Playing at home while simultaneously performing like an away team is not a trick for which even a managerial magician such as Jim Smith is renowned. But Smith somehow conjured it from his Derby County side yesterday.
Blackburn Rovers dictated this match from the start, but on the final whistle, two fortuitous goals from Dean Sturridge and a third from Paulo Wanchope due to some impoverished defending three minutes from time ensured that it was Derby plucking three points from the hat, points that lift them into sixth place - a UEFA Cup place - above Leeds United. Rovers, for whom Chris Sutton scored a briefly spirit-raising 14th of the season just prior to Derby's third, remain a point behind Chelsea and there is no denying the greatest beneficiaries of this result - Manchester United, now with a seven-point margin at the top.
From the whistle yesterday, Blackburn had been the brighter, Mart Poom in the Derby goal producing two alert stops in the opening five minutes alone. Only 90 seconds had elapsed when Kevin Gallacher and Sutton combined to slice Derby open and Poom did well to stand his ground and parry Gallacher's shot around a post. Then, after Sutton had flicked on a Damien Duff free kick, Poom again impressed in ushering away Colin Hendry's header.
For a team with three centre-backs of the stature of Igor Stimac, Dean Yates and Steve Elliott, Derby were looking remarkably meek. This set something of a pattern for the whole game, although one important change ultimately altered the outcome in Derby's favour.
Smith and his assistant, Steve McClaren, should take credit for this as it was their verbal intervention, haranguing each and every one in a white shirt after barely 10 minutes, which brought a switch in attitude. Suddenly the Rams stopped playing like sheep and, crucially, started winning tackles. They were two-up before half-time. Nevertheless, Blackburn were hardly shredded in the process and if there was an element of offside about Derby's first, there was a definite deflection on the second.
Both did have a common characteristic in that they came from indecisive Rovers' clearances, Jonathan Hunt winning a vital header after Stephane Henchoz could knock a ball only 10 yards outside the Blackburn area. When the ball came down from Hunt's head, Wanchope swung a deceptive leg at it and in doing so, left the Rovers defence bamboozled and square. Sturridge ran on to it from what looked to be an offside position and walloped the ball mercilessly past Tim Flowers. Fifteen minutes had gone.
Blackburn then resumed their territorial domination, but four minutes before the interval another poor piece of defending, this time by Gary Croft, gifted the ball to Baiano. The Italian wasted no time in supplying Sturridge, but Flowers would surely have saved the effort had not Hendry's head diverted the ball inside the near post.
The second half had much the same script with Garry Flitcroft having two useful shots, the second acrobatically palmed to safety by Poom, Sutton had a muscular header blocked and Henchoz provided us with one of the misses of the season after 64 minutes when he volleyed over from six yards, unmarked. A goal then and a 2-2 draw would have been a likely final score, but instead Rovers had to wait until just four minutes from the end when Flitcroft delivered a delicate pass to end an unseemly scramble from a corner. Sutton met it with a powerful header that even Poom could not get near to.
Even with such little time remaining, the travelling Blackburn fans must have hoped for an equaliser, but rather had to suffer a Derby third. When an awkward ball began bouncing in Rovers' penalty area, only Wanchope had the unique skills necessary to control it, nudge it, head it and then volley it in. Just like that.
Derby County: Poom, Rowett, Powell, Yates, Stimac, Sturridge (Burton 89), Wanchope, Laursen, Elliott (Willems 46), Hunt, Baiano. Subs Not Used: Hoult, Bridge-Wilkinson, Carbon. Booked: Hunt. Goals: Sturridge 15, 40, Wanchope 88.
Blackburn Rovers: Flowers, Kenna, Sherwood, Hendry, Ripley, Gallacher, Sutton, Flitcroft, Croft (Wilcox 61), Henchoz, Duff. Subs Not Used: Pedersen, McKinlay, Valery, Williams. Booked: Henchoz, Flitcroft. Goals: Sutton 87.
Referee: G Poll (Tring).
