Good save by Pope at the end saves us a point. We got battered but defended stoutly. The bad news is Millwall lost 0-4 at home to Coventry.
Doubt if we will see that line-up again away from home. Only two in midfield surrendered the initiative to Derby. Still, we got away with it.
All in all a good point against a reasonably good Derby side. They had the majority of the possession but struggled to break us down until Martin turned in the box and fired low beyond the reach of Pope. Our goal was deflected after good work from Makienok to set up Watt. Diarra and Bauer are both very good defenders and Pope did nothing wrong (apart from 2 dodgy kicks) so defensively we should be OK this season. Kashi and Cousins didn't do badly individually but still struggled to restrict their midfield directed by Thorne. Ceballos did little ( I'll try to forget that corner ever happened) and JBG only got into the game in the second half, going on one good run before firing wide. Watt was good without being spectacular and I thought Makienok did well. One or two touches didn't go where they were meant to but he won almost every header, particularly when we were defending corners. He and Watt showed signs of building an understanding which could have seen us nick a win - he drilled a shot straight at the keeper after Watt had set him up. A win would have been unjust though. Defensively we earned our point, but needed a bit of luck to secure it.
Happy with that. Normally I'd be sad conceeding the lead, but sounded like we gave a good account of ourselves, and I'd certainly have taken a 1-1 draw before the start.
Did anyone have a bit of charlton double chance at 8/5? The odds for that on Tuesday are 7/10, so the bookies are keeping an eye on our early season form. I thought you'd have got evens for that.
Might help if you explain double chance betting super, it is a bet where you win if your chosen team avoids defeat (ie draws or wins) in a game where the punter feels that the favourites odds are far too low.
When the fixtures came out, if you had offered me 2 points I'd have been very happy. So 4 I am delighted with. More of the same lads, possibly the hardest away trip we'd have this year so delighted to come away with a point. Bauer is an animal and if Watt can keep it up I will be very excited come end of the season.
Watt has made a good start, but yesterday's goal took a massive deflection and I suspect he lacks the pace to really make an impact this season. Despite our decent start to the season, we still need the 3 players from Bournemouth. They must have gone via the Channel Tunnel and got stuck in traffic. Tomorrow, surely ?
Has anyone ever seen Vol and Reams in the same room at the same time? I am beginning to suspect they are two manifestations of the same disordered mind.
