Thursday Mar 13 2008 07:38
Derby County manager Paul Jewell likened his side's 6-1 thrashing by
Chelsea to that of a lightweight amateur boxing a heavyweight champion of the world.
Jewell has already resigned himself to relegation after a difficult season which has left last year's Championship play-off final winners 15 points from safety.
But the Rams boss was again unimpressed with the level of performance produced by his out-classed side.
David Jones claimed a late consolation goal for the beleaguered Midlands club.
"What you want to do here is to try and frustrate them, to get the crowd on their back, and we did okay for 25 minutes," he told the club's official website.
"But then they got the penalty and we gave away another daft goal which tends to happen with us. It's tough to take.
"People say you should come and play 4-4-2 here but they just cut you open - a team of Chelsea's quality can do that to you.
"They were on form tonight. They have a lot of world-class players and it was like the heavyweight champion of the world fighting an ABA lightweight amateur - that's the difference in class.
"It is painful because it is against my team. You look at the Chelsea players and they're athletic, they're big and strong, they have great desire and technique and you know we're going to be up against it.
"It was nice for David Jones to score, but scoring once in a 6-1 defeat doesn't mean a lot and it certainly doesn't mean a great deal to me."
Have your say on this article