City's EDS suffer frustrating PL2 loss at Derby

Despite City’s total domination for almost an hour, Justin Oguntolu’s 58th minute penalty put the hosts ahead with their first shot on target.

Derby remained compact and fought tooth and nail to maintain their lead with Sverre Nypan, Christian McFarlane and Brooklyn Nfonkeu going closest to finding an equaliser.

The hosts were also indebted to a man-of-the-match performance by goalkeeper Jack Thompson who made a fantastic final save to deny substitute Femi Fapetu from distance as City fell to a sixth PL2 defeat of the season.

WHAT HAPPENED

City travelled to 27th-placed Derby County for our first game following the March international break which had seen seven of our Friday night squad heavily involved for their respective national youth teams.

It was all City inside the opening 45 minutes against an experienced Rams side which included first-team players Sondre Langas and Max Johnston who are making their way back to full fitness following lengthy injuries.

But it didn’t deter Wilkinson’s side from enjoying time on the ball with the young Blues racking up 61% first half possession.

Sverre Nypan, Christian McFarlane, Mamad Sangare, Reigan Heskey and Matty Henderson-Hall all had chances to find the opener and would later rue those missed opportunities.

Momentum swung massively in favour of Derby on 58 minutes when Justin Oguntolu converted from the spot after a mistimed tackle by Isaiah Dada-Mascoll saw referee Richard Aspinall award the hosts a penalty.

It would prove to be their only effort on target with City continuing to pile on the pressure in search of an equaliser. 

Nypan’s diving header on 69 minutes looked set to nestle into the top right corner, but Derby goalkeeper Thompson caught the ball on the stretch. 

In the dying embers of what was an extremely frustrating evening for Wilkinson’s side, substitute Brooklyn Nfonkeu, Nypan, and McFarlane were all again denied by fantastic, quick-reaction saves by Thompson, with the Derby ‘keeper’s heroics sealing all three points for the hosts.  

HOW WE LINED UP

DERBY XI | Thompson, Johnston (Perry 46’), Robinson, Banks, Offor, Langas (Osong 31’), Mintus, Gill (Green 46’), Oguntolu, Richards, Waehling (Hodges 46’)

SUBS | O’Neill.  

CITY XI | Brits, Henderson-Hall (Nfonkeu 62’), Noble, Braithwaite, McFarlane, Dada-Mascoll (Fapetu 72’), Muir, F. Samba, Sangare (Warhurst 62’), Nypan, R. Heskey.

SUBS | Hudson, Thomas.  

AS A RESULT

City remain third in the PL2 standings with one League Phase game left to play.

UP NEXT

Our final PL2 League Phase game will see us welcome Norwich City to the Joie Stadium on Monday 14 April.

Kick-off is set for 19:00 (UK), with tickets to the game available here.

The game will also be streamed live on mancity.com and the Official Man City App for fans with a CITY+ subscription.