MCCLAREN’S OFF THE MARK
Russell rocket nets home win for returning gaffer
IT DIDN’T take Steve McClaren long to stamp his mark on his return to the iPro Stadium as Derby County claimed their first home victory in six months.
A second-half strike by substitute Johnny Russell was enough to separate two evenly-matched sides.
And now the former England boss is challenging his new charges to become more ruthless if they are to mount a promotion push.
“There is more to come from this team,” said McClaren. “But we must learn to finish sides off when we are a goal up – especially at home. We had chances on the break to do that.
“I saw a lot of potential in my first game back but I also identified areas we clearly have to work on. And there will be some hard work. That has to happen.
“But we wanted a performance and a great attitude and we certainly got the latter. There were some good aspects but we worked our socks off. We need a bit more tempo on the ball but overall I am very pleased.
“The fans were great and it was all about finding a way to win for them.”
The opening half-hour must go down as a contender for most cagey affair of the season, with neither side coming close to testing the opposing goalkeeper.
The match improved somewhat briefly thereafter when Jacob Butterfield showed tidy feet in the middle of the park before firing over the crossbar and, at the other end, Chris Wood sent a header wide from a decent Luke Ayling delivery.
The game was tense, tight and lacking any genuine quality in the final third. Both sides were failing to string more than halfa-dozen passes together.
The best chance of the half fell to Matej Vydra on 33 minutes. The Austrian scrambled his way through on the left side of the box but could only drag his shot wide from ten yards.
McClaren, who had chosen to start the game sat in the stand, suddenly appeared in the dugout with seconds remaining of the opening period but it almost served as a distraction to his players. The home defence allowed
Leeds skipper Kyle Bartley to squirm free from an Alex Mowatt corner only to see his fine header crash against the crossbar.
The second half seemed destined to follow the pattern of the first before the iPro exploded into life on 56 minutes. The visitors failed to clear a Tom Ince corner and when the ball fell to Russell the winger, minutes after coming on, fired the ball off Rob Green and into the back of the net.
Soon after the hour mark the rampant Rams were denied a second when Green saved superbly from Will Hughes’ longrange drive.
Garry Monk’s charges finally forced Scott Carson into a save on 73 minutes. Kalvin Phillips beat the wall with his free-kick but Carson was equal to it.
Leeds pushed forward late on and Pablo Hernandez saw a deflected attempt curl wide of the far post. And, deep into injury time, substitute Marcus Antonsson danced beyond two challenges before curling a brilliant effort beyond Carson but onto the far post.
“It was a game of small margins,” said Monk. “I am frustrated with the result because we didn’t do enough good things to get a result and that is disappointing.
“We hit the woodwork twice and we could easily have got a point but equally, I can’t complain about the result.
“We had good spells but we conceded a poor goal and that put us on the back foot.
“What we have to do now is focus on bouncing back on Tuesday night.”