London Irish
Well-known member
Agree with those who say we just have to write this one off to experience. Our gameplan is based on blunting the offensive capacity of the opposition rather than creating too many chances ourselves, all our 1-0 wins tell that tale.
But you would hope few managers in our league will get to see the tape of this game, because Derby deployed the system and players to undo our strengths.
I didn't see Wigan away, so this for me was easily the best display by any opposition team against the Albion I've seen this season. I listened to the Derby fans phone-in afterwards and many said that was their best performance for a couple of years.
It's a sign of how well McGhee has done that we came to Pride Park thinking we might get something. But Derby are a recent Premiership team, have a tremendous stadium and set-up and can afford mid-season signings like Polish international Grzegorz Rasiak, who was a dominant influence on this game.
In this league, we are going to come up against teams that are clearly more "heavyweight" than us, and if we are unfortunate enough to catch them on a good day as we did on Wednesday, then there's little McGhee can do about that except learn some lessons and move on. We as fans should do the same and not overreact. Enjoy these trips to fantastic stadiums and let these setbacks make our 1-0 victories all the more sweeter.
Sure, there are arguable things McGhee did. Was bringing back Hinsh into midfield a backward step? Difficult one, Chippy is not in top form and El Abd has done well at rightback. In 20/20 hindsight, this curious virus that El Abd had made it a mistake. But McGhee rectified this before half-time when only 1-0 down, and what happened then is that his best available players still weren't good enough against the Derby threat.
Derby's tactical shape was excellent. Their formation was something like 4-4-1-1 with Rasiak floating deeper off Peschisoledo to cause maximum confusion in our flat back 4. This more often looked like 4-2-4 given the pace and tempo that Derby attacked during the first half.
What struck me is that Derby's front 4 players were all richly skilled individuals each capable of floating past their marker at will. We only had Leon who could do that, and maybe Currie who can half do that. That is a gulf in class.
I have not seen a better player this season than Marco Reich, who was absolutely dazzling and whose dribbling skill and pace made him unstoppable. El Abd and Hinsh couldn't get near him in the first half, and his openings kept crashing against our woodwork. We were fortunate he tired a bit in the second half, or was forced to play deeper by Burley.
But it was Rasiak in a more central position who did the damage with the goals. He played a fantastic 1-2 with Smith that dragged Butters out of position and left a big hole for Smith to run through and score.
The second goal, although initiated by Currie giving the ball aways was very similar, Rasiak playing a 1-2 in the same channel past Butters, this time with Peskyname, and Rasiak finishing.
The third goal was not so important as 2-0 down with about 15 minutes left, we were beaten anyway.
Although this seems a big defeat, and it was, we had our chances to embarass Derby.
Leon, who was also in excellent dribbling form all game, had a great chance early on. The fine cross from Harding was perhaps just a fraction too high, if it had been a fraction lower Leon might have got downward direction and, six yards out, the Derby keeper would have been stranded. Alas we'll never know if Derby would have been panicked out of their stride by an early goal by us.
At 1-0 down, we had an excellent chance when Currie dribbled superbly into the box but fell after a challenge. It was at the other end where we were standing so none of us could really tell about the extent of the contact, but it was a little symptomatic of some homer tendencies by the ref. He was very harsh on Virgo competing for the ball, constantly blowing for fouls, but allowed Derby defenders to bodycheck and hack away at Leon and Currie's legs, a poor double-standard.
The second goal was awful timing so soon into the second half. But even then, we actualy played some of our best passing football I've seen from us this season. We probed and moved the ball effectively across the park, but with Virgo well shackled by the defence, lacked an outlet.
We actually had a great chance for 2-1 and it was more dumb luck it didn't go in, a goalmouth scramble with Hinsh all but stabbing the ball over the line only for a goalline clearance by the retreated winger Reich.
Again, despite all Derby's domination, it could have been 2-1 with about 20/25 mins to go and we would have given them a terrific scare.
But is was not our day. Chippy had a couple of long-range efforts that sailed way over and the game petered out.
Both the Brighton support and the Derby singing support close by in the south-west corner were loud and passionate, good for the atmosphere that they were close and could bounce chants back and forth. The Derby massive couldn't quite get their heads round "you're too ugly to be gay"
although they brazened it out with a few "You wot, you wot"s 
I'll never quite understand why so many of our people make such a point of stomping out when we go 3-0 down, as with Blackpool last season, but I guess it's their right. I would only applaud those who kept singing to the end and those who were there to get the applause from a rueful Albion team
With our small squad, there's only so many lessons McGhee can take. Is this a first sign that the Butters/Cullip partnership might be too slow, and Hinsh would be a better bet at centre-back? Too early to tell, we'll need to see more games. Nicolas will certainly be back, should Chippy even when not at top form? Neither Hammond, Oatway or Chippy really had great games, so any one of them could be stood down. Virgo/Knight will continue up front for a fair while yet.
But you would hope few managers in our league will get to see the tape of this game, because Derby deployed the system and players to undo our strengths.
I didn't see Wigan away, so this for me was easily the best display by any opposition team against the Albion I've seen this season. I listened to the Derby fans phone-in afterwards and many said that was their best performance for a couple of years.
It's a sign of how well McGhee has done that we came to Pride Park thinking we might get something. But Derby are a recent Premiership team, have a tremendous stadium and set-up and can afford mid-season signings like Polish international Grzegorz Rasiak, who was a dominant influence on this game.
In this league, we are going to come up against teams that are clearly more "heavyweight" than us, and if we are unfortunate enough to catch them on a good day as we did on Wednesday, then there's little McGhee can do about that except learn some lessons and move on. We as fans should do the same and not overreact. Enjoy these trips to fantastic stadiums and let these setbacks make our 1-0 victories all the more sweeter.
Sure, there are arguable things McGhee did. Was bringing back Hinsh into midfield a backward step? Difficult one, Chippy is not in top form and El Abd has done well at rightback. In 20/20 hindsight, this curious virus that El Abd had made it a mistake. But McGhee rectified this before half-time when only 1-0 down, and what happened then is that his best available players still weren't good enough against the Derby threat.
Derby's tactical shape was excellent. Their formation was something like 4-4-1-1 with Rasiak floating deeper off Peschisoledo to cause maximum confusion in our flat back 4. This more often looked like 4-2-4 given the pace and tempo that Derby attacked during the first half.
What struck me is that Derby's front 4 players were all richly skilled individuals each capable of floating past their marker at will. We only had Leon who could do that, and maybe Currie who can half do that. That is a gulf in class.
I have not seen a better player this season than Marco Reich, who was absolutely dazzling and whose dribbling skill and pace made him unstoppable. El Abd and Hinsh couldn't get near him in the first half, and his openings kept crashing against our woodwork. We were fortunate he tired a bit in the second half, or was forced to play deeper by Burley.
But it was Rasiak in a more central position who did the damage with the goals. He played a fantastic 1-2 with Smith that dragged Butters out of position and left a big hole for Smith to run through and score.
The second goal, although initiated by Currie giving the ball aways was very similar, Rasiak playing a 1-2 in the same channel past Butters, this time with Peskyname, and Rasiak finishing.
The third goal was not so important as 2-0 down with about 15 minutes left, we were beaten anyway.
Although this seems a big defeat, and it was, we had our chances to embarass Derby.
Leon, who was also in excellent dribbling form all game, had a great chance early on. The fine cross from Harding was perhaps just a fraction too high, if it had been a fraction lower Leon might have got downward direction and, six yards out, the Derby keeper would have been stranded. Alas we'll never know if Derby would have been panicked out of their stride by an early goal by us.
At 1-0 down, we had an excellent chance when Currie dribbled superbly into the box but fell after a challenge. It was at the other end where we were standing so none of us could really tell about the extent of the contact, but it was a little symptomatic of some homer tendencies by the ref. He was very harsh on Virgo competing for the ball, constantly blowing for fouls, but allowed Derby defenders to bodycheck and hack away at Leon and Currie's legs, a poor double-standard.
The second goal was awful timing so soon into the second half. But even then, we actualy played some of our best passing football I've seen from us this season. We probed and moved the ball effectively across the park, but with Virgo well shackled by the defence, lacked an outlet.
We actually had a great chance for 2-1 and it was more dumb luck it didn't go in, a goalmouth scramble with Hinsh all but stabbing the ball over the line only for a goalline clearance by the retreated winger Reich.
Again, despite all Derby's domination, it could have been 2-1 with about 20/25 mins to go and we would have given them a terrific scare.
But is was not our day. Chippy had a couple of long-range efforts that sailed way over and the game petered out.
Both the Brighton support and the Derby singing support close by in the south-west corner were loud and passionate, good for the atmosphere that they were close and could bounce chants back and forth. The Derby massive couldn't quite get their heads round "you're too ugly to be gay"
although they brazened it out with a few "You wot, you wot"s I'll never quite understand why so many of our people make such a point of stomping out when we go 3-0 down, as with Blackpool last season, but I guess it's their right. I would only applaud those who kept singing to the end and those who were there to get the applause from a rueful Albion team
With our small squad, there's only so many lessons McGhee can take. Is this a first sign that the Butters/Cullip partnership might be too slow, and Hinsh would be a better bet at centre-back? Too early to tell, we'll need to see more games. Nicolas will certainly be back, should Chippy even when not at top form? Neither Hammond, Oatway or Chippy really had great games, so any one of them could be stood down. Virgo/Knight will continue up front for a fair while yet.
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useful tactical info