Derby County 0-2 Ipswich Town - Match Report Saturday, 1st Apr 2023 17:07 Town are only two points off the top of League One after defeating Derby County 2-0 at Pride Park, their seventh successive win and their eighth clean sheet in a row. Conor Chaplin gave the Blues the lead with his 20th of the season in the 17th minute and George Hirst smashed his third in three games to seal the victory 14 minutes from time. Greg Leigh replaced Leif Davis at left-back in an otherwise unchanged Town side, the summer signing from Leeds absent from the 18 having presumably picked up a knock during the Blues’ fortnight without a match. Leigh was making only his third league start for Town having last been in the XI in League One for the 1-1 draw at Lincoln on January 2nd. For Derby, former Blues striker David McGoldrick started with Conor Hourihane, who never made a first-team appearance during his year at Town just over a decade ago, among the substitutes. The first attack of the game led to the first yellow card, Rams defender Eiran Cashin handed a caution for a late tackle on Wes Burns just outside the box to the right, although the Blues still had the ball with George Hirst in the area and might well have worked an opening. Chaplin smashed the free-kick into the wall and Nathan Broadhead’s follow-up also struck a defender before the home side eventually cleared their lines. Town continued to take the game to the Rams and on five Hirst shot over, then in the eighth minute Clarke screwed a cross behind having been cleverly played in by Chaplin. On 10, a move down the right, in which Chaplin had impressively turned his man, ended with Massimo Luongo scuffing wide from 25 yards. Derby were struggling to get out of their half with their fans starting to get on their players’ backs even with the game at such an early stage. In the 13th minute, Jake Rooney was lucky to get away with only a talking to having hauled down Broadhead early in a Blues attack with referee Anthony Backhouse having waved play on at the time. But the Rams started to come more into it and their supporters behind them, and in the 16th minute Town keeper Christian Walton was forced to punch Derby skipper Max Bird’s looping corner from the right over from under his bar. And from the resultant Derby corner, the Blues went in front via a superb counter-attacking goal. Walton comfortably caught the ball and threw it out to Broadhead on the right. The Welshman played the ball across to his fellow Welsh international Wes Burns, who knocked down to Chaplin behind Korey Smith and the forward confidently beat home keeper Joe Wildsmith to take his total for the season to 20. Chaplin and his teammates gleefully celebrated the former Barnsley man becoming the first Town player to pass that milestone since Daryl Murphy in 2014/15 in front of the 3,100 Blues supporters in the corner by the goal. Town, who had thoroughly deserved the goal, maintained their dominance and weren’t too far away from a second in the 22nd minute when Clarke unleashed a powerful strike from distance after a short corner on the left had been worked to him. Wildsmith saved but the ball looped out to Chaplin, whose header lacked power and was easy for Wildsmith when he will feel he might have grabbed his 21st of the campaign. A minute later, former Blues striker McGoldrick got his name in the book for a frustrated challenge on Chaplin having been dispossessed moments earlier. The home fans, but notably not their players, claimed a penalty in the 26th minute when Clarke muscled Jason Knight off the ball in the box. Town quickly broke and Broadhead took the ball across the Derby area from the left but without finding space to shoot. Burns then crossed from the right, Hirst knocked down and Luongo hit an effort which was bundled out for the first of three corners in quick succession on the left, Broadhead whipping them over in Davis’s absence, Wildsmith eventually claiming the last of them. As the game reached the half hour, Walton comfortably saved James Collins’s header from a Nathaniel Mendez-Laing cross from the right. The Rams subsequently enjoyed a long spell on the ball and in control in the Town half and eventually a Collins cross from the left was diverted into Walton’s hands by Cameron Burgess with the use of his thigh. Derby kept up the pressure on the Blues, skipper Bird shooting wide from distance in the 38th minute. Three minutes later, Clarke was booked for taking too much time over a throw, not the first time Town had been rather tardy at a restart since going in front. The Blues briefly got themselves back in the ascendency but in the final minute of the half, the home side might have levelled. Mendez-Laing sent over a deep cross from the right which McGoldrick met with his head at the far post but the former Irish international was only able to find the side-netting. In injury time, Leigh clipped over a cross from the left which Wildsmith, not for the first time, dealt with uncomfortably, but the ball just wouldn’t fall for a Town player. That was the final action of a pulsating half in which the Blues been well on top and deserving their excellent counter-attacking goal. The Rams had come more into it in the final quarter-hour and might well have got back on terms via McGoldrick in the latter stages but Town’s record period without conceding had stretched to 731 minutes. Four minutes after the restart Derby thought they’d got back on terms. Cashin flicked a header from a corner across goal and into the corner of the net. However, referee Backhouse disallowed it, apparently for a foul on Walton, although McGoldrick was offside as he looked to add an extra touch with his heel. Walton was booked for taking his time over a goal-kick in the 51st minute, then Knight was very lucky not to join him two minutes later for a blatant dive as Luke Woolfenden pulled out of a challenge just inside the Town half. The period had got off to a scruffy start but with the Blues not under the pressure they had been just before the break. Derby fouls continued to come with regularity, Haydon Roberts bringing down Burns on the right, then Collins catching Broadhead late on the other in front of the dugouts with the Irish international claiming his innocence, while the home crowd berated the referee for giving Town the free-kick, even though it looked thoroughly justified with the Welsh forward requiring treatment. On the hour, Smith was booked for hauling down Morsy as the Blues broke away with the half continuing in the stop-start manner in which it had started. Town looked to have had a very strong case for a penalty in the 63rd minute when Clarke played in Chaplin on the right of the box and the Blues’ top scorer looked to be tripped as he went past Craig Forsyth However, referee Backhouse gave a goal-kick, to the amazement and frustration of Chaplin. The Blues had regained their earlier control with the home fans again showing their frustration with their players, as well as with Town and the referee. On 65, Morsy played wide to Clarke on the right, the defender crossed, Hirst knocked back but Chaplin’s sharp shot at goal was too close to Wildsmith. Derby made three changes in the 69th minute, Tom Barkhuizen replacing Rooney, who had suffered a knock, Lewis Dobbin coming on for Collins and Hourihane for Bird. Then with the game still held up, Town swapped Clarke and Broadhead, who was still feeling the knock from the Collins challenge, for Janoi Donacien and Marcus Harness. The Blues had been on top for much of the half with Derby not having threatened since the disallowed goal. And in the 76th minute, Town doubled their lead, again on the counter-attack. As the Blues broke, Morsy brilliantly found Burns bursting away down the right leaving Cashin in his wake. The Welshman took the ball on into the area and hit a low shot which Wildsmith saved. However, Hirst seized on the loose ball, which had fallen behind him, and smashed a shot on the turn into the top corner of the net. It was on-loan Leicester man Hirst’s fourth goal for Town and his third in the last three league games. Almost immediately Town swapped Hirst, who was warmly applauded off by the travelling support, for Freddie Ladapo, the Rams having switched Smith and Knight for Harvey White and Louie Sibley moments earlier. White quickly got his name in the book for a late challenge on Harness as Town moved the ball quickly between one another just inside the Derby half. With two scheduled minutes remaining, Dominic Ball took over from Luongo, again a key man in the centre of the midfield. The Blues’ second goal had all but knocked the stuffing out of the Rams, who continued to prod and probe but without too much conviction and Town saw out injury time with few concerns to claim their 10th win out of 19 matches at Pride Park, only three having ended in defeat. At the end the 3,145 away fans loudly sang in praise of their team, who came over to celebrate with them at length, singing “The Town are going up!”, a prospect which looks more likely with every game that passes. The Blues thoroughly deserved their seventh win on the bounce after perhaps their stiffest challenge from a physical perspective during that run. Town took the initiative from early in the first half and grabbed the opening goal, then withstood the Derby pressure before the break before getting on top in a scrappier second period. The last time the Blues won seven in a row was at the end of 1988/89 and the start of 1989/90, while they most recently achieved such a run in a single season in the 1953/54 Third Division South title-winning campaign as part of a club record eight-game league winning streak. The Blues’ clean sheet record has now moved on to eight matches and Town haven’t conceded for 776 minutes during which time they have scored 20 goals. In addition to the Blues’ victory, Sheffield Wednesday dropped more points having drawn 1-1 at home to Lincoln, the Owls have now taken only three from their last 15. However, with Plymouth not in league action this weekend as they face Bolton in the Papa Johns Trophy final at Wembley tomorrow, Wednesday go top on goal difference from the Pilgrims with Town now two points behind the top two with a game in hand on the South Yorkshiremen. Fourth-placed Barnsley remain three points behind Town having beaten Morecambe 5-0 at Oakwell. Town are next in action at home to Wycombe Wanderers, who drew 2-2 at home to the MK Dons today, on Good Friday with the title and automatic promotion very much up for grabs and the Blues the team with momentum and in the club’s best form in years. Derby: Wildsmith, Forsyth, Cashin, Bird (c) (Hourihane 69), Collins (Dobbin 69), McGoldrick, Mendez-Laing, Smith (White 78), Roberts, Rooney (Barkhuizen 69), Knight (Sibley 78). Unused: McGee, Davies, White. Town: Walton, Clarke (Donacien 71), Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Morsy (c), Luongo (Ball 88), Leigh, Chaplin, Broadhead (Harness 71), Hirst (Ladapo 79). Unused: Hladky, Edwards, Jackson. Referee: Anthony Backhouse (Cumbria). Att: 29,691 (Town: 3,145).
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