CCFC 1 v 1 DERBY COUNTY

Not That Vincent Tan Interview:

(An extract from a 'News Asia' report)

The 60-year-old tycoon, who earlier in the year retired as chairman of Berjaya Corporation (BCorp), also told the crowd how he squarely believed in the law of averages, a principle that has guided him for much of his business and investment life.
“If you ask 10 girls to go out with you, no matter how ugly you are, I bet you that one will say yes to you,” he quipped.
The law applies even to the Welsh football club Cardiff City FC he recently bought.
“Recently, I was talking to my football coach and asked him to tell players to make more attempts at goal. I want them to shoot the ball into the net and not to pass the ball so much because I believe the increase in goal attempts was in line with the law of averages. So if we had 20 goal attempts, at least two will go in!”

The great tactician has spoken.

C'mon Mister Malky, shoot the soccerball up into the net more times. And we score more goals and win more points for Cardiff. Sign more strikers. Sign more ugly players. Here, Mister Malky I give you 25 millions. Buy ugly. Win ugly! We buy 10 ugly strikers - we find one good one. One day we have Beast and soon we have Mister Joe Frazier Campbell. Very good goal man. Very handsome! M U they have lots of ugly men like Mister Wayne Potatoes and manager Sir Fergies. Big Sam, Mister Harrys Redsnap, Arse-ends Wenger, so many uglies! Mister Malky will be most handsome man in Premiers League. Law of averages!

The Law of Averages also suggests that not all owners will be deranged, self-important, delusional megalomaniacs but will occasionally have an understanding of the club, its history and fans and will make sound decisions based on a well thought out long term strategy.

Unfortunately that man decided to invest in Swansea.

The evening didn't start well. Bellamy and Hudson were notable absentees from the starting line-up which partnered Campbell with Helguson up front and saw both Noone and Kim loitering on the bench. An evening of long-ball-Route-One-strikers-feeding-off-scraps was promised.

For a team with little to play for other than Pride, The Rams made a bright start, with strikers Connor Sammon and Chris Martin looking to take advantage of a shaky central defence which, without the calm controlling influence of captain Hudson, looked vulnerable. Nugent, at 19 and still very much learning his trade has plenty of natural ability but cannot be expected to easily slot into such a strategically important position at such a vital stage of the season. Turner is normally the junior partner at the back and doesn't possess the organisational skills of his vastly experienced captain.

Apart from one breakout from Smith and Campbell which might have settled the nerves, the early chances fell to the visitors. A loose clearing header from Nugent was pounced on by Martin, forcing a fingertip save by Marshall. Shortly afterwards Turner was beaten for pace by Sammon and the warning signs were clear for all to see.

In midfield Gunnarsson and Whittingham failed to steady the ship. Rushed in possession and guilty of too many aimless misdirected passes, they were guilty of standing off when defending, allowing Derby to control the game.

There haven't been too many reasons to question Malky's decisions this season but handing the captain's armband to the out of sorts, short on confidence Whittingham is perverse. He offers nothing in terms of leadership and is clearly uncomfortable in the role he's been asked to play sweeping up just in front of the back four. At his best when getting forward and being given the opportunity to change the course of the game with a sublime defence-slitting pass here and a dipping volley there, he hasn't scored now for 22 games and it's many months since the 'He does what he wants' tribute was sung with any validity. If the season does end in recriminations and inquests his name will be prominent.

On the half hour Derby had the ball in the back of the net only to be denied by the linesman's flag. We were in line with play and I think the consensus was that the visitors might reasonably feel more than a little aggrieved.

So we went in level at half time but with plenty of options on the bench gifting Malky the opportunity to shake things up - Noone / Kim to provide width, Mason to provide pace, Gestede to provide height and muscle - surely it wouldn't be too long before changes were made.

Unfortunately it would was to be another 30 minutes before the penny (along with the prospect of 3 points) dropped. By then we were a goal behind after Conway gifted the ball to the opposition with our defence moving out, allowing Sammon to poach (apologies but he could have 'leapt' or returned home to spawn...) Noone had only just come off the bench and now Mason replaced Helguson.

Immediately we looked a more potent force playing with greater width and causing panic in a hitherto comfortable Derby defence. On 82 minutes Taylor got down the left wing and delivered a deep cross over the keeper into the path of Noone who met it at the far post to head into the top corner. 1-1. Gestede now replaced Conway as we went in search of an unlikely winner which, if Rudy had kept a level head instead of going for glory may well have come our way in the dying moments.

So another 2 points dropped. Or is it 1 point gained? After all, with Hull losing heavily to Palace we're 6 points clear of third with a game in hand. We won't be able to sustain this line of argument for much longer. It's still a healthy position to be in but in the absence of a rapid return to form the coming weeks could be very tense.

Will we be saying in a month's time 'Well we'd have taken the play-offs at the start of the season!? Presumably Mr Tan would consider this to be no bad thing. After all, by The Law of Averages...