Good half

[su4eranio]

I thought the team gave a professional performance to be honest. Grant clear MOM but the entire defence was solid. Dont know why Bucko was called out as off his game??

First 20mins they controlled play. Noticed they attacked down each flank, a mirror image of how we play. And they exposed our tracking back. For me, Russell was a constant threat going up the pitch, but on their goal and again when he switched to other side he was guilty of not following the overlap runner. Small moments of concentration, but Brighton I think did their homework to pick the locks!

Thankfully, they couldnt sustain that first 20mins pressure and we got into and controlled periods of the game. We were always the most likely to score on a counter I thought. How many balls did we flash across the 6yd box just to evade a final touch home?

I dont see what else Brighton have to throw at us that we havent already shown we can deal with. SMc clearly took Russell and Ward off at a time that keeps them

[AdiSalisbury]

Whilst we didn't dominate, our defending as a team was immense. The midfielder protected our defence and apart from the 1st 20 mins Brighton couldn't get through. An excellently organised defensive performance that I don't think I can actually remember seeing from a Derby side, ever. Morihnio got plaudits for a similar performance a couple of weeks ago, I thought we were better.

I disagree with those who thought Ward had a poor game, I thought he played well and always seems to step up for these big games.


I hope we try and kill the second leg with a couple of early goals

[Rapid]

Grant was superb and was a good overall team performance. Was surprised by Russell coming off, at that point I thought Ward should have come off, carrying a yellow and not on top of his game. JR was at the centre of most of our good work in first half.

At times we looked like we had another gear but never quite found it.

I'm not moaning that was the result we wanted and deserved

With regards Russell going off I thought he was having a great game ( including some of the best tracking back I've seen from him) but thought it might be a tactical switch to keep him fresh to batter them again in the second leg! [/quote]

funny how we see the game differently. in that first 20 minutes we were getting murdered down our left hand side because despite JR being there, his man was losing him every time (including the goal).

I just love his pace though. great work for our first goal.

dawkins