Derby County’s Curtis Davies was instrumental in the club’s 1-0 win over Preston North End.
Derby County central defender Curtis Davies had arguably his best game for the club as he proved a colossus figure at the back during his side’s gritty 1-0 win over Preston North End at Deepdale.
The Rams headed in to the encounter in terrible form, failing to win in their last eight league games and suffering a humiliating 4-1 defeat at home to bottom club Sunderland on East Friday.
Gary Rowett rung the changes for the trip to fellow playoff hopefuls Preston, and Tom Lawrence’s second half strike earned the East Midlands club a precious three points as they climbed back up to fifth in the table.
While Lawrence will earn the plaudits for his match-winning free-kick, it was defender Davies who was the best player on the park and fans were quick to laud his display on social media site Twitter.
The 33-year-old was a man-mountain at the back for Derby, recording a total of two interceptions, three tackles, nine aerial duels won and a whopping 17 effective clearances (Whoscored) over the course of the 90+ minutes.
On the whole, Preston can count themselves extremely unfortunate to lose the match, having outperformed Derby for long spells and recording a total of 19 efforts on goal compared to Derby’s two.
The Rams were dreadful against Sunderland last Friday, and their lack of confidence showed throughout at Deepdale as they managed a pass-accuracy rate of just 53% as they constantly lost possession.
Having said that, though, they defended magnificently when it mattered and for all Preston’s dominance in terms of possession and territory, they only amassed three shots on target having also missed a penalty.
Davies took over the Derby captain’s armband after Richard Keogh was dropped for Alex Pearce, and the former Hull City man rose to the occasion to help his side keep their 18th clean sheet of the season.
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