[themaclad]

Derby County
Pride Park 2/4/2025 1945 hrs

That time of the season where it is our last night away game, the last chance of slammig in five motorway diversions, the last chance of getting home from a game after Midnight. Just as a matter of interest we have no 3pm away kick offs on a Satursay again this season.

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/

MANAGER



Third time this season we get to plat against one of his sides

LAST TIME OUT





RAMS 11 PNE 6

The Rams were on a good little run before the break

RAMING THEM IN



DERBY CULTURE



St. Luke's Church is a Grade II* listed parish church on Parliament Street in Derby in the Church of England.[2]

History
The church was erected between 1868 and 1871 to designs by the architects Henry Isaac Stevens and Frederick Josias Robinson. The church was consecrated on Saturday 24 June 1871 by the Bishop of Lichfield[3] George Selwyn. In the 1880s, a mission church of St George was opened in the Firs Estate.

St Luke's is a traditional Anglo-Catholic church. It is a member of Forward in Faith, an Anglo-Catholic organisation that opposes the ordination of women and liberal attitudes to homosexuality.[4] It is under the alternative episcopal oversight of the Bishop of Oswestry (currently Paul Thomas).[5] On 1 April 2017, St Luke's joined with another Anglo-Catholic Derby church, St Bartholomew's in Allenton, to form a united benefice of St Batholomew and St Luke.[6] The Church is also under the patronage of The Society.[7]

[themaclad]

Head Coach John Eustace lauded the ‘fantastic’ hard work and commitment of his squad ahead of Derby County's final eight games of the 2024/25 season - starting against Preston North End on Wednesday night.



The Rams will face Preston at Pride Park Stadium, off the back of a two-week international break, with matches and the Lilywhites’ FA Cup exploits seeing the fixture rescheduled for Wednesday night (7:45pm kick-off).

The action under the floodlights will be Derby’s first game back after they secured a trio of wins on the bounce before the March international period, including a spirited 3-2 win over Plymouth Argyle on the road in their last outing.

Eustace spoke to RamsTVto preview themidweek Sky Bet Championship action.



On feelings, looking ahead after the international break…
Everyone's really excited about the games coming up. We've had a couple of good weeks now on the training field, which has been great. We've been able to rest a few players who have needed that rest as well. It's going to be exciting. There's been some real serious work on the training field. There were certainly three or four players that needed a rest as well, because they were going through the pain barrier for the club, which was fantastic. We've been able to give them a little bit of a breather. Now everyone available is fit and ready to go.



On Erik Pieters joining the Rams’ ranks…
It's important we get as many experienced players as we can. Good people, with good characters in the group, who are going to help the squad. Erik comes with lots of experience and he's a fantastic human being – so he's going to help the group until the end of the season. He came in when Sondre Langås was injured as well, and we weren't too sure about his fitness until the end of the season. We were left short in that area. Overall, it has been a big boost.



On Wednesday night’s opponents, Preston North End…
They are a very solid Championship team with a fantastic manager and great experienced players. They know the league inside out. We know it's going to be a difficult challenge, but we're looking forward to it.

We have to take each day as it comes, each game as it comes, and focus on what we can control. The boys have been fantastic for the last five or six weeks. We've just got to continue all the hard work that we've been doing and see where it takes us.

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The Fitness Test

Paul Heckingbottom confirmed after Sunday’s quarter-final that Freddie Woodman will miss the remainder of the season with an ankle injury.

North End will be able to welcome back a number of players who were missing for that FA Cup tie, with Kaine Kesler-Hayden, Ryan Porteous and Ryan Ledson all coming back into contention.

Ali McCann, Brad Potts and Jack Whatmough are still sidelined through injury.

The Rams

Derby County appear to have hit form at the right time of the season, having won their previous three Championship matches under John Eustace, strengthening their chances of survival.

In fact, victory in this match will see the Rams climb above Cardiff City and out of the bottom three.

They’ve got some key matches coming up between now and the end of the season, with a number of clashes against sides in and around them in the table still to come.

The Officials

Referee: Stephen Martin
Assistant Referees: Carl Fitch-Jackson and Robert Hyde
Fourth Official: Gavin Ward

This will be the third time this season that Stephen Martin has taken charge of a PNE fixture, having refereed both meetings with Swansea City.

In total this term, he’s shown 111 yellow cards and one red in 27 matches.

[themaclad]

Derby County 2 Forsyth, Yates Preston North End 0

Attendance: 26,014 (426 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr S Martin.

Inept performance, yes probably should have had a penalty and had a goal probably wrongly ruled out, but this was dire, apart from the first 60 seconds.
Had a chance to score in the first minute, ball oevr the top Osmajic first touch was poor, managed to get a left footed shot in, probably may have scored if he had been in the inside right channel instead of inside left, and that was basically it apart from a Ledson effort in the second period which went narrowly wide.
The next 20 minutes were truly abysmal from both sides, ale house 100 mph stuff, both sides had an inability to keep the ball. From a long throw Derby nearly scored Harness firing across goal, they were on top though never actually looked like scoring.
Level at the break, dreadful


Two goals in the first five minutes of the second half not great defending and that's being kind, number 1 Forsyth given about an hour to turn in the box and fire home unchallenged from 10 yards and then Lindsay failed to deal with a ball in the six yard box, Yates headed home, epically s***e, game over, goals gave yhem confidence whilst ours started to dream of days on Mexican beaches, subs were made Riis brought down in the area corner given, defender does not touch the ball. Just the usual nept officiating.
It was actually three years to the day since we last played here, we were crap then as well only difference Lindsay didn't get sent off last night. PAP

Journey home was fun, ended up on the motorway going south to Stafford, Stoke appeared to be a no go zone, detour as Junctions 18/19 shut, did however see two owls near home, highlight of the night.

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom admitted he was “really frustrated” to lose to Derby County, especially given the manner of the goals conceded.

North End seemed to have control of the game in the first half and created comfortably the best opportunity through Milutin Osmajić, however a four-minute period in the second 45 decided the game.

Goals from Craig Forsyth and Jerry Yates put the Rams all of a sudden in charge of the tie and they took all three points.

Hecky said: “I’m really frustrated we lost that game. We had total control in the first half.

“We wanted a bit more penetration, but we had total control. Then we didn't stand up to what we know they are, like two balls just put in our box, a set play, and then a second phase from the throw-in and we’re 2-0 down before you know it.

“Then they can sit back and defend. It's one of those that stings, this one. You know what to expect, you know what their threats are going to be and we still get undone by it. It's disappointing.”

The pattern of the game changed completely upon Derby’s two goals early in the second period and after that point North End struggled to create.

Ryan Ledson came closest of anyone with an effort which went just inches wide and Emil Riis also had a late penalty shout turned down, but Jacob Zetterström remained unchallenged.


On going two down and having to break the hosts down, Hecky said: “I don't think we're great when that happens. Like I said, that's one thing we want to be better at next season.

“I think we're good at pressing the ball, stopping teams, regains high. They don't play that way either, so you see with every regain of ours, we dealt with their threat, but we were winning the ball back on the edge of our box and having to play through them, which we did to the final third, but then they’re back behind the ball with ten outfield players. That was the pattern.

“But I'd 100% have taken that for the second half just to get one or two opportunities, but the difference was that we didn't deal with them well in the second. In that five or ten-minute spell after half-time, they won too many duels, too many balls in our box, and we just switched off.”

North End now return to Lancashire to take on Stoke City this weekend, for what the manager sees as a huge game, as he does for all of the remaining seven fixtures.

He said: “They are for me and they better be for everyone else. I'm looking at how we improve and everyone's getting judged all the time, about how we improve.

“I’m looking to win these games. I’m picking teams to win the games. Of course we're trying to build for next season but the big thing is what do we need for next season to get better? Today's shown me again areas where we need to improve.

“I don't want too many of them. I know what we're good at, we showed in the first half, but also in the first half where we're lacking. Then in the second half, that first ten minutes, I questioned myself on did I pick the right team to deal with their threats?”

EUSTACE

Derby County Head Coach John Eustace praised his side after they recorded their fourth win on the bounce with a 2-0 victory against Preston North End in the Sky Bet Championship at Pride Park on Wednesday night.



After a stalemate in the first half, the Rams were clinical at the start of the second with two goals in quick succession through Craig Forsyth and Jerry Yates.

The result sees the Rams take 20th position in the table with seven games to go in the league campaign.

Eustace caught up with RamsTV to give his thoughts after his side’s win following a two-and-a-half-week break from Championship action.



On four wins in a row in the Championship…
I'm just really pleased for the boys. The effort they've shown since we've come in has been fantastic. We've had two weeks of real hard work on the training pitch. I was delighted, after having three wins in a row, to go again after two and a half weeks. It was a big game for us, and it was a positive result.



On the message at half-time that led to a quick start to the second 45…
I felt that in the first 15-20 minutes, we looked a little bit nervous. Preston had a lot of possession but didn't hurt us, so I wasn't too worried about that. I knew that when we won the ball back in that first half, we needed to be better with it in the final third. I think the quality came out in the second half and to start the way we did was great. The boys have been working very hard on the set-pieces, the free-kicks, the corners and sustaining the attacks.



On everyone chipping in and believing…
The most important thing is that we're very competitive and the boys believe in what we're doing. We go into each game with a plan, and even at half-time, the boys showed great focus and asked lots of questions. We really believe in the game plans, and it doesn't matter who scores as long as we're creating and we're hard to play against. That's all I'm asking for at the moment.



On Jerry Yates getting his goal…
I’m absolutely delighted for him. His work since I've been here has been sensational. He's an outstanding professional, and he certainly deserved his goal tonight after all the effort he's put in of late.