While most
players will be starting to turn their attention to the pool parties in Miami and
Las Vegas and lazy summer afternoons that the close season brings, Matt Derbyshire
must be sick at the thought of the campaign ending.
Having arrived
at Rotherham last summer as one of their marquee signings, it took the former Blackburn
and Olympiakos striker until the new year to finally prove his worth.
After failing
to find the back of the net in his opening 16 league appearances, with many games
seeing him sat watching from the bench, Derbyshire looked a spent force in the
Millers attack.
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| Derbyshire's goals could fire the Millers to safety |
But then,
finally, a new year represented a new beginning and he came good and once he
bagged his first, there was no looking back.
That goal
against Bolton in January was the beginning of a fine run of form which has
seen him score eight in his last 17 appearances.
That
scoring spree offers a goal-to-games ratio over the same period that is the
same as Sky Bet Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy, better than £3million-man
Callum Wilson and only just behind prolific trio Patrick Bamford, Jordan
Rhodes and Troy Deeney.
At the
same time it is hugely frustrating. If the 27-year-old, who has played in the
Champions League, had been able to produce that sort of form the entire season,
the Millers would probably have survival wrapped up by now – regardless of any
points deduction.
In
essence Derbyshire’s game has not changed over the course of the season, only
the end product has.
Even when
he was struggling for goals, he was working just as hard, making the same runs
and getting into the same positions.
It’s just
that there was one element missing – confidence.
Coming to
the club as a man with a high-class pedigree, expected to get goals, Derbyshire
took his barren spell personally and let it affect him.
Fans had
written him off, but boss Steve Evans never did. And that unwavering faith the
boss put in his player has spectacularly paid off.
“He got
pretty low and I said to him maybe he is just over-analysing, because strikers
tend to snatch at things and I think we all saw after that first goal against
Bolton what was going to happen and he’s done it,” Evans said.
“He is a
super lad who cares. Outwardly, he’s a very confident boy, but around me, on a
personal basis, he needs to be reassured all the time.
“But I
don’t need to reassure Matt Derbyshire, as a goalscorer and striker he is top
class.
“I’m the
person that pulled him in here at the back end of a barren run for him and said
whatever happens I’m going to play you.
“I told
him, ‘If I play you I have to believe in my head and heart that you’ll score
goals. You’re my best option to score in my squad’.
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| Evans deserves credit for sticking by Derbyshire |
“If we’d
have lost out on the fight to sign Matt Derbyshire and there were a number of
clubs after him last season, and he was back available in the open market,
would we try and sign him? The answer is yes.
“That
told me in my head that I had to play him.”
With
Derbyshire needing just one goal to become the first Millers player since
Martin Butler to score double figures in a Championship season, he will be
going all out to get them in the remaining three games.
And with
their survival still up in the air going into the final run-in, Evans is
banking on him to fire his side to safety.
“I always
knew Matt was a good player and a goalscorer,” he added. “I really felt for the
kid earlier in the season because some of the chances he was missing were
really unthinkable if you’re Matt Derbyshire.
“But he
now looks a real handful and there’s not a manager in recent weeks who has not
said they would not like to work with him.
“His
movement is terrific and energy and work-rate for the team is fantastic.
“He
always looks capable now of taking a chance.
“Matt has
got a few more goals left in him this season, if he gets into double figures
considering he didn’t score until January, that would be a wonderful run he has
been on.”
