DERBY COUNTY BLOG: Rams must bounce back in must-win games against Millwall and Bolton, says Andy Buckley-Taylor

Derby County FCDerby County FC
Derby County FC
Well the Rams came away from Turf Moor empty-handed - and in controversial circumstances too!

After falling behind to a David Jones goal, we had appeared to have equalised through Jeff Hendrick, however the referee had, a split second before, blown and shown Chris Martin a second yellow for diving.

Now I’m not someone who will defend diving. I do in fact hate that part of our game. However, in this particular instance, Martin did not dive. There was contact from Keiran Trippier and Martin slipped. The referee Robert Madley got it wrong big time!

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It’s difficult enough a job to face Burnley away with 11 men, to do it with just 10 was always going to be mission impossible. Not only were we robbed of a goal, but also our leading scorer.

There were other instances in the game where Martin may have escaped being penalised by Mr Madley, but that’s his responsibility to make sure that he makes the right call. The standard of refereeing throughout the game was shocking.

The Rams did battle on, but ended up losing 2-0 to a side trying to keep us away from the second automatic promotion spot.

Hats off to Sean Dyche, he’s done a great job with little cash spent and a small squad.

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What Derby have to do now is to bounce straight back and keep the pressure on the Clarets. Two home fixtures over the next few days will see us resume our quest for automatic promotion.

Millwall and Bolton won’t be easy games, but they are must win games at this stage of the season. Bolton will not be an easy game. For me they are the division’s under performers and have a squad that should be challenging for the top six.

Chris Martin will miss the Millwall game, but thankfully we have Conor Sammon or Patrick Bamford ready to deputise. It’s a relief having such quality back ups at our disposal.

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