Derby 5
(Ellis o.g. 7′, Osula 15′, Thompson 38′, Dobbin 62′, McGoldrick 79′)
United 0
United’s Emirates FA Cup run came to an end at Pride Park, as Derby County emerged as clear winners in their First Round Replay.
An unfortunate own goal from Mark Ellis gave The Rams an early lead against the run of play, with salt rubbed into those wounds as William Osula doubled the hosts’ advantage on the quarter-of-an-hour mark. Johnson’s men rallied, however County hit them again before the halfway stage, as Liam Thompson made it 3-0. There was further punishment after the break, with Lewis Dobbin finishing well to extend Derby’s lead, before McGoldrick did likewise in the game’s latter stages.
Despite the weekend defeat at home to Chesterfield, the Gaffer chose to keep faith with the same starting line-up to face County at Pride Park, and it appeared to pay off early on, as the men in yellow took the game to their illustrious opponents.
Indeed, Johnson’s men won a corner with the game only 30 seconds old, and with it came their first effort, as Tom Lapslie sent a volley towards goal from 20 yards out, before seeing the ball deflected away.
Having started so well, it was therefore a real disappointment when United conceded a goal in freak circumstances in the seventh minute.
Louie Sibley appeared to have run out of options down the left wing as he sent a rather hopeful cross towards the back post, however, in attempting to steer the ball safely away from danger, Ellis’ stooping header only succeeded in beating his own goalkeeper to give Derby an undeserved lead.
Facing up to that setback, The Gulls responded bravely, with Dillon De Silva and Will Goodwin providing County’s backline with plenty to think about, however just eight minutes later, they were punished again.
McGoldrick’s foray down the left side ended with United players doubling up to produce a dead-end, however the experienced striker played the centrally to Osula, who followed up his two goals in the first game but firing a low right-footer past Halstead to double his side’s lead.
At that point, many sides would have wilted, however The Gulls just continued to do what they had done so well in the opening exchanges, and by pushing Paul Warne’s side back against their own goal, it nearly paid off.
A 25th minute Stephen Wearne corner saw Lucas Ness steer a header goalwards – which was cleared just short of the goal line – before Asa Hall’s form effort from 15 yards saw fervent penalty appeals waved away, with the Yellow Army well-placed to draw the referee’s attention to an apparent handball.
Two minutes later, they came even closer.
A low cross from the left forced home goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith smother Will Goodwin’s near-post prod towards goal, and just when Aaron Jarvis looked to profit from the rebound, a desperate block at close-range denied the Gulls forward.
Having played themselves back into proceedings, and with their fans growing in hope, things were about to get even harder.
Seven minutes before the break, with United committed to reducing the deficit, a cross-field ball from left to right saw Derby overloaded in attack, with Thompson’s direct run taking him into the penalty area with relative ease, leaving the County man to fire the ball past Halstead from just inside the box.
A clearly dejected Torquay side continued to compete until the change of ends, however they were unable to make any inroads into the sizeable deficit.
Johnson’s men made it abundantly clear after the restart that now no time to change their attacking intent, and again looked bright going forward once things got back underway.
They weren’t able to look quite as threatening during what was a stop-start fifteen minutes, and unfortunately when more goals came, they again fell the way of the home side.
After initially clearing a threatening-looking corner, the thunderous finish produced by Dobbin from 20 yards only served to highlight the gulf between the two sides, as it soared past Halstead and into the top-corner of the net.
To their credit, Johnson’s men continued to fight on in the face of adversity, however more proof of Derby’s clinical resources came eleven minutes from time, as McGoldrick found enough space to turn by the penalty spot and drill a low shot home on the turn.
With a mammoth twelve minutes of time added on – primarily down to an injury to one of the officials, Torquay produced some decent spells of possession, with Corie Andrews seeing a 18-yard effort gathered low by Wildsmith.
Ten minutes into stoppage time, it looked like United would finally get the goal their bravery and workrate deserved, as Jarvis bore down on goal, however after pulling the trigger, his firm strike was turned behind by Wildsmith’s left palm.
It was to prove the last chance of the cup tie.
The final word of the evening goes to the travelling Yellow Army, who stayed behind to applaud their heroes – many of them will again be at Barnet on Saturday.
Thank you for your continued support – see you at The Hive.
Derby County: 1. Joe Wildsmith, 6. Eiran Cashin (35. Max Bardell. 76′), 8. Max Bird (c) (12. Korey Smith, 70′), 10. David McGoldrick, 15. Haydon Roberts (3. Craig Forsyth, 19′, 30. Kwaku Oduroh, 70′), 16. Liam Thompson, 17. Louie Sibley, 18. Lewis Dobbin (9. James Collins, 70′), 19. Richard Stearman, 23. Will Osula, 34. Jake Rooney.
SUBS NOT USED: 21. Scott Loach, 4. Conor Hourihane, 11. Nathaniel Medez-Laing, 28. Ozzie Aghatise.
Yellow Card: Collins 82′
United: 1. Mark Halstead, 2. Dylan Crowe (10. Corie Andrews, 83′), 4. Tom Lapslie, 8. Asa Hall (c) (14. Brett McGavin, 67′), 9. Aaron Jarvis, 12. Stephen Wearne, 16. Shaun Donnellan, 19. Will Goodwin (7. Ryan Hanson, 67′), 26. Lucas Ness, 27. Dillon De Silva (5. Ali Omar, 75′), 35. Mark Ellis (23. Ollie Tomlinson, 67′).
SUBS NOT USED: 22. Rhys Lovett, 6. Ross Marshall, 21. Dean Moxey.
Attendance: 7,203