PROLIFIC SCORING AT DERBY
— John James Bentley | 23/01/1899 —

Derby are guilty of some peculiar actions, and when in the humour are extremely unkind to their opponents. I don't know that they have any particular grievance against Sheffield Wednesday, unless it be that they object to the "Blades" coming to Matlock, and inhaling a portion of the Derbysire air, but on Saturday they sent the "Blades" back to Matlock sadly upset. It was not a pleasant afternoon, for rain fell at intervals, and the ground was greasy, but we had some fine play — on one side. The attendance, considering the conditions, was very good, about 6,000 being present. Those with Derby sympathies had every reason to be satisfied. To start with the teams were fully representative, as the following names show:—

Derby County.— Fryer, goal; Methven and Staley, backs; Cox, Goodall, and May, half-backs; Oakden, Bloomer, Boag, M'Donald, and Allen, forwards.

Sheffield Wednesday.— Massey, goal; Earp and Langley, backs; Ferrier, Crawshaw and Ruddlesdin, half-backs; Dryburg, Hemmingfield, Kays, Wright, and Spiksley, forwards.

Referee: Mr. S. Thomas, Burnley.

From the kick-off, it was pretty evident that Bloomer was in his best form, and in under quarter of an hour he had taken the extreme liberty of annexing three goals all on his own, so to speak. This was a stratler, and no mistake, and the Wednesday backs looked dumfounded, whilst the goalkeeper was decidedly disconsolate. In the meantime, Spiksley had to retire, having wrenched the muscles of his thigh, and for the remained of the game the Wednesday played with ten men. They were completely out of it, and when the ball was worked up to the Derby goal it was done in such a manner as not to suggest anything of a dangerous character, and Wright looked extremely lonely by himself on the Sheffield left, for no one seemed to notice that he was in the immediate vicinity. Only on three occasions was the Derby goal at all likely to fall, but twice Fryer had his work cut out, and Methven once headed a stinger away. At the other end, Langley, who did not play a drawing-room game by any means, tripped up Boag, and a penalty was awarded, but Archie Goodall made a sad mess of it, sending the ball over the ball. However, it did not make much difference, for Earp, evidently sorry for the non-success of his borther captain, immediately afterwards put the ball through his own goal, and Derby retired at half-time with the satisfaction of knowing that they had secured two points. For a brief period on resuming, the Wednesday seemed likely to make a better fight of it, and for a little while the Derby halves, who had fed their forwards splendidly, appeared to lie too far behind, and there was a complete gap between them and the forwards, but this was soon remided, and we had another sample of Bloomer and Derby County.

Derby County did exceedingly well, but Bloomer was the one man who seemed to take the whole vision. He skipped over opponents' legs, dribbled about, passed to his partner or some of the others, and he scored three more goals, so far as I could make out, whilst Derby County put on two in addition, so that the Derbyites won by nine to none.

It was a helpless display on the part of the Sheffielders, and although Spiksley's absence was naturally severely felt, I fancy Derby County would have won easily in any case. I have seldom seen forwards quicker on the ball than those of the home side, and if it is a big thing to say, it is perfectly true — they deserved to win by nine goals to none. Massey was beaten nine times, but he has day. Bloomer was the gentleman he saw approaching with fear and trembling, and he had reason to do, for Bloomer got in his shots from ail sorts of angles. But the whole five were quite up to the mark, and the Derby people have secured two promising extreme wings in Oakden and Allen. They have only been in the team a few weeks, but the llater is especially smart and screws with admirable accuracy. M'Donald is short, but wide, and a hard-working partner, whilst Boag played a judicious game in the centre, he and Bloomer working Johnny Goodall's forward pass beautifully. But too much praise cannot be given to the half-backs, and I don't care what class men you have in the front rank, they are precisous little good without some halves who work in unison with them. May is a good find, and Archie Goodall and Cox are just as clever as ever. The backs had not a difficult task, but were perfectly safe, and a like remakr applies to Fryer. One hardly knows what to say about the Wednesday team, but really, only Massey could be said to have played well, and he allowed nine shots to pass him. The loss of Spiksley was a severe one, but that should not upset the whole lot. The half-backs were completely beaten by the sharp passing and speedy running of the Derby forwards, and Earp and Langley were simply temper. Kaye and Wright were, perhaps, the most prominent of a singularly indifferent front rank.

We are accustomed to surprises in football, and North End occasionally ran up big scores in the early days of the League, but with the levelling up process which has proceeded during recent years, we do not expect one side to pile on nine goals.