Derby's last league win was on Boxing Day. Between then and yesterday their record was P 7, W 0, D 0, L 7, GF 3, GA 12, GD -9. But that doesn't tell the whole story. 5 of their 7 losses were by a single goal, and among those 5 were defeats by Leeds, Sunderland and Sheffield Utd. 3 other losses -- Wednesday, Bristol, Watford -- were against teams in the top 10. The remaining loss was 2--1 away at Cardiff, who were one place above them in the table. They hadn't been trounced by anybody, and three of the current top four teams in the league made heavy weather of beating them. So yesterday was pretty much what might have been expected (and clearly what Thorup anticipated) -- apart from Stacey's 90th minute blunder.
Yeah. For me, we’ve had a few lucky ones go our way recently, so there was always going to be a game where we didn’t get what we feel we might have deserved. And Stacey has done enough this season to have earned grace for one mistake. He’s no McLean or Sainz…
