Blame Me Says Brown

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 25/08/2005

DERBY manager Phil Brown, who made eight changes to the team that beat Cardiff in the championship on Saturday, admitted: "I take full responsibility for the performance and the result."

"There's no doubt the fact that I made eight changes didn't help us. I felt we were not as fluent when we had the ball and we were not as organised when we didn't have the ball."

"Those two things more often than not will result in us getting beat."

"If this had been in the last two weeks of the season with two matches left and we needed points, no one would argue. The fact that we are only five games into the season, the points are as important to me."

"Of the changes I made, four or five were forced upon me and I did emphasise to the players who came in that metaphorically I was looking for them to kick my door down and make themselves available for Saturday but I didn't get too many of those pictures."

Russell Slade however was upbeat about it all.

Talking after the game and later to Mariners Net he said; "It was a little bit nervy for us because we had to change our formation and we were forced to play without a natural left-back."

"But I think for a League Two club, we passed it well especially in the first half and we were always a constant threat. We were hanging on a bit at the end when we had to defend four or five corners but we managed to scramble the ball away."

"I have to admit that the last 10 minutes or so did seem a very long time. I looked at the clock and it showed 81 minutes and when I looked again 10 minutes later, it said 82 minutes!

"This result is a big boost for the club because before I came, we'd had two seasons of relegation and last season we had to play for stability."

"This season, we are hoping to push on and try to put a smile on the face of the fans and the chairman."

"We set our stall out to defend against Derby's system. We've worked on it over the past couple of days and we played very well."

"It suited us, the way Derby played, but it's about getting that consistency in the league. If I thought that we were going to play like this every week we would not have a problem."

Slade says that he was pleased with the three player who made their debuts.

"I was delighted with all three debutants. I thought that all three of them played very well. Gary Jones, that was a great strike and I'm delighted that he got that goal. Gary Cohen came close as well, worked his socks off. Unfortunately he's got a bit of a knock as well."

"Jean-Paul's done tremendously well. He's battled away in there with Bolly, and we looked quite solid."

Slade also praised Steve Mildenhall, who didn't put a hand wrong all night.

"He comes for crosses beyond the penalty spot, and when you lose the likes of Rob Jones and you haven't got your 6'7" defender, for Mildey to come and take some of those crosses doesn't half take some of the pressure off your defence."

"I think it is a different kind of football. You are in the Championship and it is more like a game of chess, you have more time to pick your pass," he said. "When we got that little bit of time to pick a pass, not the hurry, hurry of division 2, we look a better side."

"Hopefully this will give us the confidence to do it in our league on Saturday."

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