Efan Ekoku’s header hit the underside of the bar via Darryl Powell and all but crossed the line before Marcus Gayle followed up

Efan Ekoku’s header hit the underside of the bar via Darryl Powell and all but crossed the line before Marcus Gayle followed up to make sure. Within two minutes Ekoku was through on Hoult only for Paul McGrath to stretch out a battered 37-year-old leg and knock the ball clear.That hardly seemed to matter to the outcome until Gary Rowett aimed a routine ball high into the Wimbledon area and Brian McAllister, newly arrived as a substitute, allowed the much smaller Sturridge to reach it with his head first. “I kept looking round expecting to see Dave Bassett in the dug-out,” said Jim Smith, the Derby manager. Anonymous in attack other than on the few occasions when Dean Sturridge ran at the Wimbledon defence, they held together at the back with no great certainty and in Russell Hoult had a goalkeeper who looked very shaky under pressure.

But when Wimbledon suffered a loss of concentration in the part of the pitch where they had been most solid, Derby capitalised.For all the new-found tactical maturity that has been claimed of Wimbledon this season, the old ways of the long ball are far from forgotten, and the big boot figured prominently. They are still fifth, five points behind the leaders Liverpool with three games in hand – two over the other teams above them – and have now lost only once in 23 games. But even those who have begun to warm to them would have to accept that for the most part their football lacked something of its normal vigour, and having laboured to take a 60th-minute lead they ended up paying the price for failing to put the match beyond the reach of moderate opposition.For Derby, who have not won since the end of November, the result was a let-off. Wimbledon 1

Gayle 60
Derby County 1Willems 84Attendance: 11,467Eking out results with scrambled late goals is very much Wimbledon’s forte, but yesterday they fell victim to just such a turn of events themselves when, on the brink of a victory that would have taken them back up to third in the Premiership, they let in an equaliser with five minutes left.As it is, with all their immediate rivals either drawing or losing, Wimbledon’s title aspirations have not been significantly damaged.

It was evident that such familiarity was breeding contempt even before the rush of blood which prompted Bergkamp’s premature exit.David Platt and John Hartson were both booked for scything down Michael Bridges as the contest descended to the despairing depths of a stifling scramble for possession among the massed midfield ranks. As the Swede packed his bags and left Tyneside the next day, Newcastle launched a public shares issue which was ditched after raising a mere pounds 1.25m – pounds 158.75m less than the valuation made for the flotation which influenced the timing of Kevin Keegan’s departure.As well as being a celebration for Rokerites of their neighbours’ managerless malaise, Arsenal’s visit was the second edition of the three-part, 10- day series between Sunderland and Arsene Wenger’s team. Their youth team also joined the party, coming from two goals down to win 3-2 – against Newcastle.Even the new face on Sunderland’s bench was a reflection of times past at St James’ Park. Jan Eriksson’s pounds 250,000 midweek move from Helsingborgs was overshadowed by events up the road at the ground where he failed to impress Jim Smith, Newcastle’s manager at the time, in a reserve match trial six years ago. Sunderland needed Lionel Perez, their hero at Highbury seven days earlier, again to play the saviour role, the Frenchman flinging himself to his left to keep out a David Platt header with 15 minutes to play But it was their day in the county of Tyne and Wear.