WHAT HAPPENED
We produced an impressive comeback from two goals down to claim a draw against league leaders Derby County on Friday night.
Sam Greenwood netted his first Premier League 2 goal of the season at Meadow Park, before an own goal from Jordan Brown saw the points shared.
The visitors started brightly and almost took the lead when Jahmal Hector-Ingram won the ball by the corner flag, drove into the box and saw his powerful low shot bounce back off the post.
We grew into the match and almost broke the deadlock inside 20 minutes when Matt Smith found Folarin Balogun’s run behind the defence, and our striker’s powerful effort was denied by Jon Mitchell.
Moments later, we hit Derby on the counter and after good work from Jordan McEneff, the ball broke to Tyreece John-Jules on the edge of the box who saw his curling strike fly just wide.
John-Jules came close again after Balogun collected the ball with his back to goal, skipped past two challenges and played his strike partner into the box, but he could only fire wide.
Arguably against the run of play, Derby hit the post for the second time as Archie Brown chipped a ball into Alex Babos, who directed a volley onto the foot of the upright from close range.
On the stroke of half-time, the Rams were awarded a penalty when Harry Clarke brought down Hector-Ingram inside the box, and the forward scored.
Shortly after the restart, Nathan Tormey came close to drawing us level when he dribbled into the box, but saw his goalbound strike cleared off the line.
Ten minutes later the visitors doubled their lead when a ball over the top found Hector-Ingram, who fired low past Karl Hein from close range. .
Derby were defending their lead well before substitute Greenwood made an immediate impact from the bench with 10 minutes to go, when he latched on to a loose ball into the box and fired into an empty net.
In the closing stages we completed the comeback when Smith controlled well, drove into the box and saw his effort bounce off the post, before the rebound struck Brown and flew into the net.
WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT’S NEXT?
Steve Bould’s side next face Everton away from home on Monday, January 13 at 7pm (UK time).
By Sam Cox
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