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Derby County 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Laws seeks new deal and a cure for Owls travel sickness
When Brian Laws sits down with the Sheffield Wednesday board today to discuss a new contract the last thing he will want to bring to the negotiating table is a film of Saturday's game.
For it would be a real video nasty, as once again the Owls capitulated on the road, this comfortable three-goal Rams romp bringing up an astonishing 25 goals conceded in just nine away games.
Although they have conceded only three goals at Hillsborough, that will be of little comfort for Laws as he enters the boardroom to hammer out an extension to his contract which expires at the end of the season.
He is lucky there is no trigger-happy chairman for the Owls have been without a chairman since Dave Allen's resignation 12 months ago.
The nine players whose contracts expire in the summer will share Laws's apprehension and know performances like Saturday's will do little to bolster their case for a new deal.
This was a game which Wednesday never really competed at, once Kris Commons pounced on an error by Steve Watson after half-an-hour.
Commons turned provider after the break – this time after James O'Connor was caught in possession – to set up Miles Addison before Jordan Stewart was sent away by former Doncaster midfielder Paul Green to complete the scoring.
Wednesday had very little to offer in attack, Laws ditching his wingers to go for a compact four-man midfield, with the returning Akpo Sodje the obvious danger.
The former Port Vale striker scored twice on the opening day of the season, but this was his first start since that game due to injury and twice he flashed chances wide.
An unhappy Laws locked his players in the dressing room after the game to hold an inquest into their travel sickness.
He said: "I've been in there for an hour with the players because we seem to be psychologically a different team away from home.
"We are very resilient at home, and have only conceded a few goals, but away we have let in a bucketful. Psychologically we were not at the races, and that's why I was in there for an hour, because we've got to get this sorted – otherwise I'm going to be very grey by the end of the season."
Derby County: Carroll, Connolly, Davis, Nyatanga, Addison, Barazite, Green (Zadkovich 88), Stewart, Commons (Kazmierczak 87), Villa (Ellington 79), Hulse. Unused substitutes: Bywater, McEveley.
Sheffield Wednesday: Grant, McMahon, Wood, Beevers, Spurr, Tudgay, Watson, O'Connor, McAllister (Johnson 57), Sodje (Burton 57), Clarke (Jeffers 68). Unused substitutes: O'Donnell, Buxton.
Referee: S Tanner (Somerset).
Man of the match: Kris Commons.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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