A Timely Defeat?

So, a disappointing defeat against Leicester City at the weekend not only in the fact that we lost but also in the manner of the performance with chances few and far between and only small spells of the expansive football that has been prevalent in our recent surge to fourth in the table. Credit goes to Sven`s men for their game plan and execution which rarely allowed The Rams to hit their stride and whilst similarities can be drawn with the display at Millwall the last time we suffered a reverse in scoreline is this perhaps a timely defeat that will help keep everyone`s feet on the ground?

Whilst it`s never enjoyable to lose and we all obviously want Derby to win every week I can`t help but feel that maybe this defeat will help revise Rams followers ambitions for the season with talk of the 'P` word being bandied about after the recent run of form and having swept aside a number of visiting sides at Pride Park. It`s not long ago that there was talk of a relegation fight and whilst things are now looking decidedly better and Derby fans are rightly enjoying every minute of the recent run of form maybe this result will add an air of reality to the season and our expectations. Don`t get me wrong I dream of a glorious return to the Premiership as much as the next Rams fan (unless it`s the guy who sits behind me who still manages to find something to complain about each week) and some of the football being played has been sensational but maybe it`s time to take stock and not get carried away in the same way we didn`t when we were bottom three a short while ago.

Luckily I don`t have to work with any Leicester fans which may cloud my judgement here, it`d be a different story had we lost to F****t having to work in Nottingham as I do, so the defeat whilst disappointing is not the end of the world and hopefully just a blip in our recent run. With the visit of Scunthorpe at the weekend looking to be another winnable game with their form in the last few weeks it will be interesting to see how well Nigel Clough`s side bounce back from this defeat. Another mini-run was started after the Millwall defeat and with winnable games coming up there is no reason to suspect this will not be the case here starting with the chance to increase the run of home wins to six in a row this Saturday.

On a side note it would be interesting to see if a club has ever named two goalkeepers amongst their substitutes before after Clough named both Stephen Bywater and Saul Deeney on the bench at the Walkers. I certainly don`t expect this to catch on!