Older Derby fans may recall another run of five away wins and an enforced
Older Derby fans may recall another run of five away wins and an enforced change of shorts at an away game at Millwall; that was April 1969, and the Rams were on their way to the Second Division championship under Brian Clough. That may be beyond this side, but the play-offs are certainly within their grasp.. Stoke City extracted maximum value from their first goal for seven matches, denting Wigan’s promotion ambitions by achieving one of the Championship’s most surprising results of the season so far. If the fuss he made over the shirts was an irritant, the sending-off of Taylor was something else.
McCammon had by then added his second, Gary Hart’s inadvertent flick cannoning in off his shins, and when the red card was produced for a shove on Knight, Brighton must have thought the game was there for the taking.But Derby retained their composure and took the lead again, Tudgay running on to Kenna’s long pass to score. Certainly there didn’t seem much capacity for movement when Kerry Mayo’s misplaced pass was collected by Morten Bisgaard after 13 minutes. The Danish midfielder exchanged the simplest of passes with Grzegorz Rasiak and slid his finish calmly past David Yelldell.Brighton equalised almost immediately as McCammon muscled on to Mayo’s cross, but Derby regained the lead four minutes before half-time. There was nothing especially taxing about Jeff Kenna’s ball into the box, but Yelldell fumbled, and Marcus Tudgay jabbed into an untended net. The keeper may have survived his ordeal by pink shirt at Elland Road last week, but this was far worse humiliation.He was forced then to change by a referee concerned his yellow top would clash with his own, and the fashion police were out again yesterday, Fred Graham, the referee, deciding that Derby’s white shirts were too similar to Brighton’s blue-and-white stripes, forcing the Rams into their black training tops.The Derby manager, George Burley, described Graham’s performance as “very questionable”. There is something remorseless about Derby away from home these days.
Despite twice conceding equalisers and having their captain, Ian Taylor, controversially sent off, they held on for a fifth successive away victory that pulled them level on points with fourth-placed Reading. Derby, though, probably just about deserved it, even after going down to 10 men.Mark McGhee, the Brighton manager, had called on his side to show a “backbone of steel”, an odd anatomical concept that would presumably explain just why his side seemed so static at times in the first half. And relegated Leeds United are at last showing signs of a late run to the top six. They moved to within five points of the play-offs thanks to a 1-0 win at Burnley. The game turned Leeds’s way just after the hour when Gylfi Einarsson headed in.
The Clarets’ defender Frank Sinclair was sent off for a second booking soon after and Ian Moore missed a Burnley penalty.At the Walkers Stadium, Leicester City drew 1-1 with visitors Crewe Alexandra, Keith Gillespie scoring his first goal since April 2002 to stretch Leicester’s undefeated run to seven matches.. The other Leagues are a mirror image of what is happening in the Premiership.”Both Argyle and Coventry are still in some relegation peril, but not in as much as bottom club Rotherham United and Nottingham Forest, a place above them, who met at Millmoor The goalless draw did no good to either side. “Both teams wanted to win, but no one wanted to lose, and that resulted in a scrappy game,” Rotherham’s caretaker-manager, Alan Knill, con-cluded “The massive thing for us was keeping a clean sheet. I cannot remember the last time we did that.” Forest have not won away all season; the Millers have taken three points at home only once.Gillingham, the third club in the relegation places, had no luck in their 2-0 defeat at Watford, who took the lead when Danny Webber’s run and shot was guided into his own net by Barry Ashby after 23 minutes.
The Gills pressed in the second half, hit the woodwork twice but were undone when substitute Chris Eagles, on loan from Manchester United, scored in the 90th minute. “It’s the first time we have come off for a very long time feeling we have had a bit of luck,” Watford manager, Ray Lewington, said.Back among the play-off aspirants, the London derby between Millwall and Queen’s Park Rangers, who should have had a penalty in the closing minutes at the New Den, both managers agreed, finished 0-0. “It’s the teams that are investing in their squads that will be successful at the end of the season. “The opposition are fighting for their lives and we never really passed the ball, and didn’t look composed.”None the less they drew level midway through the first half with their first scoring opportunity.
