A soft goal and golden chances missed – Derby slip against promotion chasers again

Sometimes the written word alone is not enough to adequately express frustration. Take the ‘enraged face’ emoji which accompanied the Derby County tweet when Patrick Agyemang’s 94^th-minute effort struck the post.

The ball just would not go in.

It should have been the perfect crescendo to the final 25 minutes, where Eustace had thrown players forward to great effect. The Rams fashioning three other golden chances.

First, Agyemang’s great strength to hold off Tristan Crama and fashion himself a one-on-one. Then, after Derby’s American outbattled Millwall’s French defender, Sam Szmodics’ glorious opportunity from an admittedly tight angle on the right. And Carlton Morris too had a chance to head home when Agyemang nodded Bobby Clark’s cross back across goal.

There are seldom better players to find an equaliser. Yet all three failed to trouble Anthony Patterson in the Millwall net.

Agyemang, in all fairness, did appear to be carrying a knock to his left knee. He landed awkwardly after heading Joe Ward’s 15^th-minute corner goalwards, only to be denied by a last-ditch clearance from Femi Azeez. Still, he managed to terrorise the hosts’ backline all second half.

Otherwise, the first 45 were all Alex Neil’s Lions, who flung countless balls into the Derby box. “It was very evident to see” that “we didn’t get tight enough in the midfield” as Eustace told BBC Radio Derby.

Right winger Azeez showed why he is Millwall’s main creative threat with a couple of delightful crosses, but he was increasingly stifled by Derry Murkin, who had another strong game.

Azeez’s cross for Zak Sturge was case in point, but Vickers reacted superbly to stop the left back’s header. And Derby’s number 31 also did well to deny Josh Coburn in the 45^th-minute, diving down low to his right after a purposeful drive inside from the left flank.

After limping off with five minutes to play, though, there are now fears that Vickers has torn his groin.

Matt Clarke, meanwhile, was in charge of Derby’s air defence system, making ten headed clearances throughout the night. But there was nothing either he or Vickers could do to stop the only goal of the game after miscoordination from The Rams.

Though Agyemang got his head on Bannan’s back-post-delivery, the ball fell to Crama, who hooked the ball to the far post where Coburn nodded it past a powerless Vickers.

Eustace was clearly aggrieved by the decision to award the set-piece: “Well, I think the free-kick which led to their goal certainly wasn’t a free-kick.”

But admitted: “To concede another soft goal on our part, [is disappointing], we know one of the only ways Millwall are going to score is from free kicks and corners. And not to defend the second and third phase is disappointing and we have to learn from it and stop conceding [those] kind of goals.”

He also drew comparisons with his side’s away defeat to Hull two weeks ago, where Derby had more than enough chances to win, but left Humberside empty-handed. Eustace reflected: “To compete like we did in both games, I think it just shows that we’re not too far away from being a really top team at this level at the moment.

It certainly shows immense progress, but if the play-offs remain the target, this inability to consistently get results against the top teams could prove costly. While Derby have become very efficient in hoovering up points against the lower teams in the Championship, they have just ten points from a possible 36 against the rest of the division’s top eight.

The Championship top eight's record against each other in 2025-26

Team	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points	Games played	PPG
Coventry	5	2	3	17	10	1.7
Middlesbrough	5	2	4	17	11	1.55
Millwall	4	3	4	15	12	1.25
Ipswich	5	4	2	19	11	1.73
Hull	7	1	5	22	13	1.69
Wrexham	4	3	4	15	11	1.36
Derby	2	4	6	10	12	0.83
Southampton	1	5	4	8	10	0.80

Only eighth-place Southampton have a lower total (eight from a possible 30) with a points per game (PPG) figure of 0.80 to Derby’s 0.83. The next lowest is Millwall on 1.25 PPG – 15 points from a possible 36.

So, there is something The Rams will need to continue to work on, amidst positive signs – consider too that four of those 12 games came in the opening 10 when injuries, fitness concerns and team cohesion was at its lowest ebb.

As Eustace remarked last night, “We’ve got another nine games to keep learning and keep building.” At least externally, that is the priority, with the hope that his side learn and build well enough to sneak into that top six.

Goals: Coburn 43'.

 Millwall (4-2-3-1): Patterson (GK); McNamara, Crama, Cooper, Sturge; Neghli, Mitchell (Smallbone 89’); Azeez (Watson 89’), Bannan (Cundle 72’), Ivanović (Langstaff 73’); Coburn (Mazou-Sacko 90’).

Unused Substitutes: Crocombe (GK); Bryan; Ballo, Bangura-Williams.

Derby: (4-2-3-1): Vickers (GK) (O’Donnell 86’); Ward, Sanderson, Clarke, Murkin; Ozoh (Clark 46’), Travis (C) (Fraulo 84’); Brereton Díaz (Banel 60’), Szmodics, Brewster (Morris 60’); Agyemang.

Unused Substitutes: Forsyth, Gordon; Allen, Eames.