---
title: "Player Ratings: Derby (A)"
canonical: "https://readastonvilla.com/2016/08/20/player-ratings-derby/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Sheldon Muchmore"
section: "Features & Analysis"
published: "2016-08-20T19:56:12Z"
modified: "2016-08-20T20:59:15Z"
---

# Player Ratings: Derby (A)

Villa were unlucky against Huddersfield during the week after a Gollini clearance in the 86th minute cannoned off the on rushing Hefele and rocketed past him into the goal. Three vital points were gone in the blink of an eye and Villa had to settle for the solitary point.

Villa’s luck did not improve in the first-half of Saturday’s late kick-off against promotion chasing rivals Derby at the iPro stadium. In the 17th minute, McCormack released a rasping shot from just outside the box and the slightest of fingertips, from ex-Villa keeper Scott Carson, pushed it onto the bar. 20 minutes later, Gardener hit the left post with a sweetly struck shot from outside the box.

Apart from the aforementioned efforts, there were not really many other chances of note in the half and, if truth be told, the Villa back four were rarely troubled.

A different Derby team came out at half-time and they pressured Villa for the first 25 minutes. However, it was Villa who came closest to scoring in the 70th minute when Elphick was denied by a goal line clearance by Hughes. Derby came close 3 minutes later after Westwood stumbled over the ball and gave away a free kick in a dangerous area. Kozak had the chance to win it late on, but his header hit the side netting.

The deadlock couldn’t be broken and the match was drawn (probably a fair result in the end).

Here are our Villa player ratings from tonight’s game.