In the games where we haven’t got the result we wanted or just scraped a 1-0, it’s usually been a game we’ve totally dominated. Tonight was an entirely different kettle of fish.

Poor doesn’t come close to describing that performance tonight and there is absolutely no excuse for it.

Derby had more shots on target than us and they had more possession than us. This is the first time any team has done that to us this season. Whilst we could argue that Vidic is the only player who has consistently started for us this season, we had more than enough on that park tonight to get a result.

Roy Carroll gives David James a run for his money in the calamity stakes, yet we didn’t even really provide him with the opportunity to do so. We didn’t really test him.

Think back to our European Cup game against AC Milan a few seasons ago. After being second best for most of the game, we were set to travel to Italy with a 0-0 result from the home leg, with our best chance falling to Quinton Fortune. We’d probably get knocked out on that regardless but at least we had a fair shout of doing something.

Here’s the BBC report:
A costly mistake from Roy Carroll handed AC Milan the advantage in their tie with a narrow win at Old Trafford. Carroll spilled Clarence Seedorf’s strike late in the game and Hernan Crespo converted from short range.

The guy is a liability but we never even exposed that. Our shooting was poor. The few chances we did create were generally off target. Carroll wasn’t forced in to making any good saves, let alone great ones.

I’m not concerned. We played that team because we have Chelsea at the weekend. I am totally confident we’ll be in the final. But I’m not really arsed about that. It’s embarrassing to lose to a club like Derby, who got spanked by Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup at the weekend, only to progress because of a late penalty. We had the quality on the park to at least get a draw, but we didn’t come close.

Still, it sets things up nicely for a result against Chelsea. Beating those rent boys is the only way we’ll save face this week!