Jourdan

Derby 2-0 Port Vale Gayle

Why not? People cannot seem to separate Warne from his time at Rotherham after all. Warne's time here shouldn't be compared to his time at Rotherham, but people still do it and use it to suit their agenda...

The club as an entire package will attract players. Warne is only one small element of that. It starts from the top and encompasses the whole club set up. If we get promoted to the Championship, of course we will attract decent to good players if we can afford to pay for them.

No, I think it’s important to be realistic with where we are, what restrictions we have been under, how long down the line into the rebuild we are, and what we can realistically deliver with this squad week in, week out. We’re in a position where trade offs are always likely. The irony is if we played entertaining football and were integrating the youngsters but were 10th, in its own way it would be derided. Warne and Clowes can’t really win. I think it’s a case of recency bias that you want to suggest this brand of football is worse than what came before. It really isn’t. The fact you want to call Rooney’s football ‘compelling’ tells me that you are very entrenched here.

He won four and lost three out of nine league games. He didn’t win an away league game. Why is McGoldrick being injured or unfit always used as a shield for Rosenior? We have had so many unfortunate injuries under Warne and no-one seems to sympathise. For Rosenior, 14 points from 27 points simply wasn’t a compelling audition for the full time role assuming he wanted it. He is doing a good job at Hull at the moment, but in what way are the circumstances at Hull comparable to ours?

What is the initiation? Do I have to sneak into Warne’s house without a trace and turn all of his bobble hats inside out?

That depends. Do we have to clap in sync? To a tune? On the count of three? I have levels of co-ordination similar to the Forest defence. This could be a problem.

Fitness permitting: Wildsmith Wilson - Nelson - Cashin - Elder Bird - Adams - Hourihane NML - Gayle - CBT

Me? A happy clapper? There have been times on this forum where people have suggested I was clinically depressed. What a turn of events. What is the coffee we are meant to be smelling? Nescafé Gold Blend? Starbucks Venezuelan Summer Blend?

You write off performances and move on because it’s in the past and you can’t change or rewrite the past? This idea that you feel and see things more keenly if you are a regular is silly. If you are a fan, you are a fan. It doesn’t matter if you watch on TV or from the stands, go to 5 games or 500 games, travel 5 miles or 50, spend £5 or £5000, you only want the best for your club and it hurts or lifts you up all the same. If you want to dwell on every poor result and every poor performance, of course you are never going to be happy. We are a club that has been in the second tier (and now third tier) almost exclusively for 25 years. Naturally the bad outweighs the good. I started going to games regularly in 2001 and the years of good football are massively outnumbered by the years where we played poorly. We are surely used to ‘putting up with it’. If you are a fan of this club, circumstances tend to stop you from going, not entertainment value. I suspect unless you grew up on the Clough, Mackay, Cox and Smith teams, being entertained wasn’t what drew you to supporting the club in the first place and standing by the club through good and bad. You make it sound like this is the first time in a long time we have played poor football and like this is some oddity. Warne isn’t the first Derby manager to produce a questionable and divisive brand of football, but he might be one of the few to achieve relative success if he is allowed to see the job through.

There is normally a drop off between weekend and midweek attendances. Life and work often gets in the way for people. Of course, fans will vote with their feet. It happens at every club up and down the country, even at clubs with much vaunted support like Leeds. If we don’t get promoted, either Warne’s job will be under threat or Clowes will give him the first half of next season. Will it affect attendances? Maybe slightly. But if Derby’s core support have remained through the management spells of Todd, Gregory, Brown, Jewell, Pearson, Cocu, Rooney, Clement and so on, I don’t see the majority deserting the club now. There have been worse times and less enjoyable football. If you are a fan of the club, nothing should really change.

I attend the games when I can. I watch the games on TV when I can. Everyone has different circumstances. But nice attempt at point scoring. 50 games a year or 5 games a year, it wouldn’t change my current opinion that fans need to stick with the manager and the team.

For balance, I think the biggest criticism that can be levelled at Warne is that his changes can be too left-field and tend to destabilise the team. Injuries are obviously a big factor, but there are curveballs in team selection and set up that fans are struggling to decipher so imagine how the players must be feeling. With so few games to go, we need simplicity and to establish consistent partnerships. Get Nelson and Cashin back together in a four. Play full backs at full back. Get Adams, Bird and Hourihane in midfield. Get NML and CBT on the pitch and playing with Gayle. If we do logical things and don’t achieve logical outcomes, OK. But right now both the players and the manager are doing the inexplicable and that tends to make you think what if.

Warne and the players have 11-14 games to get things right. Clowes will be concerned about back to back losses but ultimately he will assess the situation at the end of the season when we know what division we’ll be in, so really so should we as a fanbase. It’s not going to be helpful to do it any sooner. It’s crunch time. We all need to be pulling in the same direction, not getting the knives out after every less than perfect result. People talk about the club being short termist, yet where the manager’s future is concerned, many of our fans are the same. Clearly Warne and the players are feeling the pressure, and need our support to get the job done. Instead, if last night is anything to go by, the players and the manager will be dragged over the coals. People believe we have the best squad in the division and should be achieving more, but it doesn’t really add up. This is a League 1 group of players with the kind of limitations that are rampant at this level. Players don’t make the mistakes ours do and switch off in the way ours do with the same regularity in the Championship and above. Portsmouth have set the pace and led the way since early on and look fully deserving of promotion. We need to step up and show we deserve it too. If we don’t, Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough will definitely oblige. Last night was a worry but we have to believe while it’s still possible.

Managers and players make mistakes and have bad nights. Tonight Warne and the players were culpable of that. It’s part and parcel of football. Every team has a wobble. This is ours. The question is whether Warne and the players can recollect themselves and show their mettle. We can’t afford a repeat of last season’s run in where we tripped up horribly. Warne really needs to set on an XI and put some faith behind it. At the moment, he seems to be experimenting and seeing what sticks and that is a concern 35 games into the season, even considering all of the injuries. The players also need to stand up and be counted. They are making the kind of errors and missing quality and nerve, which backs up the thinking this is not a top two team. However I think tonight shows that it will be a long eight weeks for everyone in the mix. We won’t be the only ones to drop the ball and have off-nights. There are going to be twists, turns, trips and falls and the picture will change dramatically game after game. We need to see a big response and rebuild momentum. We can’t keep giving the teams around us lifelines. Barnsley and Peterborough will feel buoyed after tonight and Portsmouth are beginning to look out of sight. All that being said, I don’t get the calls for Warne to be sacked though. It’s plainly unrealistic and unachievable. Some simply have to buckle up and enjoy the ride because our fortunes are going to fluctuate from week to week and while everything is still up for grabs, Warne still has time to learn from mistakes and put things right. There is still so much life in the season and there’s ample opportunity for us to bounce back. Tonight was a setback but a big win v Port Vale gets us right back on track.

Derby 2-1 Charlton Gayle

This was always marked down as one of our toughest games remaining and so it proved. We have dug in and won some very tough away games recently where others have stumbled, so we were probably due a fall and again, the margins were fine. There is no shame in a narrow loss against a promotion rival. Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough will push us all of the way and each game left will feel like a cup final as the pendulum swings. The important thing really is to just get back on the horse as quickly as possible. One loss isn’t fatal to our hopes if we bounce back quickly. Two home wins and a few Gayle goals this week and the belief will be right back.

Worrying that CBT is not fit enough to make the bench. Otherwise we are obviously trying to ease Gayle in and reward Bradley and Sibley for their contributions last week. Let’s see if it pays off.

Barnsley 1-2 Derby Méndez Laing

Travelling by train is soul-destroying. It’s a case of paying through the nose to be treated as an afterthought. If you compare pricing v service provided, the public are being massively shortchanged. The pricing system is farcical and illogical. You will encounter cancellations, delays, breakdowns, strikes, and overcrowded, dirty, uncomfortable trains on a very regular basis. As a daily commuter to and from work, not a week goes by without some kind of issue. Some weeks it will be an everyday occurrence. Now imagine being a football fan and let’s be honest, travelling by train doesn’t bear thinking about.

Wildsmith Nyambe - Nelson - Cashin - Elder Adams - Bird - Hourihane NML - Gayle - CBT -If fit, Gayle and CBT with a chance to impress -Sibley, Barkhuizen, and Wilson to come off the bench if needed -Bradley to come off the bench and change the shape if needed -Smith and Thompson to come on for Hourihane and Adams if needed

If he’s fit and confident, it’d be Gayle every time. Missing out on Smith and Gregory could have been a blessing in disguise.

Be interesting to see what our best XI will be with Gayle on board… I am guessing: Wildsmith Nyambe - Nelson - Cashin - Elder Adams - Bird - Hourihane NML - Gayle - CBT If Adams, Bird and NML can continue their form and Gayle and CBT can get into a rhythm, it could be a very fun end to the season!

I would imagine that it’s no surprise but I am feeling very positive about this. There are going to be a lot of tight, tense games over the next 3 months and someone like Gayle with his movement and instinct in the box could be the difference between 1 point and 3 points in many games. Let’s hope we get him fully fit and firing and he can lead us to promotion one way or another.

I get the thinking, but how often in football do things actually work out like that? You will see a team breeze through a challenging run in and another team make hard work of an easier run in, and vice versa. Sometimes teams produce results true to form, sometimes not. If it was so easy to gauge which games were easy and which were difficult, we’d all be raking it in at the bookies. Look at the last day of last season. Who would have expected Peterborough to go to Barnsley and win at our expense? February to May always throws up strange results. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of ‘Bolton have to play X, Y, Z. Advantage us!’ but very often there is no advantage at all.