Return of the Mack

This afternoon the Lofty Heights crew of Lofty, PK, Jenson and myself took to the road and hit the slow moving M1 at roughly 10.30. The usual prediction competition took place on the way, would a new winner be crowned or wwill the money go the the usual winner? All will be revealed later. When we got upto Derby and took our seat in the nearby Pride Park Harvester and enjoyed a swift half or three and dring our pre match preprations we were joined by Iceman, Richard, Sophie and Richard's son who was attending his second game as a QPR supporter.
We took our seats just as the half began with myself, Lofty and PK sitting on one side of the stand whilst Jenson and Iceman sat on the other side.

Neil Warnock named an unchanged side after beating Scunthorpe last week. Adel Taarabt kept the captains armband.

The first half was a frustrating affair as Derby bossed the game and pressed Rangers' high up the pitch. Robbie Savage followed Adel Taarabt's every footstep and challenged the Moroccan everytime he got the ball, at times it looked as if Rangers' were playing with ten men as we just couldn't get Taarabt in the game.
Kris Commons was proving to be a constant thorn in the R's backside and he got the goal
his trickery deserved as the R's defence fell by the wayside. Derby broke down the left and as the ball was played to the back post there was Commons, who had enough time to take a touch and then slot home and delight the lively home crowd.
The referee was frustrating the Rangers' travelling fans, players and management alike with some very questionable decisions in favour of the home team, maybe I'm being slightly biased but my word that ref was poor!
After sharing the last five minutes having some banterous cheering with the Derby fans it was half time, and if I'm honest Derby had edged the half and looked more hungry than us.

During the half time break we all made our way outside so Lofty and PK could enjoy their smokes and reunite the group ahead of the second half. The five of us took to the stands together for the second half and we also had Richard, Sophie and the new young R in our group.

Much of the same happened in the second half and disaster struck on the hour mark when Bailey was fed the ball on the edge of the Rangers' half, he took aim and curled an effort past Paddy Kenny and gave the home side a 2-0 lead. As soon as the ball left his foot you could see that it was only heading for one place, the back of the net.
After another frustrating twenty minutes of poor officiating and a second disallowed goal, the first goal happened in the first half at 0-0 but looked clearly offside, however the second offside decision did look very close.
Neil Warnock came very close to getting sent to the stands when his emotions boiled over and shared his views to the officials on the sidelines, after a quiet word he was allowed to carry on directing orders from the touchline.
The board went up showing four minutes of added time and we were nearly out of our misery.
Rangers' got what looked like a 91st minute consolation as Patrick Agyemang held off his defender and poked the ball home and give us a glimmer of hope.
The R's then piled on the pressure in search of an unlikely leveller and got a last minute corner. Derby cleared their lines and the Derby striker broke through on goal with just Kenny to beat and the new R's number one saved and denied a third Derby goal.
From that corner Rangers' broke away and won a throw which was taken quickly and before we knew it Jamie Mackie was on the edge of the Derby area with defender blocking his way to goal, he muscled his way past and superbly shot into the far corner!!! Cue the delirious celebrations!!!!!!
The celebrations were similar to those at Hillsborough when we got promotion, we robbed Derby in injury time and my god it felt good!!

Today's Lofty Heights Man of the Match is given to Jamie Mackie for another great work rate all game and was rewarded with the 95th minute equaliser

After half an hour of trying to recover and get our heart rates back to normal we were still buzzing and were talking to Derby fans as we were looking at the brand new Clough/Taylor statue outside the ground.
We made the slow walk back to the Harvester giving out a few Rangers' chants to the R's fans sat in the traffic we walked past. We met up with Jo and John in the Harvester, they left the game at 2-0, so myself and Lofty did enjoy rubbing it in a tiny bit.
After a swift beer we left Iceman in the pub as he only had a short journey back to Burton and we hit the road with talksport on and went through our results of the predictions and with just the Blue Square results to go it was PK in the lead by two points, however after a blinding round of results it was me that somehow pulled it out of the bag to win by seven points.

A great day all round and even now as we just arrive at our homes we are all still buzzing after a second great away day of the season.

Derby County: Bywater, Brayford, Roberts, Green, Barker, Leacock, Savage, Commons (Cywka 45), Bailey, Moxey (Ball 90), Doyle (Martin 57).

Subs: Deeney, Buxton, Pringle, O'Brien.

Goals: Commons (40), Bailey (59)

Bookings: Moxey (33)

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Derry (Buzsaky 61), Taarabt (Clarke 70), Helguson (Agyemang 62), Faurlin, Mackie, Gorkss, Connolly, Ephraim.

Subs: Cerny, Leigertwood, Ramage, German.

Goals: Agyemang (90+2), Mackie (90+5)

Bookings: Hill (37), Mackie (90)

Referee: Mr M Haywood

Attendance: 25, 874 (1655)