duncanjwitham

Same here. He’s been sitting near me for years, having the odd chat as we passed on the stairs etc, and I never realised who he was until I saw the photos.  Well **** ☹️.
I reckon we rename the main forum in his honour - The B4 Derby County Forum or something.  It’s not going to be quite the same without him.
Once a Ram, always a Ram 🐑.

Same here. He’s been sitting near me for years, having the odd chat as we passed on the stairs etc, and I never realised who he was until I saw the photos.  Well **** ☹️.
I reckon we rename the main forum in his honour - The B4 Derby County Forum or something.  It’s not going to be quite the same without him.
Once a Ram, always a Ram 🐑.

Same here. He’s been sitting near me for years, having the odd chat as we passed on the stairs etc, and I never realised who he was until I saw the photos.  Well **** ☹️.
I reckon we rename the main forum in his honour - The B4 Derby County Forum or something.  It’s not going to be quite the same without him.
Once a Ram, always a Ram 🐑.

You could understand him getting done for pace occasionally, and he's clearly not great on the ball or anything, but he's not even doing well what he's supposed to be good at.  Misjudging a header there, and getting outmuscled at the weekend.  He's meant to be big, strong and dominant, but he's nothing like it.

You could understand him getting done for pace occasionally, and he's clearly not great on the ball or anything, but he's not even doing well what he's supposed to be good at.  Misjudging a header there, and getting outmuscled at the weekend.  He's meant to be big, strong and dominant, but he's nothing like it.

I'm expecting Sibley and Fapetu on the wings

I'm not sure its failing to be clinical, more that the quality of the chance we create is poor.
Earlier in the thread I think I saw xG at 2.96, which sounds good, but from 32 shots gives you an average xG per shot of 0.09, individually these aren't chances you should "expect" to score from.
SofaScore had us as having 1 "Big Chance" yesterday, which was missed by NML (I'm not sure which chance this was). Crewe had 2, scoring 1 and missing 1.
We need to be focused on creating a better quality of chance, chances you think to yourself "he should score that", rather than a series of half chances.

I mean not exactly. There are several reasons;
 
- Style of football
- Tactical naivety
- Lack of adaptability 
- Poor management of fitness at times
- Seemingly poor technical coaching 
- Lack of clear longer term planning 
- Confused transfer strategy
- Seeming lack of willingness to develop academy players
- Generally underperforming in terms of results and signs of it getting worse rather than better.
 
 

I think the "duty of care" comment was more to do with removing him as manager. Clowes didn't want a manager having to face the wrath of an angry fanbase, if results weren't up to scratch when the managed was clearly inexperienced at the level he was being asked to perform at...

It's absolutely not futile and moot. Fans are more receptive to errors if youngsters are being used and the effort is there. If they can see things about being built for the future and that investment is coming onto the pitch. Couple that with the tried and tested (old) players not performing and the obvious lack of pace and athleticism throughout the team, and it's completely right to wonder why on earth no academy players have had even a few minutes. At the very worst, they prove to be no better and we've lost nothing in trying - and frankly, personally, I'd rather see Darren Robinson at 18 being no better than Conor Hourihane than watch Conor Hourihane.

That's disingenuous given the circumstances and you know that.
We do still have Brown, Robinson, Radcliffe and Bardell who haven't had a single minute.

3 wins in our last 13 home league games, if my maths is right. No matter what the league table says right now, that's not a sustainable platform to build a promotion challenge on.
The proviso of that "good teams find ways to win when they play badly" argument, is that good teams play well and win the rest of the time, and then find ways to get it done when they don't.  Playing badly all the time, but managing to win some of them, does not make you a good team.

3 wins in our last 13 home league games, if my maths is right. No matter what the league table says right now, that's not a sustainable platform to build a promotion challenge on.
The proviso of that "good teams find ways to win when they play badly" argument, is that good teams play well and win the rest of the time, and then find ways to get it done when they don't.  Playing badly all the time, but managing to win some of them, does not make you a good team.

Agreed, but on top of that, you want to see signs that we're building something.  If we'd given decent minutes to the likes of Thompson, Robinson, Brown, Rooney even, and signed a few more players like Fornah and Wilson, you'd be willing to tolerate a season or 2 extra in League One.  Then you go up with those guys all hitting the 20-25 year old range, they should mostly be good enough to step up,  and you don't need a massive rebuild.   

Agreed, but on top of that, you want to see signs that we're building something.  If we'd given decent minutes to the likes of Thompson, Robinson, Brown, Rooney even, and signed a few more players like Fornah and Wilson, you'd be willing to tolerate a season or 2 extra in League One.  Then you go up with those guys all hitting the 20-25 year old range, they should mostly be good enough to step up,  and you don't need a massive rebuild.   

Agreed, but on top of that, you want to see signs that we're building something.  If we'd given decent minutes to the likes of Thompson, Robinson, Brown, Rooney even, and signed a few more players like Fornah and Wilson, you'd be willing to tolerate a season or 2 extra in League One.  Then you go up with those guys all hitting the 20-25 year old range, they should mostly be good enough to step up,  and you don't need a massive rebuild.   

"What do we want?"
🎵"Midtable obscurity in league one"🎵
"When do we want it?"
🎵"Forever!"🎵

If it's anything like the Exeter game, I wouldn't class it as "putting in a performance".  We won that game purely because we had better players than they did.  And we'll do that in a bunch of games this season, because there are a lot of poor teams at this level.  If we're waiting for some kind of clear marker before we sack Warne (5 games without a win, or something like that), we're probably not going to get it.  We'll face a poor or out-of-form team often enough to keep him limping on, if that's the sort of threshold.  We need to say enough is enough, it's not getting better, change is needed.

If it's anything like the Exeter game, I wouldn't class it as "putting in a performance".  We won that game purely because we had better players than they did.  And we'll do that in a bunch of games this season, because there are a lot of poor teams at this level.  If we're waiting for some kind of clear marker before we sack Warne (5 games without a win, or something like that), we're probably not going to get it.  We'll face a poor or out-of-form team often enough to keep him limping on, if that's the sort of threshold.  We need to say enough is enough, it's not getting better, change is needed.

I don't know for sure if he's still recovering from that hernia op or just not picked, I suspect it's mostly the first.  Either way, we've got 22 senior players, including Thompson, for 18 matchday places.  So there are going to be multiple senior players not selected every week, if everyone is fit.

Hi Derby fans, I know you have bigger fish to fry in terms of wanting Warne out, but thought I would provide a little information on the current Northampton side to provide you a little context before tomorrows game.
We are very much a yo-yo side between L1 and L2 and as most expected we are struggling this season. We have not lost any game by more than 1 goal but that is not helping our points tally at all. Injuries have been a massive issue the last 12 months or so, its rare we have had less than 8 out injured. Whilst injuries are part and parcel of the game, when you already have a squad expected to struggle it creates a bit of an impossible task.
We are unlikely to have any of of injured bodies back for Tuesday, which means our best CB and best striker are injured. Considering both boxes is where we need to improve that is not good news! 
Our manager Jon Brady has lived in the area for decades since moving across from Australia. Played for lots of clubs in our region and then got the permanent managers job after managing the U18's. He is extremely passionate (maybe too much so as gets booked so often), but he is also passionate about the club and area which really has built a link with the fan base. He has also done a fantastic job so far in my opinion, developing our style away from just pure long ball which we have endured a lot of over the last few decades. We are not total football by any stretch of the imagination but have the ability to retain the ball far better now. That being said he is clearly getting frustrated at the lack of available bodies and the low budget he has to work with in L1. Despite our lowly position he is still pretty much universally backed by the entire fan base.
In terms of danger man you are right to highlight Sam Hoskins. He has gone from a player who was very much a marmite player amongst the fanbase to a club legend. He has always worked extremely hard and has played in every outfield position for us during his time here. The problem was his work rate would often mean that he was seemingly undroppable which meant he was an easy target. However Brady has recognised that he is comfortably our best finisher, meaning he is now less involved in build up play but much more in the final 3rd which has seen his goal tally rocket. He was the first player to score 20 goals for us since the early 90's and is now top 10 all time in appearances and goals.
Two other players that stand out for us (that are currently fit) are defenders Sam Sherring and Marc Leonard. Sherring is a young defender who is comfortable on the ball and is continuting to develop, i have no doubt he will go onto bigger and better things. Leonard is on load for the second season in a row here from Brighton and is arguably the best natural talent I have seen in the CM for us. We have had Matt Grimes and Matt Crooks here in recent years but Leonard just keeps things ticking over effortlessly.
I wonder if we may set up with a back 3/5 (I know not popular here!) Something along the lines of....
                       Burge 
           Willis Sherring Monthe
Odimayo                               Brough
               Mcwilliams Leonard
Pinnock                                  Hoskins
                    Simpson
 
I am going for a narrow 2-1 loss which is very much the story of our season. A point would be massive for us but despite your recent troubles there are still several levels between the sides.
Looking forward to being back at Pride Park and will post my thoughts after the game. Enjoy the game and rest of the season!

I don’t disagree of course, but more than anything, just get your players doing what they’re good at, and not doing what they’re bad at.  If we had a team full of lower league cloggers then yeah ok, get them trying to out kick/out run/out fight the other team. But we don’t have that at all, even with all the summer signings.  We’ve arguably got the best set of midfielder passers in the league, so sodding-well use them.

I don’t disagree of course, but more than anything, just get your players doing what they’re good at, and not doing what they’re bad at.  If we had a team full of lower league cloggers then yeah ok, get them trying to out kick/out run/out fight the other team. But we don’t have that at all, even with all the summer signings.  We’ve arguably got the best set of midfielder passers in the league, so sodding-well use them.

The thing is, it’s obvious how that Cocu/Rosenior stuff turns into really good football - it really doesn’t take that much, just move it slightly quicker, be a bit smarter in when to take risks or not, just tiny improvements really, a lot of which would have come from just playing together more (especially the Rosenior era). I have no clue what it would take to turn this team into a proper Warne team, but we seem a million miles away from it.

I don’t disagree of course, but more than anything, just get your players doing what they’re good at, and not doing what they’re bad at.  If we had a team full of lower league cloggers then yeah ok, get them trying to out kick/out run/out fight the other team. But we don’t have that at all, even with all the summer signings.  We’ve arguably got the best set of midfielder passers in the league, so sodding-well use them.