Derby 0 – 1 Doncaster

By: MoonPig | August 9th, 2008

It’s like the first day back at school… A big build up but in the end it was a bit of a let down, but listen… I know everyone was expecting us to beat Doncaster but I think those people need to show some intelligence and even more patience. Doncaster played good football and although they probably couldn’t believe their luck that they scored (and that we didn’t score at all) I suspect that if this game was played in a few weeks time, the result would be different.

Although this wasn’t a great performance from Derby, and perhaps a bit disjointed, it’s worth remembering that we had the better chances and on another day the result could have been different. Not only that, the incessant whining noise coming from the supporters (something which is slowing getting to be a bad habit) shows a real lack of patience to the manager.

That’s right. A lack of patience. And don’t remind me about last season either. I was there – saw every home game and quite a few away ones too… Just remember how poor our squad was, how Billy Davies didn’t want to be within whistling distance of the team HE put together once he realised the team was woefully out of his depth – remember the lack of team spirit, the lack of professionalism and the downright lack of respect given to our great Club by certain individuals (most of who have been moved on)…

Look at the line up – the names in bold were signed in the summer:

Derby: Carroll, McEveley, Green, Kazmierczak (Savage 53), Commons, Ellington, Hulse, Mears, Stubbs (C) (Connolly 56), Albrechtsen, Pereplotkins (Davies 64).

Rome /literally/ wasn’t built in a day. Give the team a chance. Give the manager a chance – next time you fill your lungs with air to “boo” the team, or call for the managers head – remind yourself you are using oxygen which could be put to better use. Save your breath and cheer the team you love.

Yes, we lost… and yes, this was mainly down to us losing the battle in the midfield, and switching off for their goal – remember that Doncaster are a team who have been together for a long time, and that Paul Jewell has been performing open heart surgery on a team that was in a footballing coma.

This performance had it’s positives. It’s easy not to see them if you’re one of these people who judge everything on the scoreline (remember all those win’s we fluked under Billy?), the positives were there, you just had to want to see them, Commons showed flashes of brilliance, Ellington worked hard – often in the wrong half of the pitch, Hulse looked lively… In a few weeks this team, who have only played one competitive game together, will start to gel and the flowing football will start.

Note to Donny fans – Good luck to you – you play football the right way… It’s hard to tell anything from the opening day games (which is the main point of this article) – but if you keep playing football that way, you’ll win more than you lose.

I never imagined or intended this match report to be a sermon on the lack of patience of our supporters, anyone who followed this blog through last season will hopefully vouch for my happy go lucky/gallows humour – but I think everyone just needs to calm down and remember it IS just the first game of the season.

I leave you with a few facts:

* It took Manchester United four games to get a win last season. They did okay in the end…
* The season we got promoted under Billy, it took 3 games to get a win.
* The season we finished 2nd in the Championship, we opened the season with a 1-0 defeat to Oldham…
* We had 8 points from 4 games in 2005-2006 and finished 40 points away from 2nd place…

Statistics can be twisted to tell their own story, but seriously… get real… We’ll be back, Paul Jewell is the man! – just keep the faith. Get behind the team and the rest will fall into place.

- MoonPig.