Tomorrow see’s Pompey back on the road once more as they visit Pride Park – home of Nigel Cloughs Derby County who have been spluttering in form compared to a re-galvanised Pompey side since the departure of Manager Steve Cotterill to Nottingham Forest. With speculation still rife over the new Manager at Pompey and an announcement expected to be named soon, first team coaches Guy Whittingham and Stuart Gray have guided the club to 6 points from the 9 available since taking the helm and in all fairness should have taken all 9 having come away empty handed from an away trip to Ipswich Town after which their manager Paul Jewell admitted they had robbed Pompey of a victory.
Derby County are a club that will forever remain in the history books of Pompey; The largest recorded home attendance on record came against County way back in 1949 in an FA Cup tie when 51,385 spectators packed into Fratton Park – A far cry from the dwindling attendances of recent games; Doncaster (12,779) Barnsley (11,261) Peterborough (12,102). County got their current campaign off to a spectacular start this season taking maximum points from their first four games with wins over Birmingham City, Watford, Blackpool and Doncaster Rovers though since their 3-0 home win against Millwall, County have drawn 3 and lost two of their last 5 games. County however at the time of writing retain their play-off spot in 6th position in the Championship.
If fans wondered how the departure of Steve Cotterill would affect the performances and results on the pitch, then the players response has been just the ticket and Pompey look a side far away from the team that had looked in total disarray and devoid of confidence just months ago against Hull City when they failed to muster a single shot on target in a 1-0 away defeat. The home win against Barnsley which saw Pompey score two quick goals in succession from in form Luke Varney and the returning Dave Kitson was the first game in all competitions that Pompey hadn’t received at least one yellow card. There were no bookings in the next game against Ipswich either and Ricardo Rocha’s yellow last Saturday was a slight dent on a greatly improved team discipline. Previous to those games Pompey had collected a total of 30 yellow cards and 2 sending’s off in all competitions and looked in real danger of the leagues smallest squad being stretched to breaking point with the real possibility of suspensions starting to take an affect.
The recent form of Luke Varney has given Pompey a timely boost as has the return of Ricardo Rocha at centre half to shore up the Pompey back four. Summer signing Stephen Henderson has looked in impressive form since taking over the reins from Jamie Ashdown having made his league debut against Leeds United away and retained the keeper’s jersey for the past four games and even weighed in with an assist for the goal last weekend. The 3-1 win at home to Doncaster Rovers was the first time Pompey had managed to score 3 goals in a game since the 3-3 draw away to Leeds on the 28th of December where two own goals from ex-Pompey player Andy O’Brien helped them come away with a battling point. Since their relegation to the Championship it was only the fifth time Pompey had managed to score three or more goals in a game. Including the aforementioned Leeds game, the only other times had come in home wins against Watford (3-2), Bristol City (3-1) and who could forget the sublime performance against Leicester City last season (6-1)?
Pompey remain one of just two Championship teams who’ve failed to secure an away win the season and County go into the game having scored in 16 of the last 17 games against Pompey though Pompey fans will be more confident ahead of tomorrow’s game than they have in a long while that the side is more than capable of coming away with at least a share of the spoils tomorrow from Pride Park. Pompey need just a point to take their all-time points tally to 4,000.
Two interesting facts from Derby’s 2-0 loss to high flying Middlesbrough last week; Striker Mason Bennett became Derby’s youngest ever player aged just a tender 15 years and 99 days old. So young in fact is Bennett that he needed permission to play for County from his mum and his school. Middlesbrough’s first goal game from Rhys Williams older brother of Pompey’s Ryan, one of the three brothers currently plying their trade in the English league. Twin Aryn is currently on the books of Burnley’s academy. I’m sure that given a chance Ryan will be itching to add the family total of goals against Derby County.
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