Derby County 1-0 Blackpool: Luke Plange scores winner on first senior start
- Published
- comments
Luke Plange played 45 minutes as a substitute against Bristol City last weekend
Teenager Luke Plange scored on his first senior start for Derby as Wayne Rooney's side beat Blackpool at Pride Park.
The 19-year-old striker followed up to tap in after Chris Maxwell had pushed Kamil Jozwiak's effort onto the post following good play by Max Bird and Tom Lawrence.
Blackpool had looked the livelier side in the opening half with Shayne Lavery keeping the Rams defence busy, but he headed their best opportunity straight at keeper Ryan Allsop.
And having failed to score in their previous three games, the Seasiders drew another blank as their winless run stretched to seven games.
It was the first league meeting of the two sides since April 2015, with Derby having won seven of the previous eight.
But boss Wayne Rooney was without a number of players who are self-isolating because of Covid and his youthful bench included two 20-year-olds, three 19-year-olds and 17-year-old keeper Alfie Roberts, alongside the more venerable Richard Stearman.
With the Rams 20 points from safety at the start of the game, Rooney committed more men forward following the break and their positive endeavour was rewarded with Plange's goal.
Thereafter, their defence coped fairly comfortably as the visitors tried in vain to rescue the situation, despite seven minutes of added time, as Derby secured their fifth win of the season to move to four points - having had 21 deducted by the English Football League - and 17 adrift at the foot of the table.
Blackpool's third successive defeat saw them drop two places to 17th, but still eight points clear of the relegation places.
Derby manager Wayne Rooney told BBC Radio Derby:
"It's nice to win obviously, but the preparation for this game was incredibly difficult, with Covid outbreaks as late as this morning.
"I think the [Under] 23s will probably have to cancel their fixtures over the next couple of weeks because the lads will stay with me now for the game next week.
"Luke Plange was going to start before the outbreak. I felt when he came on last week, he did well and was really positive.
"He gives us good energy, he's a handful for defenders to deal with, makes good runs in behind and he scored a great goal. I'm delighted for him."
Blackpool manager Neil Critchley said:
"I'm not sure we deserved to lose the game. I'm not saying we did enough to win the game, either.
"First half, I thought we had some good moments and played some good football. For an away team, I thought we had general control.
"Second half was really stop-start. When you are chasing the game, that doesn't help.
"We huffed and puffed. We didn't do enough in the final third again. It's just not quite happening for us."
Call of Duty or Battlefield with Bukayo Saka: The England star talks gaming on Press X to Continue
You're Dead to Me: Who was 'the epitome of the American Renaissance man'?
