Derby County returned to Championship action on Saturday with an away tie against Millwall.
Paul Warne’s side have endured a mixed start upon their return to the Championship following a two-year hiatus.
The Rams signed off for the international break with a much-needed victory, with goals from Marcus Harness and centre-back Curtis Nelson seeing Derby County beat Queens Park Rangers 2-0.
Prior to that win, however, the Derbyshire outfit had lost their previous three league fixtures and sat 12th in the Championship table going into the weekend’s meeting at The Den.
Derby were predicted to lose to Millwall ahead of kick-off on Saturday, which was not too surprising given Warne’s men have a pretty dismal record when not playing at Pride Park this season.
Elsewhere, Millwall boss Neil Harris told Warne what Derby’s biggest strength is prior to the game, highlighting their physicality as a key asset.
When all was said and done in East London, Derby were held to a 1-1 draw by The Lions.
Derby County fans react to Stuart Attwell penalty call vs Millwall
With respect to Derby, the game was pretty dull and the Rams failed to create little of note for much of the 90 minutes.
However, one key moment in the second half woke fans up and they have since taken to X/Twitter to share their thoughts on referee Stuart Atwell and the linesman on the day.
Corey Blackett-Taylor was played through and worked his way into the Millwall box before quite clearly being fouled.
But Atwell did not give a penalty and the linesman instead flagged for a Derby offside despite Blackett-Taylor timing his run perfectly.
These two bizarre decisions infurarted Derby fans on social media with one fan simply writing ‘robbed’.
A second irate supporter added: ‘Shock Attwell hasn’t got a clue, never offside’, while a third wrote: ‘Wasn’t even a close call and definitely a pen’.
A fourth then wrote: ‘Imagine the shock at being denied a penalty for an incorrect offside decision….where do they get these linos from!?’.
A fifth angry Derby fan then added: ‘That’s not offside, 100 percent should be a penalty.’ Another took specific aim at Atwell, writing ‘Atwell being Atwell again. Giving us absolutely nothing.’
One Rams supporter even suggested that Atwell should never be allowed to referee a Derby game for a long time: ‘Stuart Atwell should never have been allowed to ref Derby matches ever since that Forest debacle.’
- READ MORE: Paul Warne challenges out of favour Derby County star, he has ‘not played many minutes’ this season
Derby County can take major positive from Millwall
Despite Rams fans being furious with the refereeing on the day, they can take one positive from the match.
Jerry Yates has struggled for goals since moving to Derby but, shortly after the bizarre call from Atwell, scored his first league goal of 2024/25 in the 78th minute.
Mihailo Ivanovic equalised for Millwall with five minutes of normal time to play and the Atwell call is now looking even worse for Derby.
But the fact Yates is finally off the mark is a positive, though fans probably won’t view it as that right now given how the game played out.