CITY 1 DERBY COUNTY 0
Premier League
14th August 2007
attendance 43,620
scorer – Johnson(43)
Referee: LS Mason
City Schmeichel, Corluka, Richards, Dunne, Garrido, Johnson, Hamann, Petrov , Ireland, Elano, Bianchi – subs Geovanni(74), Bojinov (77), Mpenza(89) Harte(unused), Onouha(unused)
Derby Bywater, Mears, Moore, Davis, Griffin, Fagan, Jones, Oakley, Todd, Pearson, Howard. – subs Earnshaw(69), Teale(46), McEveley(78), Price(unused), Leacock(unused)
I knew It was going to be a special night at eastlands when I got Thaskin’s autograph outside the ground and then I was interviewed for Sky Sports News – Question What are you expecting from tonight Answer Well I know we will win but above all I want to be entertained.Well it wasn’t the best performance in the world in the first half as City were stifled by a very hard working Derby side. It took a world class strike, by an ever maturing, Michael Johnson 2 minutes before half time to start the Entertainment bandwagon in motion.
It was an impressive performance in the second half which hasn’t been seen by the City faithful since Bernabia, Berkovic et al took the Championship by storm which roused the crowd to applaud the silky skills of Elano and his replacement Geovanni as they ran the midfield with the help of a man of the match performance from Didi Hamann.
The performance deserved more than the one goal but as 90 minutes flew by the crowd were left purring at a 45 minutes the like had yet to be seen at Eastlands.