Derby County fans took to Twitter to voice conclusions that the Rams were lucky to leave the iPro Stadium with a draw against Aston Villa
Tom Ince of Derby County (L) and Jack Grealish of Aston Villa in action
Derby County and Aston Villa played out a 0-0 draw at the iPro Stadium in what was an evenly fought contest, with neither side edging the match in the Sky Bet Championship.
The result leaves both sides with five points from their opening four games, having each won one, drawn two and lost one. Nigel Pearson’s side lie 15th in the Championship, while Villa, now unbeaten in three games, are in 12th.
Villa had the better of the chances, with Roberto Di Matteo’s side having 4 shots on target compared to Derby’s 2. Derby came in to the game more in the second half and will feel they deserved at least a point. With the club still without a home league win, more will have to be done if they are to mount a serious challenge for promotion.
Derby’s Richard Keogh in action with Aston Villa’s Ross McCormack
Villa dominated the first half and Ross McCormack went closest, with his shot being tipped on to the woodwork by former Villa goalkeeper, Scott Carson, after good work by Jack Grealish. Gary Gardener also had a shot hit the woodwork as Villa went in at half time, feeling somewhat hard done by. In the second half Derby came more in to the game and had a number of good chances that fell to Tom Ince, Chris Martin, Darren Bent and Abdoul Camara.
Speaking after the game the Birmingham Mail reported that Di Matteo said: “Maybe fortune wasn’t on our side. I’m happy if we win a game by creating one chance and scoring one goal. But sometimes you hit the crossbar, the post, and then there’s a clearance off the line, and you hit the side-net, and so on. I thought offensively we were very good. We dominated the game.”
Aston Villa manager Roberto Di Matteo
Pearson offered a slightly different view when the Derby Telegraph reported he said: “I thought we were a lot more positive in the second half. We needed to be, because it was very frustrating in the first half and we didn’t play with any real composure or any sort of rhythm to us. There were a lot of unforced errors.
“We took the game to Villa and caused them more problems. If we do that often enough, we will start to give our fans a bit more encouragement with more goals.”
Derby County manager Nigel Pearson
Rams fans took to Twitter to offer an analysis that a draw was probably the result they deserved, some even felt it was the best that they could have hoped for..
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