gabriel Osho hyperextended his knee in the closing stages on Monday and so we had a full house of missing centrebacks as all four weren’t fit enough to even be on the bench today.
Any debate as to why we’re starting the season with a weaker squad than the one which ended 25/26 has to acknowledge the injury list in the heart of our defence. However, I also maintain that the fact that two centrebacks played little or no part in our pre season, another one is out with a long term situation that was known about three weeks ago should also be acknowledged.
The decision to let Ryan Wintle go is something else which needs to be remembered in such a debate. Some thought it was the right decision, some thought it was the wrong one, but I bet most believed there’d be a new player in by now who we could compare with Wintle. I say that while admitting that Alex Robertson looks at home in the number six role and did well again today, but let’s not forget that he missed half a season with injury while on loan at Portsmouth and he was barely seen in the City team for the first three months of last season because of injury. The truth is that, just like Joel Bagan before Callum Scanlon’s arrival, there’s a position on the pitch as of today where we barely have any cover if the incumbent gets injured or suspended.
Osho’s absence meant that Perry Ng played at centreback alongside Bagan, with Ronan Kpakio and Scanlon the full backs. In midfield, the good news was that Rubin Colwill was fit enough to play the first hour with Cian Ashton alongside as joint number eight/tens in front of Robertson. This meant that Jack Moylan started out on the left and it was Ollie Tanner on the other flank with Yousef Salech leading the line.
Apart from the obvious defensive areas of concern, that;s not a bad side, but it was when you looked at the subs bench that the squad’s “bare bones” look really hit home.
For a start, there were two goalkeepers, Harry Tyrer and Matt Turner, and with the greatest respect to fifteen/sixteen (no one seems sure!) year old Noah Anyadike and seventeen year old Rob Tankiewicz they look like last resort selections.
So, bearing all of the above in mind, I must say hats off to all of the players involved today for the way they got themselves a second point of the season as they returned home with a deserved 2-2 draw.
While there’s some disappointment that we didn’t win despite leading twice, I found today’s game to be more encouraging than Wrexham was. Today, there was an attacking edge to our play, especially in the first half, that was lacking on Monday and, after a very shaky opening five minutes, when our patched up defence looked like they would prove the pre match dooms merchants correct, we went on to look the more assured and aesthetically pleasing team.
Although I don’t think BBM can be absolved of responsibility for what has happened on the transfer front, I thought he, and his coaching staff, showed their worth with some very bold thinking as they went for an attacking approach as a means to keep the ball away from the patchwork defence. Put like that, it sounds bleeding obvious, but, if I’d been in charge today. I would have been preoccupied with how to get bodies close to the back four help make life easier for them.
Similarly, City kept two or three players in forward positions when defending corners, but, quite often, two of them would be Colwill and Tanner who would both be in the top three tallest players in today’s team!
I was annoyed at the start of the game because I fear that we’re creating a situation where the promotion momentum and feel good factor could be lost very quickly. My mood didn’t improve after a first few minutes which suggested we could be on our way to a thrashing to match that 7-0 at Leeds eighteen months ago.
However, not too much longer, there were things happening which were reminding me why I like this team and manager so much. At times today we purred and a Derby side that are genuinely fancied as a Play Off team after narrowly missing out on them last season just could not match the smoothness of some of our play.
Mind you, it took Derby only forty five seconds to start peppering our goal as Ng lunged to divert a goal bound effort wide. Within seconds, Nathan Trott was sprawling to keep out a Corey Blackett-Taylor shot.
There weren’t three minutes on the clock when Kpakio’s header back to Trott fell short and, although the keeper got a block in, the ball fell to Carlton Morris whose shot was cleared off the line by Bagan.
City took some consolation from the fact there were signs that they could cause Derby’s defence problems as they lifted the early siege and when Moylan fed Colwill on the edge of the area it needed a magnificent save by home keeper Jacob Willter Zetterstrom to palm the resultant shot on to the bar and out.
City forced quite a few corners early on and proved to be more of a set piece threat than you’d expect as Bagan’s delivery was met by Ng i believe it was, only for Zetterstrom to claw out a close range header which looked to have flown past him.
When Robertson swung a corner from the left beyond the far post, Ng got his head on the ball, from there it reached Kpakio who hooked in a cross in which was turned home from eight yards by Ashford.
City’s lead lasted for seven minutes and for most of them, it definitely looked like we were taking charge of the game, but, when Bagan decided to move forward to half way to try and pick up a loose ball, he was beaten to it and it was played forward to Carlton Morris who contested the bouncing ball with Ng. The BBC’s match report said that Morris brushed Ng aside, but, for me, our defender slipped – either way, the experienced striker was through on goal and he went on to easily beat Trott.
Now it looked for a while like Derby were edging it, but City were showing an ability to put together some slick passing movements allied with a talent for sometimes breaking at speed and, on thirty nine minutes they regained the lead with a lovely goal.
Tanner led a mugging of a Derby player well inside our half with help from Colwill and Robertson – when the winger was fed by the former, he broke clear into the Derby half and then found Colwill who had continued his supporting run into the penalty area where Rubin picked out Salech perfectly for the striker to beat the helpless Zetterstrom from ten yards.
Unlike on Monday, Salech was giving as good as he got against Derby’s back three and with Colwill, Tanner, Ashford and Moylan all showing on occasions they had the beating of their opposite number, City were finishing the half strongly and were worth their interval lead.
However, we were never to be the same attacking force after the break. All four of the substitutes (David Turnbull, Chris Willock, Joel Colwill and Isaak Davies) showed their worth at times, but the second half was more about holding on to the point we had when we had while in possession, whereas in the first half we were definitely looking to stick the ball in their net.
I say holding on to a point because, this time, Derby’s early pressure paid off when the ball bounced off Kpakio into the path of Clark who blasted in from a central position fifteen yards out after forty nine minutes.
Thereafter, although the game remained a watchable affair, there were very few clear cut opportunities for either side and I suppose the closest we got to a winner was when Trott denied Derby sub Salvesen in added time.
So, after a very demanding start, City’s “experimental “ back four got a collective mark of B- from me with Bagan and Scanlon reinforcing the positive impression they created against Wrexham.
Moylan went off with an injury which had supporters fearing the worst, but after the game BBM stated it was only a dead leg, while also adding “we expect so” when asked if there would be a new player in by Tuesday’s League Cup game with Norwich.
To finish, there was another disappointing home defeat for an age group side this lunchtime with the under 18s beaten 2-1 at Leckwith by Fleetwood – Leo Papirnyk getting our goal late on from the penalty spot.
