3/1 To Win
Striker Chris Martin praised his team-mates following Derby County’s 3-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers in the Sky Bet Championship on Sunday afternoon.
Louie Sibley opened the scoring midway through the first half on his full league debut as he unleashed an unstoppable effort from 25 yards.
That was his first professional goal for the Rams, whilst on 41 minutes, Martin notched his first and the Rams’ second of the game, scoring from close range.
After Graeme Shinnie’s long-range effort was parried out, the striker was on hand to steer home the rebound to put Derby in complete control of the game.
The Rams had to be patient and weathered a little storm in the second half, however, they put the game beyond doubt with only five minutes remaining.
Jason Knight was fouled in the penalty area and Martin stepped up send Blackburn goalkeeper Christian Walton the wrong way to score his second of the game, as he moved to 18th in club’s all-time leading goalscorers list.
The visitors were reduced to 10-men in the final stages of the game as the game belonged to the Rams who showed their ruthlessness in front of goal, something which pleased Martin.
“I thought it was a very good performance,” he told RamsTV following the game. “I thought we controlled most of the game, even though they had a spell at the start of the second half which they were always likely to do.
“They went a little more direct and bought a few substitutes on which caused us a few issues but I thought we showed the other side of our game in that period and we defended well.
“I thought all the back four, especially Andre Wisdom and Matt Clarke, got their heads on everything, Ben Hamer saved us when he needed to and we showed that steeliness, grit and determination to keep the clean sheet and it was nice to cap it off with a third goal late on.”
Whilst Martin grabbed two of the Rams’ goal, the day will no doubt belong to Sibley who scored on his first league start for his boyhood club, and it was some strike.
He received the ball from Martyn Waghorn 25 yards from goal, he took a touch and thundered it into the top corner to calm Derby’s nerves and set them on their way to all three points.
“It wasn’t bad was it,” Martin said, with a smile. “I said to Sibs before the game 'is it you for first goalscorer today?' and he gave a smile and what a strike it was. We needed it.
“We were probing and I thought we built up well but we didn’t find that elusive first goal up until that point. It would take something special from the young lad there and what an introduction.”
And on a day where skipper Wayne Rooney was unavailable, Andre Wisdom took over the captaincy duties, a first in his career.
“It’s not a bad record with one game and a 3-0 win as skipper,” Martin added. “He gave a little team talk before which was good. It’s not something Andre likes doing but he took on the responsibility really well today.
“You could hear him end to end, organising people and we had a few young lads and it was a good thing from the experienced guys today. We tried to help and manage through the tough times but they did it all on their own and Wis helped a lot with that.”
