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Commons touch gives Derby advantage

Commons celebrates
By Chris,
January 7 2009
Manchester United are lucky to still be in contention to qualify for the League Cup final following a bitterly disappointing performance at Pride Park on Wednesday night. Kris Commons’ first-half strike separated the two sides as the Rams controlled proceedings for long periods. Sir Alex Ferguson made a handful of changes and his side were well beaten by the Rams.

This was a bad time to face Derby. A sense of hope and expectation has descended on Pride Park with the news that Nigel Clough, son of the great Brian, will take over the manager's hot-seat this week.

The former Burton boss won't take charge of Derby until Thursday - so Academy manager David Lowe took charge for one night only. Cloughie, however, watched on from the stands as County outfought United for ninety minutes.

United's travelling fans were in fantastic voice - but they weren't treated to a performance to match as the hosts burst out of the traps from the first whistle. Nemanja Vidic and Johnny Evans both cleared off-the-line before Commons fired home a superb strike on 30 minutes.

Vidic gave the Scottish international plenty of room to surge forward and he curled a beautiful left-footed drive beyond the helpless Tomasz Kuszczak from about 25-yards out. It was the least Derby deserved.

A weakened United side made relatively easy work of Southampton on Sunday - but Derby played with steel, determination and courage that gave them an extra edge.

With the likes of Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick left on the bench, United were largely devoid of ideas and were thankful to go in at the break only one goal behind.

It was some of United's more experienced players who were most disappointing. Carlos Tevez, perhaps with his mind wandering elsewhere, was ineffective in attack, whilst Paul Scholes had little impact in midfield.

Derby's dominance continued after the break and Rob Hulse missed a golden opportunity to double his side's advantage as he scooped the ball over the bar from less than ten yards out.

United barely tested Roy Carroll in the Derby goal and Fergie was forced to throw on Rooney, Ronaldo and Carrick from the bench. Those changes at least yielded a couple of chances with a curling free-kick from Ronaldo just about as close as the Reds came to restoring parity.

Pride Park erupted on full-time but, in truth, they should have won this game by a more convincing margin. United are lucky to still be in the tie and will need a much-improved performance at Old Trafford on Tuesday week if we're going to book a trip to Wembley.

Full Time - Derby County 1-0 Manchester United
Attendance - 30,194

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Common touch gives Derby advantage
Posted by: manutdweb.com (IP Logged)
Date: 07/01/2009 22:45

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