Jourdan

Derby 2-1 Stevenage Mendez Laing

Surely you realise that nothing is set in stone in football? If we get promoted, there will be so many variables at play that will dictate how well or how badly we do, not just the style of play. At this stage, there are far too many unknowns. Saying ‘it’s going to be grim’ and ‘worse than Wednesday have endured’ in February when this season is not even over and pre-season for next season is five months away just seems needless. It might be your gut feeling, but there is enough evidence to suggest that football is too unpredictable and too nuanced to be so dismissive of our chances of improving and adapting to life in the Championship purely on your distaste for the manager.

I think people at the club do things in good faith that can end up being mistakes in hindsight. Some are easier to see ahead of time, some less so. Would I have extended John Jules’ loan? No. Would I have signed someone that has gone to another L1 club just for the sake of having more bodies in the squad but not necessarily more quality? Also no. The club really can’t win. Collins could have stayed fit for the rest of the season and then the ‘back up striker’ gets about 150-300 minutes of football and the club are questioned for wasting precious resources. Ultimately the club can only be prepared for so many eventualities.

CBT will be fine. He has played 1.5 games in four weeks so he is obviously not fully fit nor up to speed. It’s a shame he has not hit the ground running but there is no point in writing him off. Mendez Laing, Barkhuizen and Wilson have all had spells in the team where things haven’t clicked but they have bounced back and performed. I am pretty confident he will come good.

It is a worry if Collins is out for any length of time. But having four forwards (Collins, John Jules, Waghorn, Washington) out at one time as well as multiple other players in the squad just says we have been very unfortunate. Let’s see if we can pick up a free agent. Let’s see where Washington is with his recovery. Let’s see if we can recall Brown. Let’s see if we can go with a fluid front three of NML, CBT and Barkhuizen. All we can do is regroup and make the best out of a bad situation.

Yes, we had all of January to sign a striker and no doubt we tried for the entire month to secure a deal. But it is not straightforward. Clearly we want players who will add something to the squad and we want someone who will improve us in some way. It’s not a case of taking absolutely anyone. Better players are usually more difficult to sign, and clubs and even players will use whatever tactic they can to get the best deal and move possible. Moves you think are close often break down because of this. If Collins is out for any length of time, it’s just really unfortunate.

Got what they deserved? You make it sound like Warne and the team didn’t want a striker and were happy with the outcome? There’s a difference between what we wanted and what we got and clearly Warne had to suck it up and accept the situation for what it was.

It was very chaotic. I find the set up at Exeter doesn’t really suit a large away following. It never feels joined up because you have people spread across two standing areas and one seating area and everyone does their own thing. Last night you had people singing about mermaids on one side of the goal and you had people singing about darts players on the other side and lots of pockets of noise but no real togetherness. It’s also not comfortable for all fans. The terrace is too close to the pitch and the space between rows is often too tight, making it difficult to see all areas of the pitch clearly and difficult to move around. It was so packed yesterday that I could barely move a muscle without invading someone’s personal space, so you can only imagine how my fiancée (who is relatively new to following Derby) must have felt. Exeter are a nice, family friendly club but they need a more modern stadium if they want to progress, absolutely.

Exeter gave a really good account of themselves. They played some nice passing football, kept us on the back foot for large spells but never capitalised at any point. They are so very evidently a young side with a lot to learn. A more streetwise team would have run us ragged tonight. All of our added experience shone through in the end. We were calm, collected, and absolutely surgical on the counter attack. Wildsmith, Nelson, Adams, Bird, Mendez Laing, Barkhuizen and Collins all played important roles in differing ways. Mendez-Laing in particular caused all kinds of problems when we got him into areas where he can hurt the opposition. All in all, it won’t have got the purists doing laps of their living room, but going to an in-form side on the up and full of confidence and one who had beaten Peterborough only a week prior and delivering an incredibly mature and professional away performance is honestly something Warne and the players deserve massive credit for.

I think in ordinary circumstances he might. At the moment, it feels like he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. We are in a tight race for top 2 and dropped points of any kind aren’t well received and could be difference making. I would like to see him go for it and be adventurous but I do suspect given Exeter’s form and what’s at stake, we might see a safety first approach.

Depending on injuries and fitness: Wildsmith Nyambe Nelson Cashin Wilson Adams Bird Elder NML Collins CBT If we are going to persist with three at the back, I prefer a 3-4-3 to give us more threat and more spark. 3-5-2 can work, but it tends to be a more cautious version when we adopt it.

Thanks, @i-Ram. Tonight could be the night. Enjoy your evening. M&S do a cracking houmous with caramelised onion. Their chilli and manchego cheese crisps are lovely too. Perfect for a night behind the sofa.

On the train from Plymouth to Exeter for work. The weather is pretty wet. Apparently there is a weather warning in place for the whole of the South West, so safe journey to everyone travelling. Hopefully it won’t affect the game being on.

I don’t know why they chose this name, but it’s a really highly rated place, one of the most popular in Exeter.

Bolton, Barnsley, and Peterborough all finished last season above us and they are all in contention again this season. They are good teams. They are the benchmark for us this season. We knew that if we wanted to get promoted, it’s these teams we would have to outperform. There is no contradiction. I am saying they are good teams in a competitive league. If the league wasn’t competitive, these teams and indeed ourselves would be dropping points far less frequently. More waffle? I’ll put be putting Brussels out of business at this rate. I express my opinions plenty, if you disagree with them or can’t comprehend them, that’s fine. How much of an advantage have we had with Wigan and Reading being in financial difficulties and having points deductions really? Reading and Wigan have beaten us this season. Reading have pipped us to transfer targets. Surely it’s the likes of Portsmouth, Oxford, Blackpool and Stevenage who have profited from this?

Don’t worry, my fiancée is a nurse.

Considerably better? I watched four of the six games and I have to say we were competitive against all three sides. Plymouth away, we were the better side for 55-60 minutes and should have taken our chances to put the game to bed. Barkhuizen couldn’t score with a point blank range header and the game turned. Plymouth caught us in the break and got a very fortunate penalty. Wednesday away, we were the better side until Davies’ mistake and even with 10 men, we kept Wednesday honest and created some good openings. Bird had a glorious chance to level it. Wednesday at home, it was a drab game and both teams very much cancelled each other out. Of the few chances, we had the best of them. Ipswich away, our approach was not pretty yes but it was a reasonable plan to contain and frustrate Ipswich and it would have worked if we hadn’t made such an unforgivable mistake in defence, another one by Davies as I remember. This idea that they were levels above in quality, I don’t get. Consistency and ability to hold their nerve, yes. But actual quality? It’s closer than people say.

I am not saying it will be easy but surely Clowes came into this knowing that he would need to finance a tilt at staying in the Championship at some point? Surely by bringing in people like Hale to improve the academy infrastructure over time and Thomas to improve recruitment over time, this is part of his efforts to make it more viable that we can stay in the Championship initially? Surely by spending £3-400,000 on Blackett Taylor and spending to secure the likes of Cashin, Nyambe and NML on longer term contracts, he is showing commitment to the cause? Ipswich and Sunderland competing for promotion in 2023 and 2024 surely gives us inspiration. Plymouth being 15th and comfortably clear of the bottom three surely gives us realistic hope. Coventry coming back from similar financial turmoil and stabilising in the Championship and trusting Mark Robins to grow and evolve as a coach in a similar way that Warne will have to surely gives us even more hope? The Coventry model could be one we very well emulate…

I think if we get promoted in 15 games’ time and finish above one or more of Bolton, Barnsley and Peterborough, then we’ll be better.

Do teams never get promoted and overachieve the following season? Is such a phenomenon exclusive to League 1? Didn’t Sheffield United and Wolves not long ago finish in the top half of the PL following promotion? If it’s possible in the PL, why should we be surprised to see it in League 1 where the margins are much finer?

I am sorry but how is us possibly getting promoted to the Championship under Warne in any way comparable to us getting promoted to the PL the previous time over 15 years ago? In 2008, the board and the manager were reportedly at odds and the board were seemingly unwilling to invest in summer 2008 to improve the team sufficiently. We couldn’t compete with the other promoted sides never mind the 17 others. The step up to the PL was huge back then. Is the step up to the Championship really anywhere close to that? Consider that Clowes appears to be nothing but in full support of Warne and consider that once the restrictions are lifted and with the additional revenue streams to follow from promotion, we’d be able to compete financially with anyone else who gets promoted and probably around 6-10 other Championship clubs as a fair estimate. Surely that’s a far better place to be in? What’s there to stop us from improving and adapting to the Championship well? Not only footballing sides do it. Luton and Coventry did it. In fact, if you look at Wigan, Barnsley, Peterborough and Blackpool as recent reoccurrences, it’s footballing sides who more often tend to go back where they came from. This fearmongering is outrageous.

I watched Ipswich, Plymouth and Wednesday against us last season and I didn’t feel they were massively ahead of us in terms of quality, but granted I missed Ipswich at home at a time when they were really motoring. All of the games I saw were tight and decided on fine margins. Better they were, but not by much. I think where all three teams were better than us was at maintaining their consistency levels and being able to finish strongly. Is this year as good? It’s impossible to objectively quantify and everyone’s opinion will be different. Personally I think it’s at the same level in terms of difficulty and competitiveness and if you look back to the same time last season, the table is trending in a similar way.

Meaningless corporate waffle? Sure, yes, I report back to Stephen Pearce every evening. The point being discussed was that we are only where we are because the league is poor. If that was true, why aren’t Bolton, Barnsley and Peterborough taking advantage and running away with the league? What makes a league strong or weak, much like what makes a football team good to watch, is purely subjective. It was 2014-15 the last time none of the relegated teams competed for promotion or play-offs. What is the relevance? This season, only Blackpool have an outside chance of promotion through the play offs. Maybe I am looking at it the wrong way but that just lines up with the thinking that this is not a straightforward league to get out of. There are countless other examples of relegated teams (Bolton, Ipswich, Wednesday, Charlton, Sunderland) who have not adjusted to League 1 so easily and there are teams that have taken years to rebuild and get out of the league. Some are still stuck here. But yes, please continue downplaying the quality and competition levels in the league if you must. It won’t stop the champagne flowing when we go up.

FYI for anyone in and around Exeter today and tomorrow: Good pubs Ship Inn, Turk’s Head, White Hart, Old Firehouse, Mill on the Exe, Prospect Inn on the Quay Good cafes Exploding Bakery, Zuki’s, Tiny Tasting Room, Chococo, Grow Coffee House, Eat on the Green Good fast food Hubbox for burgers, Red Panda for Asian food, Hook for fish and chips, Eat the Bird for fried chicken Good restaurants The Ivy

Already spotted a few Rams in Exeter by the train station! Looking forward to tomorrow! Wishing everyone a safe journey. @S75 Ram and @Foreveram, any advice needed, just let me know!