VENUE #31 DERBY COUNTY Pride Park

Pride Park, Derby

N-POWER CHAMPIONSHIP

Derby County... 1  Burnley... 2

Saturday 22nd September 2012

@ Pride Park Stadium, Derby
            Kick Off 15:00


     Another relatively short journey this time to Derby to see them take on Burnley in a N-Power Championship game at Pride Park.  It was a lovely sunny afternoon but got a little chilly as the game neared it's climax
     On Tuesday night last Derby played host to Charlton Athletic beating the Addicks 3-2 while Burnley travelled to the King Power Stadium Leicester on Wednesday losing for the third time running away, this time 2-1.  Derby make one change from mid-week Jake Buxton comes in while James O'Connor takes to the bench.  Burnley make three changes to the side that lost at Leicester, Ben Mee replaces Joseph Mills, Ross Wallace takes the place of  Brian Stock and Charlie Austin returns from injury to replace Cameron Stewart up front.
     Burnley's keeper Lee Grant pulled off two great saves early on one from Will Hughes and the other from Craig Bryson as Derby went for Burnley's jugular and try to power their way in front in this game.  They took the lead after twenty minutes when Burnley failed to clear their lines from a Coutts corner, the ball fell to Jamie Ward who turned sharply to fire home through a crowd of players.  Minutes later Conor Sammon should have made it two but Lee Grant managed to tip his effort wide of the post.
     Burnley came into the game soon after when Martin Paterson broke on the counter attack and

Another Derby chance comes to nothing

forced Fielding in the Derby goal to make a save.  But there was nothing Fielding could do on 32 minutes when Ross Wallace's cross was blocked and fell to an unmarked Charlie Austin to smash the ball into the Derby net for the equaliser.
     Things were starting to go the way of Burnley now and they were unlucky not to take the lead just before half time when Kieran Trippler's right wing cross was met by the head of Mee but the ball crashed against the Derby crossbar and came to nothing.
     So Derby found their selves level at half time and I think that Nigel Clough would have been the more aggrieved of the managers as his side were streets better performance wise in the first half.
     The first quarter of a hour of the second half was end to end action but with no real chances for either side until the 60th minute when Conor Sammon was inches away from a Jamie Ward cross from the left and the same player missed an easy chance 15 minutes later shooting straight at the keeper.
     Craig Bryson had a chance from point blank range making the Burnley keeper earn his keep as he did amicably.  Ten minutes from time substitute Michael Jacob's cross found Conor Sammon but his header went just over the Burnley bar.
     But it was in the 89th minute when Derby paid for all their missed chances when a cross from Chris McCann was headed home by that man Charlie Austin to bag Burnley all three points.

     Derby moved to Pride Park in 1997 when it was opened by the Queen, they played their football at the Baseball ground prior to this since 1895.  Pride Park is a modern looking ground with an all seated capacity of 33,597.  The seats are black plastic with some painted white to form the words THE RAMS in the East stand and DERBY in the North stand and very impressive it looks as well.  I watched the game from the West stand which is two tiered where as all the other stands have one tier which gives the ground an unusual but distinctive look.  The North, West and East stands are for home supporters and so is a large portion of the South (Cawarden) stand with away spectators allocated the left hand side looking at it from the pitch though I would imagine that more seats would be made available to teams with a bigger fan base.
     In the area where you would look to find the block and staircase in which your seat is situated in there are lots of food stalls, bars and TV's so you can eat pie and chips, have a pint and watch Sky
sports up until kick off if you so wished.

Charlie Austin

     Where I was seated it seemed as though everyone knew each other which made things a little awkward because no-one knew my face, it was like a big community that had just had a paedophile thrown in it's midst, although they weren't physically or verbally hostile it is not a situation I would like to experience again in the future.
     The Burnley supporters were in good voice throughout and had a amusing chant which they sang to the tune of  'Sloop John B', an old Beach Boy number from the 60's.  It is in praise of their striker Charlie Austin the two goal hero of the day who used to be a bricklayer before becoming a professional football player and the song goes " And now he scores goals, and now he scores gooooals, he used to lay                                                                      bricks but now he scores goals".

                                                                  Match Details