After seven straight defeats in my attempts to see us win away I hoped that getting away from the South East would improve my luck and, as we all knew, if we couldn’t beat Derby away then we had little hope of beating any other side. I’d been staying in Huddersfield for a couple of nights and got the train down from there via Wakefield, arriving just before 12.30. First port of call was a chippie and after a small bag of chips and a couple of samosas I was ready to roll. For some reason I’d always thought that Pride Park was miles out of town like the Madejski Stadium but after being guided back through the station I soon arrived at a Harvester pub, through the windows of which I could see the red and white.

Inside both sets of fans were mingling amicably enough, though we were very much in the majority. I didn’t have a ticket for the game but was confident of getting one. I got chatting to a Leicester-based Sunderland fan called Jim and he said he might be able to help me as he was meeting up with a minibus full of folks at 2.30 and maybe one of them mightn’t turn up so there’d be a spare. A few jars later we headed out into the sunshine for the short walk to the ground. As it turned out, Jim couldn’t help me but it’s always good to meet fellow fans from different areas so, after a very hip handshake for guys our age, he went into the ground and I began some serious ticket-scenting. In such situations you have to let it be known that you need a ticket without being a pain in the arse and without coming across as a sucker. It’s amazing how word gets around. Anyway, by 2.50 I had a ticket for our end through the kind agency of a fellow-traveller and was heading up to my seat. I had a largish shoulder-bag and was surprised that there were no security checks. Pride Park looked okay to me and there was a full house (33,000 as I discovered later). We had a good few thousand there and the Derby ‘end’ flanked our end on both sides. It was great to see Richardson back in the team again.

In the pub afterwards a Derby fan summed up the match by saying, “We only managed one shot on target… against Sunderland… and they were shit.” On the way to that pub a Sunderland guy had quipped, “The two worst sides in the division.” Well, I had mixed feelings. To some extent I was pleased that we’d actually managed an away point after ten straight defeats, especially when I was there to see it, but at the same time I knew that we should’ve got three points against the division’s punch-bags. We certainly had our chances and after last week’s inability to get a shot on target we managed to do that at least three times, but our best chance came from Murphy in the fourth minute when he burst through and smashed it against the post. Derby did threaten a few times but their only serious attempt came ten minutes from time when Gordon had to punch clear. This didn’t of course deter our defence from occasionally trying to gift them golden chances with alarmingly misjudged clearances. On the whole, though, we defended well with Nos and Evans looking solid.

I hate to criticize the mighty Kenwyne but he looked rather out of sorts today and several good chances in the box went begging because he didn’t seize them in his customary way. He didn’t get much support from the referee when he appeared to be repeatedly obstructed by the Derby central defenders. They out-muscled us quite a lot, especially in the first half. Once again it was our finishing that let us down and when we got to the by-line, again we were a lot better than last week in that department, things usually fizzled out as soon as the ball was put into the box. Richardson did a lot of good stuff and made some great mazy runs, which augured well for the rest of the season.

At half-time there was a big ripple from both sets of fans when Marco Gabbiadini came on to make a draw and “Ole! Ole-Ole-Ole! Marco! Marco!” erupted from our fans as he came on and off the pitch. Also at half time a guy was shambling down the steps near my seat when he suddenly barfed all over the place. Luckily there were, as a young fellow in front of me said, “Nee lumps” and so the pong was minimal. I was impressed by the response of a couple nearby; within a minute or so some water had been produced to swill down a seat that had been caught in the fallout and then several large paper tissues were provided for the final wipe-down. As a hangover from yesterday’s Leap Year shenanigans the stadium announcer broadcast an appeal from a Nicola to a Drew which said, “Drew, will you marry me?” There were numerous cries of “No!” from around me.

The stewards were getting involved a good deal on several occasions in the game and a few fans were escorted out of our end, though I couldn’t see any trouble anywhere. Earlier in the game a bloke just in front of me had been endeavouring to climb over the fence to get to his seat and though the rather sheepish steward right next to him had been doing his best not to notice his antics, which resembled those of a drunken sloth, even he had to grumble when a shoe caught his arm and finally he was moved to protest loudly when a floppily placed foot smacked him on the side of the head.

Fair play to Derby, they battled all the way and their fans also backed them up well. In the pub afterwards, which I’d managed to get into by zipping up over my shirt and saying nowt, the locals were taking their imminent relegation and all round shite season with commendable humour. There was a commemorative photo on the wall saying something like ‘R.I.P. Brian Clough. You were the best thing to happen to Derby in years’ and it made me think that we had some considerable common ground there. For some reason the Harvester wasn’t allowing any Sunderland fans in after the game.

I had a couple of hours before I caught the train back to St Pancras and had a wander along some of the main street, London Road. On the way there was an off-licence called Mr Booze. The Indian lads in Hot N Spicy were very friendly and I took a while to explain to them what houmous was before leaving with a gigantic vegetable and chilli naan roll. A word of warning when chomping one of those rolls - don’t eat the paper wrapping as I managed to do a bit. Sure, it’s probably good roughage, and we all need a bit of that, but it ain’t much fun. This was followed by a lager in the Crown and Cushion where I watched the last half-hour of Man City’s goalless draw with Wigan. Overall the results of our rivals didn’t go too well for us today with Birmingham thrashing Spurs and Reading getting a late winner against Boro. Newcastle continued their downward spiral and Fulham lost 3-0 but that was the good news. I dread to look at the upcoming fixtures as I know we’ve got Everton, Chelsea and Villa soon and I’d be pleased if we could get any points at all from those games. This was of course why we really needed three from today’s match.

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