West Ham Res 0 0 Rams Res
West Ham res: Kuciak, Henry, Andrews, Cohen, White, Stokes, Cowley, Bunce, Ashikodi (Davidson 27), Ephraim, Reid ( Allen 84).
Subs: Tomkins, Behcet, Welsh.
Rams Res: Miller, Jackson (Doyle 45), Vincent, Turner, Bullard. Martin, Reich, Barnes, Junior, Holmes, Meredith( Nyatanga 55)
Subs: Doyle, Richardson, Young, Booth.
Referee S D Tomlinson.
Attendance not given.
Steve Taylor's reserve side travelled to Upton Park last night to take on West Ham United in their last but one away game of the current campaign.
After trailing to some of the non league outposts where Premiership outfits play their reserve football it would have been something of a culture shock to the youngsters amongst the visitors, if not those seniors who made up half the Derby starting line-up.
While the hosts comprised mainly youngsters it was interesting to see the name of Oliver Allen amongst the subs as Allen had been on trial at Derby last week, setting up Lee Holmes winning goal against Coventry and scoring a consolation strike for the Under 18s at the weekend.
While his trial had ended without any offer of employment at Pride Park Tom Bullard, the centre half from Bury Town was back with the Rams for a further look at what he may have to offer.
Marco Reich looked a real threat in the opening stages with his incisive running and accurate crossing.
The Rams, however, had a let off on 18 minutes as Kevin Miller came out of his area to dispossess Moses Ashikodi. Having failed to do that he was lucky to see no more than a yellow card for hauling the Hammers front man back by his ankle.
The visitors had a decent shout for handball in the area denied them after yet another dangerous Reich cross.
Holmes and Reich combined to fashion a chance for Junior who was unable to find the target on 33 and the Brazilian worked himself a shooting opportunity 2 minutes later which Dusan Kuciak did well to bat away.
It was Reich again who provided the final opportunity of the half providing Holmes with a shot at goal that was blocked.
Miller did superbly well 9 minutes after the break blocking a Kyel Reid shot at the edge of the area with his legs.
The keeper again did well on the hour mark spreading himself well to deny Hogan Ephraim.
Reich was again unlucky to be denied a penalty when brought down in the box by Liam White.
Junior headed the best chance of the half up to that point wide from a Reich left wing corner on 67 minutes.
The Brazilian was denied by the knees of Kuciak in the dying minutes and fired a free kick wide at the very end with Lewin Nyatanga seeing his goal bound header clawed away in stoppage time as well.
While Derby will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet after the number of goals conceded on the road recently they will undoubtedly look at the result as 2 points lost given the number of chances that they created