Gabby'sThighs

It's beyond frustrating that those same players put in a never-say-die fight against Bolton then rolled over against Northampton.
Not a total disaster but even a point would've made a huge difference. It's just got tighter but I'm pretty confident the rest of the top 4 are going to drop points. They've all got some tough games coming up against teams fighting for survival or promotion.
Keep the faith!

It's beyond frustrating that those same players put in a never-say-die fight against Bolton then rolled over against Northampton.
Not a total disaster but even a point would've made a huge difference. It's just got tighter but I'm pretty confident the rest of the top 4 are going to drop points. They've all got some tough games coming up against teams fighting for survival or promotion.
Keep the faith!

it's his job to put crosses into good areas, it's up to his team mates to get onto them. 
I'm giving him credit because he managed to run around, tackle a bit, and cross the ball, rather than standing around looking lost, getting caught offside, or battering passes into the hoardings, which is what everyone else was doing. 

So we lost a game, remain second four points clear with the team below having a game in hand.
some or even all the teams below will have bad days and drop points. It’s how football works.

Some people want to fire the manager. I’m just thankful we have a sensible owner.

Oh well 😂

it's his job to put crosses into good areas, it's up to his team mates to get onto them. 
I'm giving him credit because he managed to run around, tackle a bit, and cross the ball, rather than standing around looking lost, getting caught offside, or battering passes into the hoardings, which is what everyone else was doing. 

Make no mistake we can go up automatically despite being not looking any better than last season - it’s such a poor league and we have players who are better than a lot of the other ones in this league 

it's his job to put crosses into good areas, it's up to his team mates to get onto them. 
I'm giving him credit because he managed to run around, tackle a bit, and cross the ball, rather than standing around looking lost, getting caught offside, or battering passes into the hoardings, which is what everyone else was doing. 

Not sure whether this holds any water...
 

I wish people would stop this snide picking on Diane Abbott. She made a gaff when she was suffering a diabetic blood-sugar problem which does mess with your thinking processes - one ,mistake - and the world has had its teeth into her ever since, going on for how many years? Think of the colossal number of gaffes from Bonzo Dog Johnson, let alone his blatant lies, yet no-one keeps taking him to task for much more serious "gaffes". The same is true for most of his many cabinet members who kept making mistakes, who continue to get away scot-free. Abbott may dress a bit oddly, but there is no excuse for continuing to do her down for one incident caused by by a health problem.

It’s the togetherness that impresses me most. It’s a hard thing to build but Paul and his team have managed it. 

Keep it up
🐏

Saturday 16th March
vs Bolton Wanderers
Pride Park   KO 1500
 
This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others
Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.
Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 
Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.
Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.
They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.
Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.
Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.
Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:
Bolton have never won at Pride Park.
There, I've said it. 
Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.
Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.
My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.
Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.
Peterborough vs Portsmouth
Barnsley vs Cheltenham
 
COYR
 

The drip-feeding of the last remaining tickets is in part a marketing ploy to make us think the tickets have almost gone so that fans will grab the last ones available “while they still can”. If they show all remaining tickets it removes the urgency to buy, and sales will slow down.

Think we made the right decision sticking with Warne. It might not be pretty at times but this group of players look so together and run themselves into the ground for him. Let's all get together and behind the lads for the run in. 8 cup finals left.

Never a red, not a penalty, made heavy weather of seeing out the game against 10 men. 
But 3 points on the board, can't wait for the Bolton game! COYR!

Never a red, not a penalty, made heavy weather of seeing out the game against 10 men. 
But 3 points on the board, can't wait for the Bolton game! COYR!

Never a red, not a penalty, made heavy weather of seeing out the game against 10 men. 
But 3 points on the board, can't wait for the Bolton game! COYR!

Pen! 
4 subs!
Yellow for the Reading analyst!
this is such a weird second half...

Pen! 
4 subs!
Yellow for the Reading analyst!
this is such a weird second half...

hello darkness my old friend...................

Only a matter of time til we score

“Black players in the defensive line often make these mistakes because they’re not concentrated,” said Eranio. “They are powerful physically, but when it is time to think … they often make this type of error.”

Wow. Textbook crazy racist stereotyping. From a guy who played with Marcel Desailly.

Derby legend, but seeing as he's been a coach at Milan for 20 years and he's currently 57, it would be an odd one for him to suddenly move back to England to become a manager.

He’s not Pep but he’s the manager of Derby County. Surely it’s in the best interests of the club to put any reservations we may have about him and his style of football and to get behind him and the team so that we achieve success?
Any negativity at this stage of the season must be to the detriment of the team. Let’s be loud and proud until promotion is achieved. Then, and only then, should we speculate about what happens next.

“Black players in the defensive line often make these mistakes because they’re not concentrated,” said Eranio. “They are powerful physically, but when it is time to think … they often make this type of error.”

Wow. Textbook crazy racist stereotyping. From a guy who played with Marcel Desailly.

Derby legend, but seeing as he's been a coach at Milan for 20 years and he's currently 57, it would be an odd one for him to suddenly move back to England to become a manager.