2009/2010 Season. Pre-season friendly match no. 6.
Friday, July 31st, 2009.

ALFRETON TOWN 3, Derby County XI 0

Report by Kev Miles. Match pics here

ALFRETON Town brought their pre-season campaign to a close in impressive style with a 3-0 mauling of a mixed Derby County side at the Impact Arena.
With a full scale first team game the day after, Rams manager Nigel Clough opted for a side which contained a couple of players with Premiership/Championship experience, some of his summer signings, and a batch of players hoping to force their way into his plans for the forthcoming season.
By the end of this game though, it was the Alfreton players who had made the lasting impression on a decent sized crowd of 819 as they dominated the game for long spells.
Two goals in the first eight minutes put the Reds in the ascendancy and despite Kyle McFadzean smashing a penalty against the underside of the bar, Liam Hearn did extend the lead late on.
The Reds could have won by a far bigger margin and were denied it by a string of fine saves from former Manchester United keeper Roy Carroll who held the hosts at bay almost single-handedly in the second half.
Derby had the first opening in the first minute when captain Jason Beardsley's pass in to Alex Prijovic was sent on to Greg Mills just outside the angle of the six yard box but his low drive was saved by the outstretched leg of Craig Dootson in the Alfreton goal for the first corner of the game.
A minute later Anthony Howell's ball across the edge of the Rams penalty area picked out Anton Brown who created a yard of space but shot straight at Carroll.
Alfreton's crisp passing start to the game was rewarded as they stunned Derby with two goals in the space of a minute.
The first came on seven minutes when another Howell run was ended with him being felled 25-yards out by Alex Forde. From the free-kick, Ian Ross's strike deflected off the wall to strand Carroll and the ball nestled in the far bottom right corner for 1-0.
A minute later the Reds won a right flank corner and Richard Pell doubled the lead when he despatched Ross's flag-kick into the roof of the net at the near post, again with the aid of a deflection but it was on it's way in any way.
Alfreton almost added a third a minute later. Another lovely run by Howell down the left saw Forde again left trailing and from the pull back, Paul Clayton controlled and fired narrowly past Carroll's right hand post.
Clayton returned the compliment for Howell on 13 minutes but his delicate chip over Carroll was just too high.
Derby replaced Mitch Hanson with Luke Garton after just 18 minutes.
The next chance again came to the Reds with Law's right flank cross picking out Clayton who turned his marker but had his shot blocked at source.
Derby did have the ball in the net on the half hour when Prijovic's shot crept inside the far post but an assistant chalked it off as Fraser McLaren was adjudged offside, running across Dootson's line of vision.
A minute later the Rams went as close as they got all night with Jordan Stewart playing Mills through on the left and after he had pulled the ball inside for Prijovic, his beautiful curling effort passed over the far angle of post and bar by a matter of centimetres.
It was Derby's best spell of the game and Matt Wilson had to produce a timely interception to stop McLaren getting into the penalty area before Jermaine Johnson's strong run into the penalty area was stopped by the combined efforts of Wilson and Dominic Roma on the byline for a corner.
Alfreton carved out two more chances before the interval though. On 44 minutes latest signing Damian Reeves got to the right byline and pulled back low for Clayton a couple of yards out but Carroll denied him with a point blank range save with his legs.
Then terrific perseverance from Anton Brown ended with him winning the ball back from Mills before feeding Clayton whose reverse pass set up Reeves but he spoiled a fine move by blazing over.
Alfreton manager Nicky Law replaced Reeves with Liam Hearn for the start of the second half and the Reds again opened on the offence.
Inside the first 20 seconds the hosts had cut through the Derby defence with McFadzean's ball into the area seeing Johnson mistime his header, Clayton chested down but instead of shooting, he laid the ball back for Law who fired over from just inside the area.
The Rams responded with an angled cross shot from Henrik Ojamaa which sped a yard past an upright.
The majority of chances came at the other end though. Hearn was only awarded a corner even though the ball appeared to strike the arm of a Rams defender in the area.
Jordan Stewart's pace came into effect on 50 minutes when he amazingly caught and outpaced Hearn after he had raced onto a through-ball from the immaculate Ross.
A minute later after another terrific Reds move down the left, Hearn got free again and produced a brilliant curling shot from 12-yards which beat Carroll but unluckily struck the angle of post and bar.
Another patient raid then ended with McFadzean blasting a cross-shot past the far post as the Reds began to threaten from all over the park.
Despite Ojamaa putting in a busier display in the second half, Derby still struggled to create many real threats to the home goal.
One rare occasion though saw a Stewart free kick take a deflection off an home defender and brought an absolutely top drawer save from Dootson for a corner.
Both managers began to chop and change but the alterations did nothing to diminish from Alfreton's dominance and the previously unflappable Carroll was thankful for a clearing boot after dropping a Howell cross.
If this had been a league game, Carroll would have been sent off after pulling Clayton down for a clear penalty as he burst into the area. With Howell and Burke hovering, the chance to extend the lead went untaken as McFadzean smashed his spot kick against the underside of the bar and Howell lashed the rebound over.
Clayton threatened Carroll's goal again when he burst through but shot across the visiting keeper and also the far post.
If seemed as if Alfreton were shooting in at this stage and Clayton was denied again as Carroll came up with a superb save in a one-on-one situation.
Former Ilkeston Town man Ben Pringle had a chance to reduce the arrears at the end of a rare flowing Derby move but Dootson pulled off a fine save at close range on 80 minutes and a minute later the Reds keeper was replaced by Lawrence Matthewson.
A feature of Alfreton games in pre-season has been their strength to the end of games and it showed again here.
A ball in from the right by Mattie Burke ended with Clayton's overhead kick flying over the top then Hearn produced a neat turn and shot which brought a good stop at the base of a post by Carroll.
Alfreton did put the icing on the cake of a fine all-round display on 84 minutes when Matthewson's long kick was helped on in midfield and Liam Hearn collected to advance and fire under the advancing Carroll from 12-yards.
The Derby keeper had the last say near the end when he pulled off yet another superb save at point blank range from Hearn.
With just a week to go to the Blue Square North opening game, watching Farsley Celtic scouts will have had plenty to report back on after this superb Alfreton victory.

ALFRETON TOWN: Craig Dootson (Lawrence Matthewson 81), Dominic Roma, Kyle McFadzean (Luke Shiels 85), Matt Wilson (Aden Flint 58), Richard Pell, Ian Ross (Mattie Burke 58), Josh Law (Jordan Hall 70), Anton Brown (Tom Curtis 81), Paul Clayton, Damian Reeves (Liam Hearn h/t), Anthony Howell.
DERBY COUNTY: Roy Carroll, Alex Forde, Jordan Stewart, Arnaud Mendy (Ben Pringle 70), Jermaine Johnson (Callum Keane 79), Mitch Hanson (Luke Garton 18), Henrik Ojamaa, Jason Beardsley, Fraser McLaren (Aaron Cole 62), Alex Prijovic, Greg Mills.
Substitutes not used: Jake Buxton, Saul Deeney.
REFEREE: Steve Cook of Bargate.
ATTENDANCE: 819.
GOALS: Alfreton Town - Ian Ross (7), Richard Pell (8), Liam Hearn (84).
BOOKINGS: None.
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Ian Ross.