Oh Dear - Again!!
Newcastle United 2 Derby County 2
25 December 2007
So the Premier League's whipping boys had only had one victory all season--against The Toon. So here was the chance for complete and utter revenge. From the start it was clear for all to see why Derby are in the predicament that they are. They looked like the proverbial pub team!
But, sad to say, Newcastle were not much better and, incredibly, the visitors doubled their away tally for the season by taking the lead through the talented Giles Barnes. He was given far too much space on the edge of the box but, credit where it is due, he struck the ball well, low into Given's right hand post.
Surely the unthinkable of Derby doing the double over us is not a real possibility!! In all fairness to Derby they played a positive 4-4-2 throughout and still looked dangerous enough on the break.
We are getting used to seeing shambolic performances at the back at St. James' but in this case the visitors tried really hard to be even worse than us!! The back two of Moore and Leacock continually got caught out of position or got in each other's way which was exactly what happened when the ball broke loose on the edge of the box for Viduka to react quickest and fire the ball neatly past Bywater.
Cue onslaught? No!! More a matter of enjoying the relief!
So surely the second half will be one way traffic. No!! Amazingly within a few minutes of the start of the second half Derby were in front. Howard, who is just a big old -fashioned, hard-working centre forward again won the ball and Miller got on to his flick, went past the weakest of tackles from Rozehnal and finished with competence. The chant of "Can we play you every week" from the County fans just about summed it up!
As the game neared the end, understandably Derby went deeper and deeper to defend their one goal lead and it was only in the 87th minute that Moore and Leacock again obliged us by getting mixed up and again the ball broke to Viduka who again slotted home.
A draw against a pub team and the manager was very, very pleased with the performance.
And I thought I knew a thing or two about "the beautiful game"!
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