Having kicked off their Championship campaign with a spirited draw last weekend, Wayne Rooney’s Derby County side once again displayed a tremendous amount of fight on Tuesday evening in order to qualify for the Carabao Cup second round.
Having fallen behind to two early first-half Salford City goals, with Jordan Turnbull putting the visitors ahead in the eighth minute before Josh Morris doubled the League Two side’s lead six minutes later, Derby fans must have been worried their side could be in for something of a hiding from their lower league opponents.
However, Isaac Hutchinson got the Rams back in the game shortly before half-time, before Colin Kazim-Richards went on to level the scores with a 71st-minute penalty, with the momentum very much appearing to be with the home side as the game wore on.
But, with Derby being Derby, nothing is done the easy way, and when Josh Morris bagged his second of the game just three minutes after the equaliser, those first-half fears may have been creeping back in for the Pride Park faithful.
In the end, it required a moment of magic from one of Rooney’s summer additions to eventually pull Derby level once again, with Ravel Morrison, after seeing his initial free-kick crash into the wall, thrashing a half-volley from 25-yards out into the top corner of the Salford goal in the 82nd minute.
The game would ultimately finish 3-3, with the Rams proving to be the side who kept their composure in the subsequent penalty shootout, dispatching all five of their spot-kicks to Salford’s three.
However, despite a number of impressive performances in the fixture, with Morrison, Louie Watson and Colin Kazim-Richards being the pick of the bunch, there were nevertheless a couple of players who saw the game pass them by slightly – none more so than Kamil Jozwiak.
Indeed, the 23-year-old appeared to be at fault for Salford’s opener, losing his man at the corner, while his statistics from the fixture do not exactly make pleasant reading.
Over the course of the 90 minutes, the winger mustered no shots, either on or off target, lost 73% of his duels – 3 out of 11 – and gave away possession of the ball on 13 occasions.
However, of these statistics, it was perhaps the £7k-per-week forward’s inability to get into scoring positions that stood out most, with The Athletic journalist Ryan Conway dubbing Jozwiak “shot-shy” after the game.
Overall, the Poland international’s display saw him earn a disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.4, ranking him as the joint second-worst performer from either side in the fixture.
So, while Rooney is not exactly blessed with options in the wide attacking areas of his squad, most likely meaning that he will be forced to rely upon Jozwiak once again this weekend, the 35-year-old will undoubtedly be hoping the winger turns in a much more profitable performance against Peterborough United.
In other news: Derby County plotting swoop for “outstanding” £25k-p/w beast, Rooney would love him