Derby County 3 Newcastle United 0

Feb 10 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Maintaining pressure down the right wing, Commons was eventually able to spin away from Best on the edge of the area and his out-swinging cross was firmly headed home by Hulse.

That finally sparked Newcastle into life and Routledge possibly should have equalised almost immediately when he was played in on goal by Kevin Nolan only for Stephen Bywater to get down well to parry his shot.

The Derby goalkeeper was needed again before the break, Nolan arriving late in the area to collect Jonas’ pass, but his effort was kept out at the near post as Derby held on to their slender advantage.

It should, however, have been wiped out within seconds of the restart. Routledge had skipped away from James McEveley despite the full-back’s foul and had crossed for Andy Carroll to plant a header into the roof of the net only for play to be stupidly brought back for the foul with no advantage played.

It was a dreadful piece of refereeing and when Nolan failed to cut the ball back to an unmarked Carroll from the resulting free-kick, United’s anger and frustration was obvious and understandable.

It was the sort of injustice which can pray on the mind and distract from the job in hand and United’s mood rapidly worsened when Jonas was adjudged to have brought down Michael Tonge in the area and Commons calmly sent Harper the wrong way from the penalty spot.

Infuriatingly, referee Anthony Taylor had initially turned down the appeal, only for the linesman to belatedly flag with Nolan booked during the ensuing protests, although there was no question about Derby’s third – some lazy defending enabling centre-back Shaun Barker to slam a loose ball home.

It was the failing of a makeshift backline, although the lack of cohesion going forward was just as disappointing and after such a high this was a particularly painful low.

Newcastle, though, do not have the time, or the luxury, of feeling sorry for themselves and it will be their powers of recovery which will be tested after so long having things go their own way.