Sorry. My fault. Okay - Greeno may have taken his eye off of Darren
Kenton's back pass to gift Derby three points - which could keep the
Rams in the division as well as keep Burley in employment - but it
was all my fault. As a few of you pointed out at Pride Park, I should
never have mentioned the 'new manager' hoodoo we suffer. Sorry.

As for the game... well, City started brightly and McVeigh added
another classic strike from outside the box to his growing
collection. He now has 15 goals this season and if we reach the play-
offs, he could still hit the 20 mark, which would be a fitting reward
for his efforts.

City went on to create several further chances, but were then caught
cold by a well-worked move down Derby's left wing. We were slow to
close down the cross, allowing the winger to pick out an on-rushing
Burley, who emphatically crashed home the equaliser. It was against
the run of play, but it certainly pleased the manager's nephew - who
was promptly booked for a terribly crude challenge on Rivers, who had
already been on the end of a few bad tackles.

On the half-hour mark, Abbey had a gilt-edged chance to put us back
in front, but shot wide from six yards with just the keeper to beat.
Russell had three half-chances in quick succession, but failed to hit
the target with any of them. As so often recently, chances were
created in abundance, but not taken.

The second half continued in much the same vein, until Kenton's back
pass on 57 minutes. Greeno took a big swipe, but got nothing but air,
and turned in despair to see the ball bobble towards the goal. It was
cruel on Greeno, and on Kenton who now has another og against his
name! Five clean sheets will make amends Robert, okay?

Despite the setback, once again other results were in our favour:
Wolves could only extend their lead by one point, with Ipswich also
losing (at home to Forest). Reading are also falling and catchable,
even if Forest now look out of reach. MLS

Team P W D L F A Pts GD
Portsmouth 40 25 11 4 83 38 86 45
Leicester 40 24 11 5 66 35 83 31
====================================
Shef Utd 39 20 10 9 63 43 70 20
Forest 39 19 11 9 73 40 68 33
Reading 40 21 4 15 50 40 67 10
Wolves 40 17 13 10 68 38 64 30
------------------------------------
Ipswich 41 16 13 12 67 54 61 13
NORWICH 41 17 10 14 55 45 61 10
Gillingham 41 14 13 14 53 61 55 -8
Rotherham 40 14 11 15 55 53 53 2

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