Ian Buxton's Bat

ATG 1Wildsmith 6.....Spectator for most of the game. Much more composed than last couple of games when involved. 35Nelson 7......another decent outing 5Bradley 6.5....generally pretty good apart from 1 misplaced pass at the end that could have given a goal away. 6Cashin 7.5....very good again 23Ward 8..... he played like a proper wing back and did it very well. Some crosses are ridiculously good for this league 8Bird 7.....Let's be honest, their midfield was absent, so not his most difficult game - but he played well. 32Adams 6....see Bird. Not a lot for our destroyer to destroy. Strange to see him higher up but delivered a nice cross for Gayle 4Hourihane 6...not much time 17Sibley 8......a better LWB than Elder imo and, like Ward, actually played as one today. Second goal was excellent. 11Méndez-Laing 7.....much better than Tues. Constant threat 27Blackett-Taylor 6.......not much time. Possibly looked like he had more of a spring in his step today. 25Gayle 6.5....didn't do a great deal other than score but occupies defenders and looks sharp 10Waghorn 5.5....not a lot came off for him 7Barkhuizen 6.5.....not sure if he officially had a floating role but seemed to be all over the place (in a positive way) in the first half. Very good work for the 2nd goal - pity he missed the close range effort. Not seen it back - not sure if it was a sitter 12Smith 6.....not much time At last.....a game where you can relax. Not sure if we made Port Vale look bad or if they managed it themselves. Seen a few comments saying we sat back at 1-0. Not sure about that - thought we pressed on and could have been 2 or 3 up before PV came into it for a few minutes

Decent win. Compared to recent games it was a decent performance…..although Vale were poor. Big difference for me was that we played a back three rather than a back five, Sibley and ward were both good and put us on the front foot.

Agee. We should sort out a bonus system whereby the bonus is quadrupled if we win having been 2 or more goals in front at some stage.

We'll end up renewing come what may because it's a common interest in our family and, bluntly and selfishly, I think watching ugly football is better than gardening, shopping and DIY. We're also fortunate enough to be able to make football part of a day out with meal and drinks which does mean that the footy doesn't 100% determine whether it's been a good day or not. That said, if all games were night matches (and with the international breaks there are too many) I don't think we'd bother with PW in league 1 because that is more of a work-drive-football-drive-bed scenario with not a lot to dilute your boredom/disappointment when games or results are poor. We could cherry pick games (as I think a lot will do) but I can't be faffed with the faffing. Basically we'll renew because we love the club.....and I'm lazy.

ATG I tend to try and be objective and don't give player scores based on the result but there's some low ones on merit. 1Wildsmith - 4.....Didn't come for crosses. Made one good save and they scored from rebound. Penalty.....the momentum had already shifted significantly so wasn't the game-changing moment some have mentioned but what was he thinking? 24Nyambe - 6.5...... Personally, I was happy with a solid back 4 and think he did OK 7Barkhuizen - 4.5.....I like TB but he did very, very little 35Nelson - 6.5......OK. Not as physically dominating as usual 5Bradley - 5.5......de riguer to blame him and Hourihane for most things but don't think he was horrendous. Was somewhat out of position for their second but Doris Stokes couldn't have seen the shambles that led up to it coming. 6Cashin - 8..... MOTM by a mile 2Wilson - 5.5....Not his best outing. Originally thought his pass to Adams was terrible but, looking at highlights, it was OK..just negative 12Smith - 6.....on the face of it did OK and I thought he was decent without being massively involved. Someone said in the match thread they'd like to see his stats vs Hourihane against Barnsley. Both 61 mins...Smith last night 30 touches, 58% passing accuracy.....Hourihane vs Barnsley 61 touches, 74% passing accuracy .......but Smith was excellent when he came on vs Barnsley IMO. With Adams in there as a destroyer what to we want/need? 17Sibley - 4.....did very little 32Adams - 6......very much involved, defended very well. Point off for mis-controlling the pass that led to their 2nd. Could hear him kicking that post from back of west stand. 27Blackett-Taylor 5.......his body language at half time and when 'warming up' in the second half is a worry. It looks like either he doesn't want to be here or PW doesn't want him to be here 11Méndez-Laing - 5......only really came alive in last 10 mins 8Bird 🐦 - 6......very patchy. Good-ish first half. Disappeared for 20 mins and then came back into it in the last quarter 25Gayle - 6......some good signs. We looked better as a team in the first half from just having him there......and maybe his style made us try to play a bit more football. 10Waghorn - 4......did very little. A couple of first touches that were best watched through cracks in the fingers

Kevin Friend was in the director’s box area. Isn’t he some big cheese in the reffing hierarchy these days?

Hmmmm…. Reading through the thread I’m confused…we played a back 4 and stayed as a back 4 after Nyambe went off with Wilson slotting in at RB. Changed to a 5 when chasing the game. Dom D was corrected on this by PW in his interview so maybe RD got the formation wrong in commentary ? Cashin was excellent at LB. The style of football in the first half was certainly easier on the eye than recent games with attempts to play passing football and we benefited from having a 9 on the pitch - just didn’t think we were that good at it. Dire 2nd half. Charlton were awful in the first half and we managed to make them look like teachers playing against 12 year olds after the break. Goals not PW’s fault and I get that he’s juggling game time with injuries but you could see an equaliser coming an absolute mile off - Nathan Jones was horribly whingy and negative to his players in the first half and I thought it’s no wonder they’re not playing for him….but he obviously delivers a decent half time team talk. Ref was awful but got the pen correct.

Assists 0?

Agree. Mainly because of the objectivity imo. I watched the Debrief on Sunday and commented to Mrs Bat that it's always good to see that @Owen87ITK and SB can be critical when they feel it's appropriate rather than it being some sort of club Pravda output.

100% agree with @archram re Ed's return to work. If ever I stumble upon other local radio match commentaries, I find myself thinking that I'm very lucky to have Radio Derby as one of my daily sources of news, post-match analysis and, when I can't get to matches, live commentary. Some local stations are no better than the BBC website text commentary......"goal by Garnacho from edge of penalty area" .....for his overhead worldie. ED is more like the text cricket commentary with a bit of humour, off-piste stuff ......and DCFC bias, which I understand is a matter of taste but which I think is much better than local radio average. Over the years we've been very lucky to have some tremendous commentators and co-commentators who are hard acts to follow or work alongside........the legendary Graham Richards, who has been referenced multiple times here, more recently Chris Coles and even this season we've had Martin Match of the Day Fisher setting a pretty high bar. And, of course Dom D has been brilliant.........but, in my humble opinion, that doesn't make ED anything other than much better than average for local radio. Similarly for co-comms......We've had some that are brilliant, less brilliant, and some that are more or less upbeat. Out of the current crop, I find Adam Bolder the best all-round package and invariably Darren Robinson has some interesting angles on games.......but it's local radio - and I think Eric is much better than local radio average.

We drove but walked back near the station where it was a pretty grim atmosphere….although didn’t see any trouble. Couldn’t work out whether policing and stewarding was proportionate to risk of trouble ….or intimidatory. Big phalanx of stewards near corner flag in second half seemed to be somewhat looking for trouble but individual stewards in the stands were great.🤷

ATG 1Wildsmith 4…..absolutely horrendous display of kicking. PW said he felt ill pre match, so hope it’s a blip 35Nelson 6.5….pretty sound as usual. A few holes appeared near his station in one spell in the first half 5Bradley 7….another good game. Hope the goal boosts confidence further 6Cashin 6.5….OK….a bit hesitant on a couple of occasions 2Wilson 6…..much better when pushed further forward. Got plenty of balls into the box 2nd half….tbh couldn’t see if they were any good! 4Hourihane 5.5…quality was good. Fed up of watching him in a 2 (to my mind Bird was part of a front 3) where he’s out-run but we need his quality 7Barkhuizen 6….good initial impact, went quiet and then good last 10-15. 32Adams 5.5…good destroyer against a team that wanted to use midfield. Not great on the ball today. 12Smith 6….much better on the ball than Adam’s. Tried to make things happen 20Elder 5….OK defensively but offered nothing going forward. 24Nyambe 6.5….played well. Didn’t have much defending to do…..actually impressed me with some attacking grunt 8Bird 🐦 5.5…..funnily enough, not that impressive as part of a front 3. Could/should have scored after about 10 seconds. Much better in last 20. 17Sibley 6….did OK individually in a non-functioning forward 3 25Gayle 6….didn’t do much but the whole team structure and pattern of play improved when he and Barks came on. Should have started in my opinion- better to have a team set up well from the outset 11Méndez-Laing 5….score of 5 not his fault. Not a CF. Same as last week….i’d rather see him on a wing putting something into a makeshift CF rather than him being the makeshift CF and receiving nothing. Frustrating. For all the talk about ‘3 at the back’ it looked like 5-2-3 for first half and crying out for a change even when we were winning/drawing. Looked like a flat back 7 at times at start of second half but thought we actually played OK after going behind and deserved a point. Can’t fault anyone’s effort or commitment.

(Insert name of any Derby player) getting over run in a midfield 2. Needs a re-jig of formation like last week.

Our Kieran is a bit behind on this - isn't he? The Kirch has already faced charges and has been convicted?

Interesting.......and odd. There's some info here from a couple of years ago on Premier league refs, who they support and how PGMOL manage match allocation. https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/which-football-teams-do-premier-league-referees-support/bltc5a6db7933177b98 Keith Hacket says who refs support, where they are based and playing history is taken into account. Both Madleys are Huddersfield fans, apparently, but it wouldn't look great if "former academy player Bobby Madely awarded Barnsley a last minute penalty for a dive" etc

My understanding is that the XG of a chance is based on the likelihood of an 'average player' scoring that chance.....I honestly don't know if the average ability is calculated for each different league.......but the principle is that a penalty has an XG of ~0.8 (meaning 1 in 5 is missed by an average player) and a 50 yard speculative punt will be close to zero. The team gets a cumulative XG at the end of the match based on all the individual chance XG's being totted up. Over the season our XG for is pretty low - meaning we don't create too many chances but our XG against is also low, meaning we don't concede many chances. The team XG's within a league do not factor in whether a team or players are better than average.....it's simple totting up of individual chance XG's But..........we are scoring more than our average XG meaning we have better than average finishers and we are conceding less than our average XG against, meaning we have better than average goalies or defenders who block chances.....like Adams v Exeter I've read that Man City use the concept to deliberately create high XG tap-ins from the edge of 6 yard box......that's why they pass teams to death rather than speculative shooting

Haha...... I'm up there too. I think the match got in the way of a few all-dayers on Saturday tbf. Couple of blokes on our row turned up after 20 mins, cleared off for half time after 40, came back after 70 mins and celebrated more wildly than I've seen any fans celebrate in years at the final whistle. There were some pay-per-game supporters (amongst the season ticket holders) who were super-positive, supportive and way more exuberant than average there on Saturday - hope they're back.

ATG 1Wildsmith 6.5……one flap, one wonder save, otherwise not very busy 35Nelson 7.5……..solid…..again 5Bradley 7.5…..another good game….he’s a good player…goal line clearance and great block in 2nd half 6Cashin 7…..solid…..again 24Nyambe 6…..not a wing back but can see why he was picked……defensively solid but doesn’t bring much going forward 11Smith 7….really good performance. Changed the game but more to do with PW going for 3 in midfield 8Bird 6….quiet in a 2, better in a 3 32Adams 6…..didn’t think he was great in a 2….looked great in a 3. Infectious interview….top lad 20Elder 6…..ok….didn’t offer much at all going forward but steady enough 2Wilson 7.5….my MOTM by a whisker. Work rate was phenomenal and was a proper threat when put to wing back 11Méndez-Laing 6.5…..said at half time that I’d rather have NML on the wing putting crosses into a makeshift striker than nobody putting balls in to NML acting as makeshift striker. I’m not claiming to be Nostradamus but his one moment of brilliance on the wing bagged the points 7Barkhuizen 6.5 …did OK. Team player who always gives forward drive. 17Sibley….7……should possibly be our makeshift striker if Gayle signing is vetoed Tough watch with great outcome. Good job by Warne in the circumstances. Waited until Stevenage’s first 11 of identikit players (all same size, build, physicality) were tired before switching to more attacking formation. First half was a masterclass in showing the Collins haters what he has brought to the team this season.

I like PW but I’ve been critical of the style of play but, considering the options available to him yesterday, I think he got it spot on i.e. nullify Stevenage and don’t lose for 60 mins and then try and win it. Not a great watch but certainly not complaining.

The 'free agent' in the foreground is looking up for it. Thankfully it's half term so he can get a full week of training in before Barnsley.

RTV......well done to all that travelled....incredible support 1Wildsmith 6.5......oozes calm. Don't think there's actually too much between him and Vickers in terms of quality but JW just seems less jittery 2Wilson 7........a very good game......not sure if it was him getting a rollicking off Hourihane when they hit the post..if so, close to a bit of deja vu from Saturday 35Nelson 7.5.......the 'highlight' has a bit of confusion with Adams in the second half......only thing he did wrong 6Cashin 7.......good performance apart from losing his bearings when he got booked. Nelson kept the card to a yellow 23Ward 6......no time 20Elder 7.5.......played well - with no-one to play with first half down the left. Seems a lot less hesitant and wanting to contribute going forward. Decent shot, not a worldie, but a positive sign that confidence is coming 8Bird 7.5.....He's wasted as a 10 but when he drops from 10 to CAM he's excellent. Tremendous goal...9 out of 10 players would have gone down with that sleeve tug but kept his composure 32Adams 8.....midfield Hoover. Would probably have been a 9 if the ref hadn't clipped his wings with a harsh yellow. Needs to stop getting assaulted by opposition players and incurring the wrath of referees. Two games in a row. Schoolboy error. 17Sibley 6.5.....lively and sensible with the ball 4Hourihane 6.....much better in a 3. Won the ball in midfield for the first goal. He seems to be the one who encourages and cajoles team mates and I like the fact that he's quietly in the ref's ear a lot of the time. 12Smith 6.......good to see him back and looking nippy 11Méndez-Laing 8.......loved the goal, loved the pass to Barks for the 3rd even more. Worked hard in both halves. 5Bradley 6.5.....solid...coming good. Not quite pick any 2 from 3 yet but an able deputy for Cash and Nelson 9Collins 7.......I was going to give him a 1 or 10 but then I realised this is an objective match ratings forum and not somewhere to bear grudges or worship your heroes, so it's a solid 7 for the hardest working team player at the club who worked incredibly hard last night and contributed to an excellent win. 27Blackett-Taylor 4.5.......this isn't a grudge, despite me scoring him with low figures previously. He just wasn't very good. the best thing I could say is that he helped me improve my grasp of the english language via the dis/uninterested debate on the match thread. I genuinely hope he comes good......like Wilson, Elder and Bradley 7Barkhuizen 7.5......instantly added zip as he generally does. Goal was a bonus - the upping of intensity and making the front 3 look like a cohesive attacking unit changed the game so we were a constant threat second half. Overall, a very decent performance with a welcome mixture of different attacks - much more on the floor, much more through the middle.....but with some long balls and crosses. Thought Exeter were decent....if they hadn't faffed around and delayed shooting on several occasions it could have been a different story. and........hands up.....I questioned the Nyambe sub on Saturday

Original post was entirely valid

Don’t bother with asterisks

I quite like XG and as @Ghost of Clough says, if you understand it, it can tell you quite a bit about how a team is performing in terms of creating chances and how they (and individuals within the team) are performing in terms of taking them. And........it keeps me reasonably balanced re Warne and the in/out and awful/brilliant debates. My position re Warne is that I think the football is pretty grim to watch but he definitely knows what he is doing. Our XG for is 1.46 per game and we're scoring 1.74 per game.........outperforming it with only one striker available Our XG against is 1.07 per game and we're conceding 0.94 per game........again goalies and defenders must be doing a lot right If you then take Peterborough.... Their XG for is 1.83.......clearly demonstrating they are playing more attacking football over the season so far.....and they are scoring 1.9....just outperforming XG Their XG against is 1.16 but they are conceding 1.26 What does that add up to? I'd currently rather be Derby than Peterborough in terms of league position (+ stadium, toilets, kit, chairman etc etc) but, if were a neutral, wanting to be entertained, I'd go to Peterborough without a shadow of doubt. And you a kick-the-ball-into-a-skip halftime competition thrown in. I think XG is more of an entertainment factor on any given match day but becomes more meaningful over time.

ATG 1Wildsmith. 6.5….didn’t look like his confidence has been knocked by being dropped which is the most important thing from yesterday. Not much to do 24Nyambe. 7….defensively solid. Was he injured? Convention is to sit on the ground and declare yourself injured if you are 1-0 up with 5 mins to play. Daftest sub of the season if not. 2Wilson 6….should he have even come on at RB? Terrible defending for their goal but excellent for last few mins when trying to get winner 5Bradley 6.5…..shaky start but eventually a good performance. Actually plays passes to players more than Cashin but defensively no contest. Should’ve been switched to LCB sooner to address imbalance 35Nelson. 7……solid. Only saw their goal once live and then on concourse re-run but possibly out of position. Should’ve been switched to CB sooner to address imbalance 23Ward 6……good feet and close control but didn’t offer a lot going forward 7Barkhuizen 6…..offers impetus. One horror miscue….2 point blank efforts in final second 32Adams 6.5….certainly breaks up play and Bird and Hourihane benefit from the extra body. Played a few hospital passes though at thigh/waist height to players not in a position to receive it 16Thompson 6… 4Hourihane 5.5….great free kick and some good deliveries into the box. Thought he worked hard defensively 8Bird 6…..not great in the first half. Big improvement second half 17Sibley 6….did OK again defensively. Didn’t shift the ball quick enough on several occasions 20Elder 6…..did Ok 11Méndez-Laing 6.5…..much better on a wing. But soooo glad he’s fit 9Collins. 6….no service again. If you were a striker in the transfer window would you really want to come to Derby to replace him? Thankless task. Better performance than Cheltenham but not great to watch. Win and it’s bearable. Don’t win and the cracks just seem bigger. Fed up of watching us sitting back, trying to hold on to single goal leads as if we’re a L2 team playing Man City. Last 5 mins were proper exciting, entertaining football as we tried to win it.