Hard to begrudge Derby County their day in the sun against Blackpool

The 4,000 Derby fans added to what was a real party atmosphere at Bloomfield Road in front of Blackpool’s highest gate of the season.

Coventry City aside, I struggle to think of a fanbase that’s made as much noise as they did in the East Stand. It was good-natured too, which - I can assure you - hasn’t always been the case this season.

Did their side deserve to leave the Fylde coast with all three points? Probably not. Their manager Wayne Rooney conceded as much himself post-match.

They rode their luck at times and snatched the win late on courtesy of two goals in the final 20 minutes of the game. But if anyone deserves a bit of luck, you’d have to say it’s probably Derby.

Fair play to the Blackpool fans who stayed to applaud them off the pitch at full-time. It was one of several displays of solidarity between the two sets of supporters, who have both endured similar experiences off the pitch in recent years.

As for the Seasiders, they only have themselves to blame though for their inability to put the game to bed while it was there for the taking - which is a sentence I’ve used far too often this season.

Even if we ignore Gary Madine’s saved penalty, which was a poor spot kick, Neil Critchley’s side had more than enough chances to open the scoring before Derby eventually broke the deadlock 17 minutes from time before putting the game to bed shortly afterwards.

It was a shame to sign off at Bloomfield Road with a defeat, but there wasn’t a great deal wrong with the performance.

The result might suggest otherwise, losing to a side that had lost its previous nine away games, but in general play the home side were okay and did enough to win the game.

If we take a quick look at the statistics, they produced 15 shots on goal yet only two were on target, which tells a stark story.

This is nothing new though. For weeks, nay months, Critchley has been openly admitting his side lack quality in the final third.

It shouldn’t take anything away from what has been an excellent campaign, because to sit on 60 points with one game still remaining is still some achievement given they were promoted via the League One play-offs last season. Let’s not forget safety was secured at the end of March.

If anything, I see it as a positive. Generally, Blackpool’s performances all season long have been very good. They’ve very rarely, if ever, been completely dominated and/or well beaten.

If the Seasiders can add those final touches in the forward positions, which is easier said than done, I know, there’s every reason to believe Critchley’s side can continue to improve and develop.

Blackpool actually made a fairly sluggish start to this game. They were far too sloppy on the ball and gifted Derby the opportunity to break on them fairly regularly early on.

And yet, the Rams were kept at arm’s length in terms of not allowing them to create any chances of note during the first-half, barring a couple of shots from the edge of the box on the stroke of half-time.

Otherwise, the clear-cut chances all fell the way of Blackpool: Callum Connolly fired wide from a near-post corner, goalkeeper Kelle Roos - who was a thorn in their side all afternoon - made an excellent reaction stop to deny Charlie Kirk and Shayne Lavery headed wastefully wide.

The clearest opportunity fell to Madine, who attempted a carbon copy of the penalty he scored against Luton last week when James Husband had been completely wiped out in the Derby box.

Roos had clearly seen a tape of the spot kick in question as he guessed the right way and saved Madine’s low, drilled effort fairly comfortably in the end.

In hindsight, perhaps Blackpool should have allowed Richard Keogh to take it against his former side, just as the home fans were chanting for. I’m only joking (or am I?!).

The second-half continued in the same vein - Blackpool in the ascendancy but still squandering good chances. Kirk curled wide before a further two opportunities fell to Madine. He couldn’t quite stretch far enough to turn the first one towards goal before he did well to divert Luke Garbutt’s low effort towards the bottom corner, only for that man Roos to make another fine save.

As much as I’ve criticised the forward players, it has to be said both of Derby’s goals were really poor efforts to concede from a defensive viewpoint.

It wasn’t helped that CJ Hamilton, who had a game to forget, gave the ball away in a poor area to allow the Rams to break at speed.

The visitors got in behind Callum Connolly too easily in the right-back position as a result, but even then the chance ought to have been snuffed out when the cross was hit straight at Chris Maxwell - only for the keeper to fumble the ball inside his six-yard box, allowing Malcolm Ebiowei to gobble up an easy goal.

Once that goal went in, Blackpool never realistically looked like getting back on level terms and their fate was sealed eight minutes from time when Eiran Cashin was granted the freedom of the 18-yard box to head home unmarked from a wide free-kick.

It resulted in a slightly underwhelming end-of-season awards ceremony in front of the sparsely populated home stands, with most supporters opting to leave at full-time.

That certainly wasn’t in the script, but it doesn’t alter what has still been a fine tale of a season.