The Good and the Bad!

After a couple of away draws, Derby got back to winning ways against Sheffield Wednesday despite having to come from behind twice.

Despite dominating possession, The Rams found it very difficult to breach the Owls defence. In the first half we had seventy per cent of the ball, but were left frustrated time and time again. The best chance being a Tom Ince free kick that was tipped over by Westwood.

We saw the best and worst points of this Derby side.

The worst point being how yet again our defence was liable to have moments where it looks very shaky. It's difficult to single one player out too. In some games its been kne of our centre halves who have been at fault and in others its been a full back.

However, despite the defensive frailties that we have shown this season, we have an impressive nineteen clean sheets. Many point to the fact that when John Eustace has played in front of the defence, we look so much stronger.

Omar Mascarell has talent no doubt, but he isn't a holding midfielder in my opinion. For that reason I was delighted to see the return of George Thorne. It was only for an hour and he obviously will need a couple of games to get back up to speed, but his return could be very important to us.

Bouncebackabilty! That's a word that has applied to us in our last three games. The way our team can go behind and rise to the challenge of turning things round has been impressive and is testament to the character of the team.

Some impressive performances against Sheffield Wednesday from our January additions. Ince again ran his legs off, Bent was always ready to pounce on any loose balls uo front and Lingard looked very lively when he came on in the second half.

Johnny Russell, Chris Martin and John Eustace are expected to return from injury in the next week or two. Steve McClaren is going to have a nice headache when selecting the team on matchday.

We welcome Charlton on Tuesday night who jnclude their latest signing, a certain Chris Eagles who needs no introduction to Derby fans. He has always played well against us and scored the odd goal or two.

Now that we have returned to the top of the table thanks to Bournemouth and Middlesbrough losing  and us winning, its time to really go for it and lead the race to the premier league. The next heat is held on Tuesday night.