Derby County have just one win and one goal from their opening six Championship matches this season.
Derby County’s poor start to the season continued as Newcastle United beat them 2-0 at the iPro Stadium thanks to goals from Yoan Gouffran and DeAndre Yedlin.
The Rams are still yet to score at home this season as their target of promotion is starting to look slimmer following a hugely underwhelming start to the 2016/17 campaign.
Last season’s play-off semi-finalists struggled to break down a resilient Magpies defence as the visitors ended up coming away with a relatively comfortable victory to take them up to second in the table.
Here is how Derby’s players fared following another disappointing display:
Goalkeeper
Scott Carson: 5/10
Nothing he could do as Gouffran opened the scoring with a powerful volley into the bottom right corner but really should have shown more bravery to deal with Newcastle’s second as Yedlin bundled it past him and over the line.
He was not tested an awful lot but did make a smart save from Mohamed Diame late on to keep Derby in the match.
Defence
Cyrus Christie: 5/10
Made a few strong tackles as the visitors came charging forward but was often far to wasteful on the ball and gave away a needless free-kick following a clumsy tackle on Dwight Gayle.
Richard Keogh: 7/10
The Derby captain was arguably the best player for his side as he dealt with the threat of Gayle comfortably and limited the away side’s chances.
Sustained an ankle injury late in the match with County searching for an equaliser, unfortunately Newcastle soon doubled their lead.
Jason Shackell: 4/10
A poor performance from the 32-year-old as he just looked off the pace as he was caught out of position on a few occasions and was far too nervous on the ball.
Marcus Olsson: 6/10
Was arguably the Rams’ biggest attacking threat as he twice came close after cutting inside from the left.
The Swede combined well with Ikechi Anya and kept United wideman Matt Ritchie quiet so overall, a decent display from the full-back.
Midfield
Johnny Russell: 4/10
Largely anonymous throughout the match and struggled to make an impact out wide as Newcastle left-back Paul Dummett was rarely tested by the Scottish international.
Also failed to clear Gouffran’s effort off the line even though there wasn’t too much he could do about it.
Will Hughes: 6/10
A composed display from the youngster with some good touches and decent distribution throughout as he stood toe-to-toe with England international Jonjo Shelvey.
However, he was perhaps a bit too deep in the midfield to have made the impact he would have liked.
Craig Bryson: 7/10
Like his central midfield partner Hughes, Bryson was pegged too far back by Newcastle but that didn’t stop him putting in a decent display in spite of the result.
He worked hard all game and could have had a penalty after going down following a challenge by Jack Colback.
Also forced Magpies’ keeper Matz Sels into his first save of the match after 68-minutes.
Ikechi Anya: 6/10
His pace and trickery looked to be a threat early in the match as he had the ball in the net inside the first couple of minutes only to see his effort ruled out for offside.
Unfortunately his influence dropped as the game went on and lacked any real end product despite rattling Newcastle’s bar with a cross-cum-shot late in the game.
Attack
James Wilson: 6/10
The Manchester United loanee worked hard and made some good positive runs at the United defence though he didn’t really get a sniff in front of goal.
The youngster tired as the game went on and was withdrawn after 65 minutes.
Matej Vydra: 6/10
Was quiet for large periods of the game but still managed to cause a couple of problems for the Newcastle defence as he gradually became more of a threat as the game went on.
Substitutes
Nick Blackman (for Wilson 65): 5/10
His only contributions where a poor strike straight at Sels and a strike from range that almost hit the corner flag.
Tom Ince (for Anya 78): 5/10
Had one shot blocked but otherwise made no impact as Derby looked for an equaliser.
Darren Bent (for Shackell 88): n/a
Barely got a touch.
Derby County manager Nigel Pearson
Where will Derby finish this season?
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