MadAmster

... at least I was consistent in repeating the error 🙂

NML needs a rest. He was knackered against the Posh. He's had a good season thus far but against Posh he was ineffective going forward and failed to track his man on several occasions including in the lead up to their first goal. Hourihane needs a rest too. 

65 minutes. Memory playing tricks. Can I claim age as the cause  🙂 ? I got the time of his substitution wrong. 
BTW - you DID suggest such a thing

... and doesn't track back with any enthusiasm. Great talent but has to stay on his feet and get stuck in when "his man" moves forward with the ball rather than let himself get outrun by the man in possession.

It seems a lot of fans don't see what Bird does in a game. Let's have a look back at last season. We had a run of around 20 games unbeaten and Bird was focal in that run. Then he was out for a lot of games with injury and the unbeaten run ended and we fell away.
Back in the 70s a lot of fans had similar comments about the likes of McGovern and Durban. As with Bird, you only really appreciate what they do when they're not there.

RamsTV
1Wildsmith. 6.5 Deflection saw their 1st go in, 2nd was in the right place but that leaves his right hand post open, a player on the post would have seen it saved, 3rd saw Jones slightly quicker
 
24Nyambe. 6.5 battled well but all too often had 2 opponents to mark
 
35Nelson.  6.5. He and Cash contributed to their 3rd
 
6Cashin. 7 He and Nels contributed to their third 
 
3Forsyth. 6. Tough game against a good winger. His yellow and the knock to the knee saw him, rightfully subbed at HT
 
20Elder. 7. First time he's impressed me this season.
 
4Hourihane.  4. Too slow against a fast and mobile team plus a couple of very lame attempted passes
 
16Thompson. 6.5. Put himseld about to no avail
 
2Wilson.  7. Good 1st half, ran out of steam.
 
24Ward. 6. A better performance from him
 
11Méndez-Laing. 4. Did he beat his man at all? His failure to track his man saw that player provide the assist for their first. Half a dozen other occasions in the first half where he failed to track back where we got away with it.
 
19John-Jules. 6. One good shot on the turn. Failed to track back and looked sluggish being unable to catch the man with the ball when it's well known that you can run faster without it than you can with...
 
8Bird.  6.5 Trying to do the work of 2 with CH conspicuous by his absence.
 
9Collins. 7.5 MOTM typical Collo effort and 2 goals
 
7Barkhuizen  5. Lovely chipped cross for the first, pretty ineffective after that
 
17Sibley. 6.5 Very good defensively. Unable to make a telling impact going forward.

A "comedy" of errors. Starting with the starting XI, maybe? Some of our not so young players looked off the pace and pace was the catalyst in the game. They were quicker just about everywhere. Hourihane and NML being the 2 "worst" IMO with Nat taking the biscuit. He roasts full backs for fun, usually, but I don't think he did his man a single time before his HT substitution. He totally forgot about tracking back too. On half a dozen occasions I was shouting at the screen for him to track his man. The first time led to their first goal, his "man" providing the assist. A totally preventable goal. No surprise that CH and NML were off at HT and Foz was on a yellow and had had a knock to his knee so probably wise to sub him off too.

Their 2nd saw our defence fail to follow the movement of an opponent and he nodded home, totally unmarked. I know I'm old fashioned when it comes to things like strikers hunting in pairs. I also remain old school when it comes to defending corners. A man at the post would have prevented their equaliser.

Their 3rd? How often have we seen us fail to properly clear the ball and pay the price? Nels and Cash got in each other's way, ball only partially cleared, came back in, Jones was stood in an offside position, one of our defenders got his head to it and it fell to Jones who poked it between JWs legs... because our player had purposely made contact with the ball, Jones was no longer deemed offside, in perfect accordance with the current offside Law.

All too often, as has happened quite a lot this season, they had players allowed to make 40 or more yards without a challenge. Get into 'em I say.

The better side on the day won. We get back up, dust ourselves down and we start over again.

A "comedy" of errors. Starting with the starting XI, maybe? Some of our not so young players looked off the pace and pace was the catalyst in the game. They were quicker just about everywhere. Hourihane and NML being the 2 "worst" IMO with Nat taking the biscuit. He roasts full backs for fun, usually, but I don't think he did his man a single time before his HT substitution. He totally forgot about tracking back too. On half a dozen occasions I was shouting at the screen for him to track his man. The first time led to their first goal, his "man" providing the assist. A totally preventable goal. No surprise that CH and NML were off at HT and Foz was on a yellow and had had a knock to his knee so probably wise to sub him off too.

Their 2nd saw our defence fail to follow the movement of an opponent and he nodded home, totally unmarked. I know I'm old fashioned when it comes to things like strikers hunting in pairs. I also remain old school when it comes to defending corners. A man at the post would have prevented their equaliser.

Their 3rd? How often have we seen us fail to properly clear the ball and pay the price? Nels and Cash got in each other's way, ball only partially cleared, came back in, Jones was stood in an offside position, one of our defenders got his head to it and it fell to Jones who poked it between JWs legs... because our player had purposely made contact with the ball, Jones was no longer deemed offside, in perfect accordance with the current offside Law.

All too often, as has happened quite a lot this season, they had players allowed to make 40 or more yards without a challenge. Get into 'em I say.

The better side on the day won. We get back up, dust ourselves down and we start over again.

He was twice the player Hourihane was yesterday.

The darts theme, duh duh duh etc ending with We're Derby. Let's have the crowd do that without any "background" music or prompting from Matt.

I booked flights for me n er indoors for the Burton game. It's now the Monday so the flights have been cancelled costing me 50 quid. Fortunately I hadn't booked a hotel yet.
Might still come over for a do on the Saturday in Burton and then stay till the Tuesday. Gonna cost me even more money. 

2024 - what will it bring us?
Joy, pain, heartache and then delirium when we go up. The usual DCFC roller coaster.

Hales. A goalscoring machine until he came to Derby. Became one again when he left Derby.
Typical Derby. Buy a player (for £440K) and then play to his weaknesses. He scored his goals picking up on knock downs and flick ons from his striking partner Flanagan (who allegedly also scored with Mrs H, thereby causing the training ground bust up they had) and from using his pace off the mark to latch on to through balls. Derby decided to make him an O'Hare like target man, a skill set he didn't have. He scored something like 4 in 28 appearances for us. We sold him to the Hammers for £330K, 10 in 24 there. Sold back to Charlton for £100K where he continued to find the net on a regular basis.
He doesn't have good stats with Derby simply because Derby didn't play to his strengths. Derby's fault, not Hales'.

I'll be using my RamsTV season ticket here in wet and windy Holland. Next visit for me is the Burton game which I'm combining with seeing friends and family.

Just had a butcher's.... 653 home tickets left... and it's on Sky.

Just had a butcher's.... 653 home tickets left... and it's on Sky.

Don't throw a spanner in the works or Mucker will be hammering it for ages. Remember, Cruz Allen is the key

I'll be using my RamsTV season ticket here in wet and windy Holland. Next visit for me is the Burton game which I'm combining with seeing friends and family.

I'll be using my RamsTV season ticket here in wet and windy Holland. Next visit for me is the Burton game which I'm combining with seeing friends and family.

I guess the stats show that scoring goals isn’t all about the striker. We have too many games where striker is not involved. Collins didn’t achieve much at Wigan or Oxford, still puts a good shift in though. Washington has been ok at best. Again we need at least another option or a better option than Washington.
defensive mix wise we have smith, but don’t think he complements our other midfielders at all. An upgrade in this position be a big help. 
And we’re trying to win the league, scoring the most and conceding the least should be the target. Along with winning games.
It’s not that difficult a league, we feel close at the minute. Is the ideal time to strengthen.

Here's a few thoughts on points raised, thus far...
We do need a striker, agreed. Fans, pundits, staff all seem to agree on that. However, the stats show that only 2 sides have scored more than us so far this season. Scoring doesn't seem to be a problem.
DM. They are part of a defence that has seen us concede less than any club except Pompey. Are we really that bad defensively? My only real issue at DM is that we, all too often, allow opposition players to make 40 or 50 yards without a challenge. Having said that, we are defensively sound.
Rooney. Considering the extent of his injury, I don't expect to see him play again this season. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but don't think I am. 

Stupid challenge for the penalty. 2nd goal, their player was looking for contact, felt it and went down, a "manufactured" free kick. Then Wildsmith set the wall to cover his right hand post and took the left himself. Beaten on that very post. He was flawless after that. Last 30 of the first half we were the better side and it was a question of when, not if, we would score. It was a surprise that our 1st came so late in the half. They were suspect on crosses and we exploited that 2nd half, pinning them inside their own half for what felt like 40 of the 45 minutes and deservedly got 2 more goals to win the game. Tommo scored with a header, I wonder what the odds on that were?  Cash got the winner and 3 points in the bag. That's now 2 very accomplished performances on the trot. A 3rd similar one against Posh on Monday should see us as serious promotion candidates along with Pompey and Bolton. Same XI 2 games running, Warne's on hatttick... Will the 3rd go in? Based on his track record, there will be changes. We troubled them down the right and had them in absolute knots down the left. More of the same, come Monday, and we're on our way...

It always used to be, many moons ago, those present plus STHs not present. Apparently, these days, it's the number of people on the day.

I'd be even happier if we had a Steve Howard / Rob Hulse type #9. They'd have a field day.

I'd be even happier if we had a Steve Howard / Rob Hulse type #9. They'd have a field day.