Wednesday look yesterday's men

Sheffield Wednesday 0 Derby County

You can always tell when a manager knows his team is on the slide but cannot bring himself to admit it. He says things like, "If you had offered us this many points at this stage of the season, we'd have been happy with that".

David Pleat uttered the exact words after Wednesday had recorded their first point in three matches. "Top six, aren't we? Four points behind Liverpool? Terrible..."

His team won their first four matches this fledgling season, which made people wonder what was going on, given that they were not far from going down last term. What were they putting in the tea at Hillsborough?

The same old brew as before, if Saturday was anything to go by. There was a bit of fizz in their attack from time to time but no one could master the art of finishing. And at the back, where the former maestro Des Walker is looking mortal these days, there was a vulnerability that might easily have been punished.

Pleat's team set out to attack and Derby to resist, and yet the visitors could have completed a third straight victory without too many complaints. Indeed, the winning goal should have gone in after 35 seconds, when Marco Gabbiadini, unattended in front of Kevin Pressman's goal, headed the most inviting of crosses against the bar.

"We should have scored there," Jim Smith, Pleat's opposite, said. "But if we had believed in ourselves, maybe we would have won anyway. We maybe thought that coming to Hillsborough and taking a point would have been a good performance, but in fact we could have won the game." Perhaps the absence of Aljosa Asanovic, the inventive Croat in Smith's midfield, was to blame for that.

Christian Dailly, a young Scot growing in stature as he picks up the pace of the Premiership, was one who might have caused more damage had he been adventurous more often. But after one defeat in their first seven Premiership matches, Derby can look upon their survival prospects with increasing confidence.

Wednesday went forward with purpose and might argue that, on another day, David Hirst and Andy Booth might have had a couple of goals each. Pleat did argue that after three games in six days, his players were tired, which was reasonable enough. But they do not yet have the look of a dependable side.

Nor does Graham Barber, from Warwick, have the look of a dependable referee, if dependability is defined by good sense. There were nine yellow cards shown on a day when two or three might have been appropriate, the daftest befalling Mark Pembridge, who kept trying to gain advantage by taking free-kicks early - and never once did. He was cautioned, at the third time of asking, for not letting Derby's defenders retreat 10 yards. To make matters still more absurd, on each occasion he was allowed to take the kick again.

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Atherton, Walker, Stefanovic, Nolan; Whittingham, Hyde, Pembridge (Trustfull, 35), Blinker (Oakes, 67); Hirst, Booth (Humphreys, 81). Substitutes not used: Clarke, Nicol.

Derby County (3-5-2): Hoult; Rowett, Stimac, Parker; Laursen, Carsley, Dailly, D Powell, C Powell; Sturridge (Simpson, 89), Gabbiadini (Ward, 78). Substitutes not used: Van der Laan, Cooper, Quy.

Referee: G Barber (Warwick).

Bookings: Wednesday: Hyde, Pembridge, Stefanovic. Derby: D Powell, Stimac, Laursen, Ward, Dailly, Carsley.

Man of the match: Dailly.

Attendance: 23,934.