Ground 3 - Pride Park

Date: 30th September 

Match: Derby County vs Cambridge United

Competition: SkyBet League One

Price: £20.

Derby County and Pride Park today. I was here last season when a battling Cambridge only went down 1-0 on a dark December evening in what was the last game of 2022.

2 coach loads (thanks to the train strikes) of Cambridge fans left the Abbey shortly after 10. We stopped at Leicester Forest East on the way - one of the nicer service stations in that area of the country. The rest of the journey was relatively straight forward. Outside the ground I bumped into my friend BeerMoose (check out his blog here) who was at his 500th Cambridge game.

Derby has one of those modern grounds located on a retail park just outside of town; where you can find several fast food chains, restaurants and pubs/bars near by. For some reason it has a Greggs outlet in one corner of the ground.

Once inside the ground. I got a pie and a pint at the slightly over priced cost of £9.50. Pie came in one of those pointless plastic wrappers. I've had better. After consuming I went up the stairs to find my seat.

The teams emerge 

There's not a lot to say about the match it self truth be told. Derby should have scored in the 2nd minute countering a Cambridge free kick; Mendez-Lang ran clear of everyone and passed it to Barkhuizen only for his effort to be saved by Cambridge keeper Will Mannion. Cambridge made a few good movements early on, but balls into the box where easily dealt with by the Derby defense.

On 30 minutes the game was paused for a minutes applause in memory of the wife of Derby keeper Josh Vickers, who had recently passed away from cancer - jusy months after they had got married. All players, staff and supporters from both clubs were impeccable during this. The rest of the half went by without too much incident.

Derby had a number chances in the 2nd half from the likes of James Collins and Martyn Waghorn. However nothing really troubled the Cambridge goal. Cambridge's best chance of game came on 73 minutes when a long range hit Paul Digby was well saved by Joseph Wildsmith. It finished 0-0. A result that will no doubt the Derby fans and delight the Cambridge ones. A special shout out goes to Cambridge defender Jubril Okendina, who came on at half time for Liam Bennett  and was excellent, despite playing very little football in recent times. 

Attendance: 26,122

Man of the match: Ryan Bennett