Derby Co vs City u18's 1200 kick off

A Cowpat of a pitch. Foden having a battle with derby number 4. Who is so far keeping him fairly quiet. Fodens ability to take the ball in the half turn sets him apart.Not many English players can do this. Smith has been good with his distribution.
 
This is perhaps where we are spoiled with the facilities at the academy. Billiard table pitches where silky football skills can develop and then you play away on a 'Corpy' -style playing field and it's a different game. Well done for maintaining the unbeaten record.
 
This is perhaps where we are spoiled with the facilities at the academy. Billiard table pitches where silky football skills can develop and then you play away on a 'Corpy' -style playing field and it's a different game. Well done for maintaining the unbeaten record.

Quite right. You can't always win through quality football.Sometimes it's a battle and today was one of those days. It all started well as City were vastly superior and getting at them down both flanks. Poveda and Wilson almost making things happen but not quite whilst Bolto was ripping them apart on the right. It was his strong low cross created the OG. Some how though derby kept City at bay but I don't think they ever seriuosly got into our penalty box.

I say somehow but it was obvious really that they relied on the physical approach. Foden was being man mared in the middle and with a bobbly dry pitch anything but a perfect touch gave the defender a chance to tackle and that's what Derby were all about. Foden's man marking was often a guy going through the back of him and getting little protection from the 19 year old ref!

I am sure weren't happy with the Derby approach and may times appealed to the ref for some protection but as the game was so one sided maybe they weren't too worried. The 2nd half was much the same for a while but Derby were even more in the faces. We were given a free kick on the edge of the box just after their no 7 had been floored on the edge of our box ( no foul of course) While he was being treated with the ref in attendance it all kicked off down the other end!

I have no idea what started it or who did what to who but the ref came haring back , the linos ran on and sorted it after tons of pushing and showing.The end resuly a booking for Tom Dele and their aggressive number 4 man marker. There were a few other mini skirmishes with tackles flying in. Mostly Derby but we weren't shy either and then their no 9 flew into one on Latibeaudierre which fot it all going again. The ref really had no option but to red card him. Joel when he landed after the tackle screamed " are you mad" which just about summed up the tackle!

They then scored after a header from Wilson fell to their guy and he turned and shot low. Great goal for them but Wilso was splattered after he headed the ball and it should have been a foul for me. So we had to get forward again and to be honest we had done nothing 2nd half at all. Foden was anonymous, Poveda being muscled out of everything and Tom Dele taken off so he wasn't sent off.

Then a ball was flicked over their defence and the speed of Gonzalez go to the ball just before their keeper who clattered into him and a penalty given which Gonzalez scored. Derby folk near me thought the foul would go the other way but Gonzalez clearly got the ball past him. Happily we played the last 10 minutes or so with minimal fuss bit was a really tough game on a crap pitch with a very young ref. Maybe it was a bit early for him to ref a game like this.

Matt Smith , playing defensive midfield was my MotM.
 
I thought Southampton were quite physical the other day in the cup.
Perhaps this is becoming the way to stop these lads. May be no bad thing in the long run.
 
A Cowpat of a pitch. Foden having a battle with derby number 4. Who is so far keeping him fairly quiet. Fodens ability to take the ball in the half turn sets him apart.Not many English players can do this. Smith has been good with his distribution.
Do you know (or anyone else) if that is where Derby U18's normally play their matches? The thought occurred to me that maybe they swapped as part of a game plan to beat us or am I doing Derby a big disservice?
 
I was level with the scuffle, so saw, and oddly, heard it. A Derby player, number four I think, said "who did it ?" a teammate replied "number 3", so he walked up and smacked him one in the face ! Kind of summed up their Pub League approach to the game, which i think, combined with the lack of protection from the officials, disheartened the likes of Poveda and Foden as the game wore on. Penalty was a bit 50-50 from where I stood, but I wasn't complaining. Overall, we're trying to play quick moving, passing football, well orchestrated by the excellent Smith, which, for the first half was great to watch. We just lacked the edge in the box...a decent pitch and a more experienced ref.
 

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