PRESTON 0
DERBY 1 Neil’s men frozen out again by Rams
PRESTON boss Alex Neil really should have known there was a roadblock waiting for him at Derby.
His side slammed straight into it as Martyn Waghorn’s 33rd-minute goal grabbed the points as if it had been written in the stars.
This was the 13th consecutive league meeting they’ve failed to register a win against the Rams and they haven’t tasted victory on their last 11 visits to Pride Park.
Neil (right) said: “It would have been easy for me to shout and bawl at half-time but the players knew we hadn’t been good enough.
“They are frustrated and I’m frustrated. Derby were far and away better in that opening half, faster, sharper, better. We lost too many battles.”
It was an emotional return to first-team action for Derby’s Craig Forsyth, making his first appearance in 379 days after cruciate surgery. Although Derby clearly had the upper hand in an entertaining opening period, they had to survive an early scare when Neil’s men should have taken the lead.
Patrick Bauer could hardly believe his luck when the ball dropped straight into his path in the 10th minute but he showed all the finishing prowess of a central defender and ended up blasting the ball high into the stand.
Derby seemed to take heed and started to make serious inroads on Preston’s goal and Duane Holmes smashed a volley against the bar before Tom Lawrence’s had a good effor t pushed around by Declan Rudd. On the half hour substitute George Evans split the visitors’ defence with a superb through ball which sent Waghorn through on goal but again Rudd came to the rescue sending the ball onto the roof of the net via his legs.
But De rby ’ s perseverance paid off when Holmes’ corner kick was headed goalwards by Curtis Davies.
The big defender wheeled away celebrating, not seeming to realise that Waghorn had chested it in on the line to claim it.
Preston rallied after the break and thought they’d levelled things up only to see Tom Barkhuizen’s effort quite rightly ruled out by the l i nesman’s flag. While there was only one
DERBY PRESTON 4 ........ Shots on Target .........2 7 ........Shots off Target .........8 6 ................Corners .................3 15 .................Fouls....................9 2 ............... Offsides ..................1 70.1.. Passing Success % .. 74.3 374 .......Total Passes ......... 451 45.4 ....Possession % .....54.6 49.9...Territorial Adv % .... 50.1 goal in it, Derby understandably got the occasional jitters and keeper Kelle Roos didn’t help with a series of dubious attempts to clear.
The visitors had one last throw of the dice but still came up short, Barkhuizen squandering another effort and Daniel Johnson firing over with a clear sight on goal.
Derby boss Phillip Cocu (above) said: “I’m delighted with that. That first half was one of the best 45 minutes I’ve seen from the team.
“We could have made it a bit easier on ourselves by getting a second goal because at 1-0 we always needed that bit more.”