Leyton Orient’s Russell Slade may be the bookies’ favourite to take over as Cardiff City manager after he admitted to being flattered by an approach made to the East Londoners. But the two rookies holding the fort put in a good audition in for the role.
Danny Gabbidon and Scott Young may have made more than 450 appearances for the Bluebirds but the latter’s short spell at non-league Port Talbot Town was their only managerial experience.
However, the duo hatched a game plan that came within six minutes of snatching the points at Derby. They were denied by a late Craig Bryson thunderbolt, but appeared content with the job they had done since the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Gabbidon said: “It has been insightful it has only been two days but it has felt like a month. We’ve really enjoyed it but it is a lot to take on-board and I don’t think we’ve slept too much.
"Overall it was a fair result – first half we rode our luck a little bit, we were a little bit deep and didn’t have our shape right. We got them in at half-time and changed one or two things and I thought we were the better team, we scored two great goals.”
Unsurprisingly for a pair of defenders the pair had set themselves the task of plugging the leaky City rearguard.
And they largely succeeded as they held the home side until half time – although the goalkeeper David Marshall was in fine form to deny Chris Martin and Jamie Ward.
A double strike shortly after the break had the novices dreaming. First Aron Gunnarsson hooked the ball home from close range before Peter Whittingham smashed a shot into the top corner.
The Rams replied quickly through Liverpool loanee Jordan Ibe before Bryson’s late strike earned a deserved point.
Derby manager Steve McClaren, said: “At half-time there looked to be only one winner and we just needed to keep doing what we were doing.
"So to go two down after just five minutes of the second half was just disbelief. But we showed good character to come back.”
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