city blog Derby Day

Posted: December 5th 2008
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There are ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’ so said Samuel Johnson. As ever, the good doctor was right, at least insofar as our Premier League campaign is concerned. For the first time in aeons we’ve been putting sides away with a degree of comfort. Our five wins have all been by at least three clear goals – an 18 plus goal difference and no goals conceded. But what about when it’s not like watching Brazil? Two draws, seven defeats, and 22 goals conceded.

For City this is nothing new. Right back to our Jeckyll & Hyde Road days we were always a bit unpredictable. The only side to have been the top division’s leading scorers, and get relegated. The only side to have scored, and conceded more than a hundred league goals in a season. The only side to have been 6v2 up in a cup tie and ending up losing (work that one out) (er...my beloved QPR beat Partizan Belgrade 6v2 in the UEFA Cup once, lost the away leg 4v0 and went out on away goals – was it a bit like that? Ed.)

Behind this part malaise lies a paradox. Micah Richards is a better player than either Richard Dunne or Sylvain Distin. Yet the Dunne / Distin partnership was highly effective. Even when we were crap (eight home Premier games in a row without a goal) they only conceded a fraction over one goal a game. This record was maintained over several seasons – the only problem being we only created one chance every three games, and it usually fell to Gorgios Samaras – now piling up his account with the Bhoys.

To Derby Day. It was a frosty early morning start – the pints of Gin & Tonic at a party 13 miles outside Darlington a big mistake. 7.30am and on the Dutch Bike (picked up in Amsterdam last January) and began working off the hangover. The train from Darlington and arrived at Piccadilly in good time to reach Eastlands.

For the record – 17 years before I first saw us beat them. My first Derby game was at OT, where we went two up. Frank Stapleton scored a couple of blinders to level the account. A couple of months later ‘Sniffer’ Pleat’s crocodile skin shoes were dancing a merry jig in front of a stunned Kippax. I was one of the 40’000 there that day.

But happier times of late – sweet strikes by The Goat, SWP, Robbie Fowler, Giovanni, meant we’d matched them five wins apiece since returning to the Premiership in 2002. And of course there was Sven’s ‘mine’s’ a double’ last term.

But it wasn’t to be. They were up for it – Rooney in pit-bull terrier mood. And Sparky got the team selection wrong. United built a bypass around Dietmar Hamann, who saw about as much action as the Bates Motel. Darius Vassell’s pace and engine have gone. What else does he have to offer? In truth we could / and should have been two or three down by the break. The treatment of Rooney (corner sections) and the ball boy (trying to wind up Ronaldo) didn’t help. They had a kind of resolve reminiscent of Leeds United sides in the early 1970’s. Second half, with Elano pulling a few strings, and Hamann / Vassell replaced, we gave them a game. Ronaldo’s sending off paradoxically didn’t help our cause. They went to two banks of four, and we never looked like breaking them down. But the gap is closing (in spite of what the pundits reported) and Mark Hughes can think long and hard before the January sales, and another sheikh of the dice.