DERBY County were strolling to the top of the Championship having dominated the game completely and scored two goals in the process, until they spectacularly blew it in injury time, when Birmingham scored twice and triggered another dramatic twist in the Championship race in the process. Rather than go two points clear, Derby now find themselves in a four-way tie at the top of the Championship, and manager Steve McClaren’s reaction reflected the look of somebody who had been struck in the solar plexus.
“It’s a double mugging, we have ourselves to blame,” McClaren said. “The game is 95 minutes, not 92. We were a little naïve and we got punished, it is a freak result but we can’t blame anybody. The referee was poor and made some strange decisions. We should have seen the game through but we didn’t. There is a lot of anger from everybody going around. We have to temper that and keep stable. There are 10 games to go and we have to get some reality into it, but this will take a couple of days to get over. This game kicks you in the teeth and that is what it has done. We have to man up and get on with it. Lick our wounds and get back to work.”
The final whistle at the iPro stadium was greeted with scenes of disbelief and outrage — the latter directed at the referee for the six minutes of injury time played – but the home team only had themselves to blame for letting Birmingham back in the game. Firstly, when Tom Ince gave the ball away on the right touchline and then conceded a penalty when he chased Robert Tesche into the box, hauling him down when attempting to retrieve the ball. Paul Caddis’s firmly struck penalty seemed a mere consolation, but Birmingham weren’t finished yet.
Derby centre-half Raul Albentosa, making his Championship debut, then conceded a free kick inside his own half which allowed Birmingham keeper Darren Randolph join the fray in the opposition penalty area. David Cotterill’s free kick was eventually beaten out for a corner by a nervy Derby defence, but his next delivery would dramatically nail the equaliser. His corner kick to the far post was scooped back across the goal by substitute Wes Thomas, and Rob Kiernan’s header went in off the shoulder of Clayton Donaldson.
Derby had taken the lead with their first attack in earnest on the Birmingham goal when the spiky Johnny Russell ran at their defence inside the penalty area and then bent a left-footed shot towards the corner of the net. Randolph beat the effort away diving to his right, though only as far as Jamie Ward who had the simple task of stroking the ball into a gaping net.
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The gulf in class between the two teams was there for all to see as Derby dominated throughout and scored a second just after half time when Ince collected the ball wide on the right, then strolled past Jonathan Grounds, before finding the corner of the net with a whipped shot.
On a day when they honoured the memory of the club legend Dave Mackay, who led them to their last league title in 1975, it looked like they were heading to the championship, but in the end they would only get a point. Birmingham’s injury time penalty was their first shot on target and the second really ruined the day for Derby.
“It’s incredible when you look at the fact that Derby have controlled the majority of the game and should have comfortably won it,” Birmingham manager Gary Rowett said. “But the game is made up of many different parts and part of it is withstanding late pressure from a team that is chasing the game. We’ve got ourselves a little bit of fortune which we probably didn’t deserve.”
Star man: Will Hughes (Derby)
Derby County: Grant 6, Christie 6, Keogh 6, Albentosa 6, Forsyth 6, Hughes 7 (Bryson 81min, 6), Hendrick 6, Mascarell 6, Ince 6, Russell 7 (Dawkins 84min, 6), Ward 7 (Lingard 64min, 6)
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Birmingham City: Randolph 6, Caddis 6, Spector 6, Kiernan 6, Grounds 6, Cotterill 7, Tesche 7, Davis 6, Dyer 6 (Gray 74min, 6), Shinnie 6 (Thomas 64min, 7), Novak 5 (Donaldson 64min, 6)