TheRamOfSwad

watching the highlights there were a few chances, some missed and some cleared off the line
on another day we play badly a score a couple of those and win 2-1, we'd all be saying we don't care how we win long as we get the points at this stage 
Also the other top 6 teams have a tendency to f*** up just as much as we do 

watching the highlights there were a few chances, some missed and some cleared off the line
on another day we play badly a score a couple of those and win 2-1, we'd all be saying we don't care how we win long as we get the points at this stage 
Also the other top 6 teams have a tendency to f*** up just as much as we do 

My non statistical guesswork on final league positions is...
1. Portsmouth 
2. Derby 
---------------------
3. Peterborough 
4. Bolton
5. Barnsley 
6. Lincoln 
----------------
etc etc etc

Have a gold star mate, but what's that got to do with playing Derby? Could just as easily cite the 4-1kicking from Blackpool a few weeks back. It might be relevant if we were, but the fact is, we're not Oxford, we're Derby.
If your lads pitch up like you have here, bathing in that singular afterglow instead of thinking about how to contain our lads, they might be in for a bit of a rude awakening.

Morning all
Been a while since anything like this has been attempted and with a sell out expected its now time to turn it on and do our part. 
Its been on the socials so spreading the word on here. 
So bring your scarves and your flags. Lets make it a sea of black and white come Saturday. There will be some new flags being surfed in the South Stand and the plan is to get some of the bigger flags on poles in there as well.
Really is over to us now to make a difference so voices required from all stands as well in what is a huge game.

We need those dives and dirty tackles going forward it's the difference between teams when it comes down to it, previously we were too lightweight and kind to opposition. players like Adams and Gayle have that winners by any means necessary mentality 

We need those dives and dirty tackles going forward it's the difference between teams when it comes down to it, previously we were too lightweight and kind to opposition. players like Adams and Gayle have that winners by any means necessary mentality 

Goalkeeper calling for VAR amazing 😂😂😂

Refs on for MOTM

we've got a real chance of getting a couple of goals 2nd half, cmon you Rams!!! let's take our fate into our own hands then dismantle Bolton on Saturday 🐏 ⚽️ 

we've got a real chance of getting a couple of goals 2nd half, cmon you Rams!!! let's take our fate into our own hands then dismantle Bolton on Saturday 🐏 ⚽️ 

Derby County vs Reading
Tuesday 12th March
Pride Park   KO 1945
 
Opposition Bio: Reading have made more headlines off the field than on it in recent times as they find themselves in financial strife as a result of incompetency by their owner. Sound familiar? 
The EFL have seemingly cut them more slack than they did with ourselves but their patience must be wearing thin as deadlines to deposit sufficient funds regularly pass. The latest failure to pony up saw them docked further points and their season deduction now stands at six points in total. 
There was a further deduction of three points doled out, albeit suspended, after their understandably fed up supporters invaded the pitch and caused the early abandonment of their home match with Port Vale, the latters best result in recent months.
Where we had Mel Morris, Reading have Dai Yongge. This proves the old adage of being wary of baldies or fake Welshmen baring gifts.
Any sympathy we have for them should be tempered though by the thought that they are probably still laughing at us paying £3m for Nick Blackman.
Reading FC are known as the Royals, a distinctly naff nickname acquired after a young Prince Albert played a dozen games for the club before marrying Queen Victoria. Plus they hail from the royal county of Berkshire. They are also known as the Biscuitmen due to the town's association with the biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers. 
They are managed by Spaniard Ruben Selles and, having been relegated last season, will be looking to secure League 1 survival this season and kick on in 2024/25 under different ownership and without points deductions.
Reading are the proud holders of two notable records. In the 1985/86 season they recorded 13 straight victories at the start of the season in what is now this division and they also hold the record for the highest points total for their whopping 106 points in their 2005/06 Championship campaign. 
Opposition Form: Not too shabby in fairness. In the ten matches played since they beat us 1-0 at their place they have won a further four games with three draws and three defeats.
They arrive at Pride Park on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Wycombe and in 18th place with a record of W12-D9-L16. It should be noted, however, that without their points deduction they would be in 14th position. 
Their away record is perhaps misleading as the bare stats of W3-D5-L10 needs to be looked at in the knowledge that they contrived to lose their first eight matches on the road. They all count obviously but their more recent form away since then reads W3-D5-L2. 
Their away wins have been at Wycombe (2-1), Stevenage (1-0) and Carlisle (3-1). They have also managed decent draws at Oxford and Peterborough.
In those 18 away games they have only failed to score on four occasions. Promisingly from a Rams perspective, they have only kept the one clean sheet on their travels.
Opposition Players: Going purely off the stats it would appear their chief dangermen are top marksman Harvey Knibbs (10 goals, 6 assists), Sam Smith (9 goals, 10 assists) and possibly Femi Azeez and Lewis Wing. They also have Robbie's son Charlie Savage, the experienced Harlee Dean and the wonderfully named youngster Jacob Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis who I hope gets a runout as I'd love to see if they put his triple-barrelled name on his shirt.
Rams vs Reading History: This will be the 48th league clash between Derby and Reading and the 54th in all competitions. The clubs' first meeting was a League Cup clash in October 1965 (1-1) but it wasn't until 22nd September 1984 that the Rams and the Royals met in a league fixture for the first time and the long wait proved barely worthwhile as we played out a goalless draw at their previous home, Elm Park. The return fixture would prove to be more memorable, for us at least, as Reading's first ever league visit to Derby in April 1985 saw the Rams win 4-1 with goals from Bobby Davison, Steve Buckley, Trevor Christie and Gary Micklewhite in front of a bumper crowd of 7,945 (really?).
That was not a taste of things to come in this fixture though as Reading have had by far the better of it. Our record on their turf is especially poor with just four wins in 24 visits. On Derby soil, though better as you'd expect, it is still deeply unimpressive. Our last victory at home to them was a 1-0 success in September 2021 but our overall home league record against Reading is W10-D3-L10. 
Expected Team: Same again one might think. Possibly a change in the middle to give more legs with Smith or Thompson in for Hourihane. 
Other Fixtures of Note: Something similar to Saturday would be nice. A Derby win and at least one of our rivals for automatic dropping points please. Their games midweek are:
Portsmouth vs Burton
Bolton vs Oxford
Carlisle vs Barnsley
Peterborough vs Stevenage (Weds)
COYR
 

Top performance from the boys today under big pressure. Business end of the season, lots riding on every game. We followed up two back to back defeats with back to back 3-0 wins including dismantling a side in really good form and to be honest a place I thought we’d slip up at. Barnsley were certainties for autos according to some on here after beating us (you get promoted by beating your rivals after all!!), well not if you throw in a 5-1 home defeat to midtable Lincoln. Can you imagine what the meltdown would be on here if we did that. FWIW Barnsley are still well in it if they can bounce back. 
 
Think Warne has stumbled across the winning formula with this line up. Ward and Sibley have been outstanding so dangerous from Wing back, and the front three are a real threat. Then we actually look like we have a decent bench now.
Feel this could be a real defining moment today, this week can definitely be defining. Not if we don’t have a great week, we’ll still be in the mix if that happens but if we have a great week and win both matches, I’d be extremely confident in us getting over the line. 
But this is Derby, we’ll find a way to make things difficult and there will be plenty of twists and turns. But if we’ve found this level of performance at this stage of the season, and we can sustain it, then it’s extremely encouraging. 

Practically every room in the house... and the greenhouse!  
It was at that point I realised I was very much Worn Out!  😲

Where did he have the bobble hat?

Where did he have the bobble hat?

Obviously…

Is it too much to ask the anti-Warne brigade to pull their necks in for the last stage of the season, so we are all pulling together in a positive manner? This may help the team greatly, not having to read the negative stuff ( I’m sure they will read this forum).
there will be plenty of time after our fate has been sealed to get the knives or streamers out, whichever side you support.
lets all give a positive final push to get out of this Division.

Bristol Rovers vs Derby County
Saturday 9th March KO 3pm
Memorial Stadium (BS7 0BF)
 
Opponents Form: Decent recently with three wins in their last four matches including their last two. They currently sit 11th in the table albeit with no realistic playoff aspirations or relegation concerns. Whilst their home record in L1 this season is a reasonable W7-D5-L5 it should be noted that they have lost four of their most recent six matches on their own patch with wins over Carlisle (2-1) and Oxford (3-1) dampened by defeats to Blackpool (1-2), Exeter (0-1), Fleetwood (0-2) and Burton (1-2).
Opponents Bio: Rovers are managed by Matt Taylor who is in his third managerial role. After an impressive four years at Exeter he was the man chosen by Rotherham to take over the reins after the departure of our own Paul Warne to Pride Park. Taylor's spell there lasted 13 months before he parted company with the Yorkshire club in November 2023 as the Millers were struggling in 22nd place. Within three weeks, however, he found himself in the Bristol Rovers hotseat replacing the ever-delightful Joseph Barton. 
The club have played their home matches at the 11,000 capacity (3,000 seated) Memorial Stadium since 1996 after leaving their previous home in Eastville. They are officially known as the 'Pirates', reflecting Bristol's maritime history. Or because they just arrrr. Or maybe because their form is historically patchy. They are of course also known as the 'Gas', a nickname which was given them by opposition fans originally but was cheerfully adopted by the Rovers' followers who refer to themselves as 'Gasheads'. The name came about apparently due to their former stadium being sited next to a gasworks which produced a distinct aroma which would waft over the ground. Anybody who sits near a few of our more dedicated drinkers at Pride Park will no doubt relate to that.
Opponents Player Watch: Only one place to start here as the Rams go up against our former beau, Christopher Hugh Martin. The Wardrobe has scored 15 goals this season and is joint fifth in the top scorers chart for the division. Second top scorer after CM9 is Anthony Evans with half a dozen goals. Other notable players are ex-Rams youngster Luke Thomas, experienced former Swansea, Celtic and Preston man Scott Sinclair and Chelsea loanee Harvey Vale who I think we were linked with during the summer. I'm not sure if he's their number one or not but they also have a goalkeeper called Jed Ward who you can only sympathise with.
Rams Record vs Opponents: There have been three FA Cup ties between the two clubs but we'll focus on the 27 league matches there have been between Bristol Rovers and Derby County. The first meeting was on 29th August 1953 at Bristol so hats off to any Ram or Rover who remembers that match over 70 years ago. During the early years of the fixture it was Bristol Rovers who held sway with the Pirates winning the first three encounters, four of the first five and six of the first nine overall. Since then though it is the Rams who have had much the better of it. The overall league record for Derby against Saturday's opponents is as follows:
P27: W12-D7-L8
Away at Bristol Rovers our record  is: P13: W3-D4-L6   Whilst that isn't impressive it should be pointed out that we lost on our first five visits and since then we've gone W3-D3-L1 on their turf and are unbeaten in our last four visits.
Since our relegation to L1 for the 2022/23 season the Rams have recorded home wins against Rovers in both fixtures at Pride Park (4-2 and 2-1) whilst last season we conceded a debateable late penalty in a 1-1 draw at their place.
Other Saturday Fixtures Of Note: We will either be second or third going into the match depending on the outcome of Barnsley vs Bolton on Tuesday night. Peterborough are at home to Northampton on the same evening. On Saturday our priority is of course to earn three points in the south-west but we will be hoping for favourable results in at least one of the following games:
Blackpool vs Portsmouth
Exeter vs Bolton
Barnsley vs Lincoln
Burton vs Peterborough
Expected Team: My guess is that Derby will be unchanged from the 3-0 win against a desperately struggling Port Vale. With fit full-back options rarer than a salad in the City Ground boardroom I suspect it'll be a back three plus the two wing-backs who played well yesterday. 
 
Safe journey to those who make the trip and COYR.

Forest concede in 99th minute. 

I think our fanbases vision on how we like to see our football still comes from (a little loosely) Brian Clough and the legacy he left and ultimately we still hold those values no matter what league we are in 
Keep it on the floor, Not cheating, Winners mentality, buying into hid footballing philosophy etc etc 
Crazy how his legacy still leaves a mark on the club and the supporters because we have seen how it "could be" why would we want anything else 
I think Brian was definitely in the camp of "work smarter, not harder" and maybe that's why we as derby fans have not taken to Warne very well 
Probably more reminiscent of a dirty Leeds Don Revie team, is more the model of Paul's ideal team, big brute kicking people off the ball and grinding out wins
🐏

I really liked the theory that was laid out in the final couple of years of Mel’s tenure (frightening sentence, I know). The idea that over half the first team would be made up of academy players, with high quality loans to cover shorter term gaps and good signings brought in to cover areas where there were no players coming through. I thought this was quite a good model in the modern day. It would attract youngsters with high ceilings to the club as their was a clear path to the first team, build confidence with other clubs to lend us their best talent, and allow us to spend decent money on players as academy players would be pure profit. It seemed to align academy with first team and present a good vision for a modern sustainable football club. 
 
I think we were maybe a couple of seasons from seeing it come to fruition too. We were looking at having a team/squad with the potential of having Knight, Bird, Sibley, Thompson, Delap, Gordon, Kellyman, Cashin, Ebosele, Buchanan, Whitaker, Plange, and Williams all drawn from our own academy in it. We all know why it never happened, and the initial idea behind it may have been pushed by outside factors, but looking at the idea on paper it showed a club well aligned in philosophy, both in development and recruitment.
At the moment I don’t really know what the plan is. Academy players don’t seem to be anywhere near it. That might be due to the club being gutted and them not being to the standard but they never seem to be given a chance. The recruitment seems to be focused on older players, but they don’t appear to fit a system. Cocu spoke about having all teams playing the same way so younger players can step up, which seems really sensible, but currently our first team doesn’t seem to have a consistent way of playing let alone something aligned through the age groups. I think we could do with really setting out a clear goal and a philosophy and working towards it. It would really allow supporters to buy into the vision and direction. Build trust and patience. And, as I think supporters often back their academy graduates the most, really build a unity between team and fans. 

Can he even reach the cross bar? 

I wasn't happy with Wildsmith either the other night, but I don't think Thompson is the solution in goal.😂

I reckon the main man/ goal threat will start up top
Dropped Wildsmith for 'something different really', Wildsmith hasn't been running hard enough 
5 at the back! by pass the midfield so fast the opposition will be found sleeping, Pinball passing pinging it with toe pokes, knock downs, and get it to NML who will run 30 yards to knock it in! 
 
                    Thompson
 Wilson  Smith Nelson Cashin Sibley   
                       Adams
            Hourihane     Bird
  NML                              Waghorn
          
                       Bradley