Eustace & Heckingbottom

[agreenwood]

I was surprised how poor their long throws were given how much they tried them. I think Roberts' throws were more dangerous, Derby were getting them nowhere near the goal.

Wasn’t just throw ins parallel to our box either. Even much deeper throws were hurled in the general direction of one of their big full backs to flick on.

[Bacchus]

Pitch was the same for both sides and Derby played well.

Of course the pitch was the same, but when one team wants to play with the ball on the pitch and the other with the ball as far away from the pitch as possible the impact on each team is clearly not the same.

I don't buy into using the pitch as an excuse per se but it clearly had a leveling impact on the teams last night.

[northeastclaret]

I said before the game to expect a match similar to Sheff United’s at Oxford. Derby are better than Oxford and at least we didn’t lose. Pitch was the same for both sides and Derby played well.

The pitch wasn’t the same for both teams, Derby didn’t use it , they just launched it in the air at every opportunity and damaged it and sanded it in corners to make sure we couldn’t use it effectively but their launches by the goalkeeper landed and stopped dead where it was sanded.

Well done Burnley for standing up to that crap and getting an important point.

[boyyanno]

Our last two away games are also tough as everyone wants to beat us and Watford have massively underachieved this season. QPR are decent at home so these are tough games.Beat Norwich and hope Plymouth win v Blades then our home games will see us up.That said I would of course be happy to win all our last 5 but feel three wins and two draws will take us up.

That would see us up mathematically.

If we draw with sheff then 3 wins and 2 draws is enough.

[Goliath]

Of course the pitch was the same, but when one team wants to play with the ball on the pitch and the other with the ball as far away from the pitch as possible the impact on each team is clearly not the same.

I don't buy into using the pitch as an excuse per se but it clearly had a leveling impact on the teams last night.

It didn't in the first half an hour. We started really well.
I think we just got more and more lost with how to play as the game went on. We couldn't press because they were just launching it over us. They were also winning a lot of the long balls and we couldn't find a way out of there press..basically everything we usually do had been countered.

It's always the same, when a high pressure team manages to stop us just playing through Cullen we are knackered because Laurent and Brownhill can't receive the ball in deep areas. We need a central midfielder in the Summer regardless of what league we are in.

[Culmclaret]

The pitch wasn’t the same for both teams, Derby didn’t use it , they just launched it in the air at every opportunity and damaged it and sanded it in corners to make sure we couldn’t use it effectively but their launches by the goalkeeper landed and stopped dead where it was sanded.

Well done Burnley for standing up to that crap and getting an important point.

It wasn’t as if we didn’t know what the pitch was going to be like. We used to mock Arteta for saying that the grass was too long at the Turf. I don’t like the idea of doctoring pitches but we need to be able to deal with that sort of thing. And we did.

[agreenwood]

It didn't in the first half an hour. We started really well.
I think we just got more and more lost with how to play as the game went on. We couldn't press because they were just launching it over us. They were also winning a lot of the long balls and we couldn't find a way out of there press..basically everything we usually do had been countered.

It's always the same, when a high pressure team manages to stop us just playing through Cullen we are knackered because Laurent and Brownhill can't receive the ball in deep areas. We need a central midfielder in the Summer regardless of what league we are in.

Except when the ball kept bobbling about on the wings or Edwards couldn’t keep his feet in the sand - these things happened in the first 30 minutes.

Likewise the goal areas being a mess to discourage us from playing the ball about at the back. I think it was Flemming who tried to take a calm touch on the ball in our area, but saw the ball bobble up and hit is shin and run loose to a Derby player.

Of course they can do what the hell they like to their pitch within reason, but it’s all a bit John Beck.

[HurstGrangeClaret]

It was a good point away from home to a team battling to survive on a pudding of a pitch.
Apart from the Foster injury, it was a decent night with us still being in an automatic spot.
We move on to Norwich.

[Goliath]

Except when the ball kept bobbling about on the wings or Edwards couldn’t keep his feet in the sand - these things happened in the first 30 minutes.

Likewise the goal areas being a mess to discourage us from playing the ball about at the back. I think it was Flemming who tried to take a calm touch on the ball in our area, but saw the ball bobble up and hit is shin and run loose to a Derby player.

Of course they can do what the hell they like to their pitch within reason, but it’s all a bit John Beck.

It did effect us to some extent but they are individual moments. For the first half an hour we played out and fed the widemen constantly. It looked like Edwards was having a good game.

Then we came under that huge wave of pressure and never recovered. It's happened quite a few times now where we've lost control in games against teams pressuring us and we've reverted to a safety first game. We lack a Sander Berge or Jack Cork who will continue to demand the ball and will always seemingly find space. Cullen is a level below those 2 IMO which is no criticism but more importantly we lack an alternative when he's stopped. Sometimes we need a second player in there to rotate and give us that escape, but we just don't have it in the squad