Ian Buxton's Bat

I suspect most people on here are Derby fans to the point of being obsessional / categorisable as an illness. I am.

That said, I'm an England fan and I suspect many in the crowd are too so would have a tough call in the event of a clash.

It would make complete sense to shift the kick off time forward or back a few hours if only to maximise ticket/pie/pint revenues for the club.

But also, playing a match in front of a reduced crowd - which it would be - would benefit Wednesday.

The sensible thing would be to raise it via fan groups with the club.

Did anyone else on here have the 'pleasure' of sitting about halfway up, to the side of the goal where you looked down our left wing in the first half?

In 50 years of watching football I have never come across a more negative fan - big, foul-mouthed old bloke wearing just a rams shirt.

He could have really spoilt the afternoon with his negativity an unpleasantness......but became a bit of a figure of fun.

Constant "You are ******* garbage Derby" but littered with gems.

"Why is he playing Claude Davis, he's ***** garbage" (yes Claude)

"I'm not wasting my money on this ****** garbage" (but he was)

"Derby have been ****** garbage since Cloughie left" (Brian)

Thankfully, he'd "had enough of this ****** garbage" by the 44th minute and missed Collins' ****** garbage goal!

Second half followed a similar theme but his did bless us with simply the best 'insult' I've ever heard at a match.

Mixing his pay and achievements, he blurted out "you are biggest bunch of over-achieving b8stards I've ever seen". Priceless.

He celebrated the second goal from "Derby's worst ever striker" with great gusto so hope he's now a fan.

34 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

What an amazing speech - how could you not win after hearing that? (Can't even imagine Liam speaking it.)

Great question.

I heard that speech on the BBC Moment of Truth podcast........after which they drew 0-0 with Shrewsbury away and were rubbish!

Mixed feelings. Sorry to see LR go and would have like him to succeed. But I think PW is also a decent bloke (i.e. is a thinker and isn't a bully boy ranter) and he knows his way around this division.

I'm not sure there will be a massive change in style - more a change in pace and positivity.

Wildsmith 8 kept us in it.....Wednesday mate told me we'd got a diamond pre-season. Maybe he's right.

Chester 6

Knight 7

Roberts 6

Cashin 8 

Davies 6

McGoldrick 8

Sibley 7

Hourihane 7

Mendez-Laing 8

Bird ? 5.5 

Collins 7 thought he was excellent when he had friends to play with up top - different player to when he's a lone striker 

Barkhuizen 7 

Forsyth 6 

31 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

I was hanging back to see if that last block opens up but it hasn’t yet. The random one in H2 is now sold but bizarrely there is now 7 available in H1. This block has 154 seats and I anticipate block J3 will be the same. Currently 123 seats on sale plus the last block. Don’t forget that it’s unreserved seats so don’t waste time trying to pick a seat, any will do. And don’t forget if they do sell out keep revisiting cos they will pop back up. Good luck everyone.

Cheers - refresh, refresh, refresh..........2 tickets secured.

The first half at Charlton is the most dominant performance I can remember watching in many years.

Clearly, not from a goals perspective and you have to consider the standard of opposition.......but Charlton didn't have the opportunity to string any passes together until about the 45th minute.

The reason? In my opinion, we won every second ball, closed down and most importantly, shifted the ball quickly and largely in a forward direction. Basically, we were horrible to play against because someone, somewhere won the ball back in seconds .....and played it positively before they could get their defence back in shape. We bullied them - then played decent football.

Since then we've dropped off the pace, aren't winning second balls and, when we do get it, Wildsmith is the often destination in one or two passes.........we allow their back 8 to organise and their front two to wait for mistakes whilst we faff around at the back.

I like LR and want him to succeed but he's going to have to prioritise positivity over possession - otherwise I think he's toast.

Didn't understand that at all.

Faffing around at the back as usual but almost no attempt to play through midfield pivot so ended up just going long diagonals (after obligatory faffing) to players who can't win headers.

If we're going long then you have to play Fozzy as he's the only one who wins headers.....or Curtis in last minute desperation mode

19 minutes ago, WystonRam said:

ALL grass roots is cancelled.

Bonkers. Just mad. Presume it's so kids can stop in and watch Monochrome Swap Shop as a mark of respect.

Apologies to the under 45's.........

I'm fairly apathetic in terms of Royal family but get the impression the Queen was probably a fairly decent person.

The question the EFL (and others) should have asked themselves is "Do we think the Queen would have wanted millions of people to have their enjoyment stripped away from them and lots of people lose a load of money after her death?"........and I think the answer would have been a resounding 'NO'

Watch the kids' leagues follow suit. 

8.5 - Some unbelievably good business done from our position a few weeks ago. Top 6 from oblivion is great work from DC and LR.

Happy to revise up to 10 if we show we're good enough to beat Wednesday and Ipswich - and Bielik has a great world cup and is sold for £25m

I would've gone but won't be going now.

Look on the bright side. For the last couple of seasons 'Wayne Rooney's Derby County' have had Championship games galore moved for TV.

I'm liking the regularity of Saturday afternoon's and Tuesday nights so, even though this change is a pain, it's a rarity.

Wildsmith 7

Knight 8

Oduroh 7

Forsyth 8 

Roberts 7 

Rooney 7

Sir Tarquin Korey-Smith (Smith) 7 

Thompson 6.5 

Dobbin 7 

McGoldrick 7.5

Sibley 8.5

Subs:

Hourihane 7 

Bird 6 

Collins 6 

Barkhuizen 6

And 9/10 for either Rosenior or the players who made the decision to stop faffing around at the back at half time. First half was a mixture of excellence and stupidity. As has been posted elsewhere, if Smith or Thompson have 3 men marking them just outside our box and a couple of forwards are pressing Wildsmith then surely there's space further forward to pass into?

We could have had Sergio Aguero up top tonight and he'd have been anonymous.

The faffing around on the edge of the opposition box allows them to get 8 players back and that's then a hard nut to crack - with a bit more pace we could be getting 2v2s and 3v2s.

LR's interview on RD was a bit of a worry - doesn't want to risk losing possession.

I think it's a decent start but I think the squad is better than last season so dropped points against garbage like Shrewsbury are very frustrating.

With just a bit more zip we'll be top 2.

Frustrated but optimistic.

14 minutes ago, rammieib said:

Goals galore on the right side of Charlotte. I see Joz hasn’t provided a goal or assist yet.

I've just spent a good 0.345 seconds reminiscing about the times Byrne-Jozwiak combo ripped defences to shreds last season. No wonder Charlotte can't wait to get them back in tandem.

Incidentally, NML did more in his first 0.345 seconds than Jozwiak did in his entire Derby career. Seemed nice lad but was proper rubbish for us.

Has to be

"Dave the builder, can he fix it, Dave the builder, yes he can"

Fake Sheik and Chrissy, Alonso too

F*cked up the purchase - left us in the poo

Dave and the gang had so much fun

Working together to get the job done

I'd go for bans for individual invaders and points deductions and/or forfeiture of games (play-offs / cups) for multiple invaders.

There's no way anyone could identify and individually ban all those numpties at Notts Forest v Blades play off - but would they have been on the pitch if they'd known Blades would have taken their place at Wembley?

If a losing side's fans invade the pitch after a play-off then slap them with a points ban for the next season.......say 21 points

Anyone know if the Carabao cup away tickets count towards your 'games total' for next season or is it just league games?

23 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

He has an agreement where we pay him his wages as per his expired contract though. So effectively a rolling week to week contract. He isn’t a free agent in the sense of being completely unattached and not being paid. So from his point of view he’s probably better off as he was no doubt on a pretty good contract. Obviously another club could offer him a deal but they would have to beat those wages. At his age etc that’s probably unlikely. So there is no urgency on either side 

He's on the current (albeit incomplete) players page on the club website alongside the new signings......... and Byrne and Buchanan!

No pics of the confirmed exits like CKR.

5 minutes ago, sage said:

So ST sales somewhere between 12k and 15k?

Sorry if it's been asked earlier in the thread but how many STs were sold last season?

I seem to remember crowd of around 16 or 17K for Huddersfield for first game which included away fans and non STs.

I think there are some mitigating factors for last season's rubbish away form.

There was a thought that we had to go for wins because of the points deductions and it meant we chased games when shutting up shop would have been better......with hindsight.

Think about Cardiff......Ravel nearly got us 3 points and we got 0. A few boring 0-0's, like at West Brom when Wazza knew we couldn't win, could have kept us up. 

Without points deductions, I hope a slightly different approach will get us a few boring points from our poorer performances on the road.

Does anyone have an estimate of the number of members in each category if we assume everyone who had membership last year renews?

Like a previous poster, Ive got a ST and went to a couple of away games last year.

If there's >2000 members with 20+ games under their belt I don't begrudge them first dibs at all but question whether a bottom rung membership is much better than ST alone in reality.

Will I be disappointed if we don't make top 2? No.

Will I be surprised if we do make top 2? No.

Really looking forward to this season.

5 minutes ago, CodnorRam said:

Im loving this new approach to recruitment. I'm hoping we carry on poaching quality talent from big club academies as i think we might be able to make a few quid in the transfer windows and strengthen our side with minimal cost! Instead of spending millions on old blokes that had one good season years ago!

Its a shame we were in such a poor decision as we've already lost some young lads with really bright futures for no money!

Hoping players from all academies now see us as a way into first team football and a way to better their careers.

Reckon this is our new approach to recruitment or just a way of fixing our team in our current predicament? 

I think it's more a case of picking up those who've been booted out by big academies before they are snapped up by other clubs. You have to pay a decent wedge if you want to get someone.

You can't actually go out poaching academy players or even tap them up for the future otherwise you punished with fines and transfer embargoes (didn't that happen to Chelsea or Liverpool?)

Equally as a player, once you are signed it's very hard to leave as the club own you. A few years ago Derby played hardball with Zac Brunt and wouldn't let him leave for another club - hence he ended up playing at Matlock at a level outside the remit of the academy rules.

But.......agree, there are some gems out there that can be picked up and fast-tracked to our 1st team.

2 minutes ago, Mick Brolly said:

Tom is sitting on the fence there with some overlaps. i.e. 8.30 am is in two categories

14 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

The issue is what you mean by 'value'.  Pride Park was basically valued on what it would cost us to replace it (less wear and tear etc), which is absolutely a standard way of valuing things like stadiums.  And when you look at Brentford paying £70m for a much smaller stadium, and Brighton paying £93m for theirs a decade ago, ~£80m is not remotely a crazy valuation.

Obviously in other contexts 'value' might mean completely different things to different people.

Apologies if I'm on my grassy knoll here.......but wasn't the 'value' of PP simply financial gymnastics to keep us on the right side of FFP rather than an actual valuation?

So for example, if my ltd business was £ x million in debt and in danger of falling foul of some arbitrary rule put in place by my industry body, I could buy a pencil from my business for £ x million pounds using my personal money to wipe out the business debt.

The value of something is what someone is daft enough to pay for it. DC appears less daft than MM.