COYLE SPRINGS TO ROVERS’ DEFENCE
DERBY:
Russell smashed in a low shot from the edge of the area just four minutes after coming on as a second-half sub at the iPro Stadium to provide the Rams with a first home Championship victory of the season.
Leeds almost spoiled McClaren’s return when sub Marcus Antonsson hit a post in stoppage time but Derby held on in front of a 31,000-plus crowd.
But McClaren admitted he has a lot of work ahead of him despite his winning start.
He said: “I think you could see the nervousness of the players but among that nervousness the players showed fight, the attitude was great and we got some great blocks in at the end.
“We worked our socks off but the last 10 minutes are always going to be nervous. We rode our luck and got through it and it was a big three points.
“We said we need to put a marker down at five o’clock and we have done. I saw certain aspects I like and potential in the team but there is a lot of work and a long way to go. But if the players have that attitude and fight, I have no complaints.
“That’s what we said at the beginning not just at half-time – the supporters want to see fight, attitude, tackles and I think the players did that.”
It was no surprise that McClaren switched to his favoured 4-3-3 formation but a long-range effort from Bradley Johnson that cleared the bar was as close as Derby came in a tepid opening 20 minutes.
Hadi Sacko almost went clear for Leeds before Jacob Butterfield fired over from 25 yards in the 26th minute.
But the visitors fashioned an opening a minute later when Luke Ayling crossed from the right and Chris Wood flashed a header wide.
Derby responded with a clever chip from Johnson that put Matej Vydra in behind Leeds but the striker’s low shot fizzed just past Rob Green’s far post.
Butterfield was off target with another effort from distance and Sacko was close to getting on the end of a Pablo Hernandez pass in the 42nd minute before a disappointing half came to an end with Kyle Bartley thumping a header against the bar from an Alex Mowatt corner.
Derby were forced into a change in the 52nd minute when Ikechi Anya limped off following a robust challenge from Bartley.
And it was his replacement Russell who fired the home side ahead four minutes later. A corner was only cleared as far as the edge of the box and Russell was the first to the loose ball and drove a low shot past Green for his first goal of the season.
Green was probably unsighted as the ball skidded past him but he kept Leeds in it in the 64th minute when he plunged to his left to beat away a 20-yard shot from Will Hughes.
Derby thought they had scored a second in the 68th minute when Tom Ince broke away down the right and his low cross was turned in by Vydra but the Czech striker had just strayed offside.
Scott Carson had not made a meaningful save in BLACKBURN boss Owen Coyle praised his side’s resilience after securing a first clean sheet of the season.
This game will not be remembered for long as both teams toiled fruitlessly to get the breakthrough.
Ipswich created the only chances of note, with Adam Webster’s first-half header producing a fantastic close-range save from Jason Steele, who was also tested in either half by Grant Ward and Freddie Sears.
The hosts were restricted to long-range efforts and a third game without a win or goal means Blackburn remain in the bottom three.
Coyle said: “It was a very hard-fought game, as we expected. We started the first 15 minutes well and created them a number of problems.
“But then we got caught up in Ipswich’s way LEEDS: the game until he kept Derby in front when he got down quickly to his left to stop a Kalvin Phillips 25-yard free-kick squeezing inside the post.
The visitors pressed hard for an equaliser and almost got it in the fifth minute of added time when Antonsson curled a right-foot shot past Carson but the ball came back off a post.
Leeds head coach Garry Monk said: “We need to play a little bit better and we did at the start of the second half but we conceded a poor goal from our point of view which put us on the back foot.
“We had a go in the last 25 minutes and had a couple of chances but overall I think we didn’t do enough of the things we have done really well recently with the ball to give ourselves the best chance of getting something.
“We probably deserved something from the game but it’s one of those where you probably can’t complain that you didn’t.
“We didn’t do enough of the good things that we have been doing recently to really carve them open or create really clear opportunities.” of playing. They’re a big, strong physical powerful team. They’ve got a certain way of playing, they can at times be very direct when they bang that ball and they go and squeeze and good wide players can go and play.”
The stalemate means Ipswich have gone five games without scoring or winning but boss Mick McCarthy believes the performance should go some way to pleasing the fans after murmurs of displeasure in previous weeks.
And after the fourth clean sheet in the last six games, he said: “We needed a performance, I got that. Our fans got that performance. I’m disappointed. I felt we should have won the game to be honest.
“Jason Steele got the man of the match, he probably deserves it. Could we have been better, and more clinical? I don’t know but I don’t know what they’ve really contributed in the second half, certainly.
“I thought we were the better team. If any team was going to win, it was going to be us.
“I would really love to get our fans back on side with me and the team and be excited by us. That was a start today. We’ve had more shots, crosses, attempts on goals than we’ve had in the last two or three games.”
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