Well the first game of my return to season ticket ownership. I am not going to draw too many season based conclusions on one game but I'll go with a Spaghetti Western style of round-up.... The Good The effort by the team even when going behind cannot be faulted. They stuck to their task and did not let their heads drop. The new signings certainly showed promise. It was also good to see Dickinson make an extra effort to applaud the crowd at the end even after defeat. Talking of which, I know it's the first game and we were unlucky to lose but it was also good that no one booed the boys at the end. Almost a rarity these days! Sordell. A concern that the guy who is expected to get us the goals also seemed to be the one with real creative ability. Defence. Looked pretty solid but then Derby rarely threatened our goal. The Bad We seemed to rely heavily on the long diagonal ball over the top which proved fairly easy to defend. When we did have the ball at feet the player in posession often seemed isolated with no short pass option which would often end up with the ball played down the line, that said Derby closed down well once they had the lead. We won worryingly few headers up front. I will give Iwelumo some time as he may not be fully match sharp but he seemed ponderous and heavy footed. Derby. I do not think we'll come up against much poorer opposition this season but may just have been an off day for them as well. Their tactics seemed very negative. The Ugly Ward for Derby. Kept falling over like he'd been shot. Disappointing start to the home season. Derby were wasting time from pretty much the 30th minute which got worse once they got ahead but we didn't move the ball quick enough or stretch the play enough and for large parts a defence which looked like they should be carved open were able to deal with much of what we threw at them. Hopefully once the team get used to playing with each other we will be better equipped to mix our play up better and ask sterner questions.
