Style lacking in Derby victory

Derby County 3 Everton 1

Wise owl that he is, the Bald Eagle had no intention of painting a rosy picture where none was merited. "Even when we scored the third," Jim Smith said, "Everton appeared to be the team on top.

"We improved in the second half but when you look at the first half, we scored with the only two bits of real football we played."

It was a typically frank admission by the Derby manager, who knows he has not yet created a team of genuine consequence to grace the splendid new stadium that has changed the club's identity.

Pride Park is barely a mile from the Baseball Ground but, as they say, it could be a million. Without the floodlight pylons as a marker it was always hard to locate the old stadium among the factories and terraces. The new one, by contrast, is unmissable, a landmark of Nineties architecture on the city's main access highway.

Smith's intention is to craft a team in keeping with its surroundings, a team of style and sophistication. He has bought a couple of classy Italians in Stefano Eranio and Francesco Baiano, to whom he is looking to set the right example. Eranio had to miss this one after tweaking a strained hamstring in training but Baiano, who had been the partner of the formidable Gabriel Batistuta at Fiorentina, lined up alongside Dean Sturridge for the first time.

Since neither stands taller than 5ft 9in, they require a particular kind of service that Derby could not supply and this was the main source of Smith's dissatisfaction. "They will cause defenders problems," he said, "but if we are going to make the most of them we have to play serious football from the back to the front. We can't just lump it. We've played some great football on the training pitch but we don't seem confident enough yet to play the same way in matches."

Andy Hinchcliffe's crude, potentially goal-denying trip on Baiano that earned him a sending off could not have been more badly timed, bringing to a premature end the left back's first starting appearance for nine months and severely undermining his chances of regaining Glenn Hoddle's favour in time for England's World Cup showdown in Rome three weeks on Saturday.

Goals: Hunt (23) 1-0; Stuart (28) 1-1; C Powell (33) 2-1; Sturridge (66) 3-1.

Derby County (3-5-2): Poom; Dailly, Stimac, Laursen (Van der Laan, 45); Rowett, Hunt (D Powell, 90), Carsley, Asanovic (Trollope, 60), C Powell; Baiano, Sturridge. Substitutes not used: Simpson, Hoult (gk).

Everton (4-4-2): Southall; Barrett (Barmby, 60), Short, Bilic, Hinchcliffe; Stuart, Williamson, Speed, Oster; Branch (Cadamarteri, 11), Ferguson. Substitutes not used: Grant, Farrelly, Gerrard (gk).

Referee: M Riley (Leeds).

Bookings: Derby: Rowett, Sturridge; Everton: Speed, Bilic, Oster, Cadamarteri, Stuart, Ferguson. Sending-off: Hinchcliffe.

Attendance: 27,828.

Man of the match: C Powell.