Comrade 86

Don't think it's too hard to work out what triggered @Eddie's post tbh 😂

I actually love watching the darts, but oddly seldom do. I mostly watch to see the crowds if I'm honest. Organised bedlam is how I'd describe it. A load of our lot are planning to go this year, mainly driven, I might add, by the ladies in our group, not the guys. The last time we did something similar was a weekend in Manchester for the World's Strongest Man comp, which was hilarious* and great fun. *The weekend was hilarious, not the competitors. They weren't funny at all. I seem to remember them doing reps lifting up a car at one point, so not the type of chaps you want seeing you laughing at them!

No idea why really, but this makes me very proud of our club and even more so, our fans. This forum has been grim at times this season, but by and large, the bulk of our support out there in the real world seem to have stuck by PW and the lads and thankfully, are seeing the rewards for their faith. 30K in L1 on NY's day with trains a mess and the game on Sky is pretty damn impressive, I reckon. Fingers crossed again that they get the result they deserve and return home hoarse and happy again having shouted the lads one step closer to the sunlit uplands of the Championship. COYR

I had friends around for the evening and by the time midnight arrived, we'd forgotten why we'd gathered. The cacophony of fireworks going off all around the building and along the sides of the nature reserve behind us served as a pretty spectacular reminder, though I do feel for pet owners and anyone having to get up and work the next day. Thankfully for them, it only lasted around 15 minutes.

Avoid blends as a general, if not exclusive rule. Single malt all the way for me tbh. Macallan, Lagavulin, Balvenie, Aberlour, most of the single malts are more than drinkable. If you like something especially peaty, then try the Laphroaig range. For a milder experience, try Penderyn, it's Welsh, not Scottish, but it's very good. There's also some excellent Japanese brands, but they can be very expensive; Yamazaki and Nikka spring to mind. There's some very nice Irish brands too, though I still rate Scottish single malts as the best quality / value brands. Enjoy!

Wildsmith is the best keeper in the division and one rash mistake doesn't change that. Let's not fix what's not broken. Joe is our #1 stopper and he's earned the starting birth IMO.

Derby 3 Posh 1 FRGS Collo

Spot on. Our hand was forced. We needed the cash to start the rebuild and while it stings, I fully understand the reasoning behind it. That said, I hope that's the last time we sell any kind of prospect for a pittance. We've been punished way beyond the 'crime' we committed and the rebuild is now underway. Very happy nonetheless to see Jason prosper, which we all knew he would. Folk scoffed at the move, but Jason has grabbed it with both hands and by all accounts, continued in a rich vein of form. He'll have been noted, that much I guarantee. He'll get his move soon enough, indeed I'd be surprised to see him still at Brizzle after the summer window, but that won't stop him busting a gut for them every game until it happens.

Pushing on through mate! 😋 HNY to you and yours too.

Sell no one. Keep Cashin and Bird and yes, Louie too. Keep our top academy prospects, keep Nelson, Nyambe, Wilson, NML, don't release any key players, save for silly money. It's high time our enforced reputation as a selling club, who pays through the nose and is prone to throwing out the baby is consigned to history. From here on, we build. And for what it's worth, £4 mill for Cash isn't anywhere near silly enough, unless Brighton want to give us a fat split (like 40%fat), when they sell him on for 3 times that in a year or two's time. Exercise the added year options, get ourselves promoted, sit down and thank them with all our hearts, THEN sit down and discuss their future. We get promoted and Cash is worth £7.5 straight off the bat and I don't doubt that he'll help ensure the club gets max value for him, a la Jude Bellingham if you like, though on a less grand scale, obviously. I love the fact that Max and Eiran have stood behind the club through thick and thin, with in my view, lesser talents scurrying off at the first available opportunity. I don't want another Jason Knight where we see a top talent effectively horse-traded. He pretty much had to be sold, but with us exiting the agreed business plan this summer and on the brink of the autos, are we still compelled to offload players who can prosper in the Championship? Hell no! Might be harnessing the spirit of @B4ev6is here, but this is how I see it right now and I've a hunch, Mr Clowes does too.

Thoughts on Oppenheimer are simply that it's a great piece of cinema, adorned with a cast to die for and faultless art direction, so why did I not enjoy it? I had a similar reaction to Flowers of the Killer Moon which I thought I was certain to enjoy, but both films seem so self-conscious that they were hard to warm to. I'll probably try them both again at some point, as perhaps it was my disposition and not that of the films, which both seem universally heralded. 6.5/10 That small grumble pales into insignificance compared to my dislike of The Killer which, as @Alph has reminded me, was probably the most bone-jarringly asinine movie I've seen in years. The plot: contract killer bungles job, much trouble ensues. Even with Fassbender in the lead role, it's hardly an original premise, but in this case we are treated to first person introspective of a man so bad at his job I'd probably kill him myself were he on my payroll. 4/10

Surprised that a side closing in on top spot has not got a single player averaging more than 7.00. Think we must be stingy markers 😂 Little surprised too to see Nate languishing down in 7th place too. Whoscored have Cash and Nate ranked #1 and #3 at 7.47 and 7.34 respectively for the season so far. Perhaps we're tougher on our own players than neutrals are? I think I probably err in the opposite direction. Thanks as always for putting all this together mate. A lot more interesting than the standard bickerfests on here.

Wildsmith: 6.5 Rush of blood for the penalty perhaps? Bar that, could have played in his slippers. Nyambe: 8.0 Typically unflappable, he's too good for this league. Sibley: 6.5 Late appearance in lesser favoured slot, played his part. Nelson: 8.0 Another commanding performance. Makes everything look so easy! Cashin: 9.0 Not a lot this kid can't do is there really? Tango maybe? Bet he's s*** at ballroom dancing. MOTM (again) and worth more than £3 million IMO. Forsyth: 8.0 Was always going to score today, you could just see he wasn't having it at 2-0. Actually unlucky not to finish with a brace. I'll probably cry when Fozzy retires. Bradley: 7.0 Solid enough on limited evidence. Confidence remains a worry, but Warne keeping him in and around games may yet pay dividends. I still think he might show himself a far better player than we've seen. Wilson: 8.0 Always available, always willing, the lad's a nightmare for oppo FBs. They can't even get close enough to kick him. Ward: 6.5 Got a cross on him and looked assured enough in the time he was given. Bird: 8.0 Birdy must be loving life - runners everywhere, a solid midfield to attack from and getting a few chances himself too. Another classy outing. Hourihane: 8.0 Much criticised on here and has been incredibly inconsistent, but seems to be finding fitness and top form. Another strong showing from the skipper. Barkhuizen: 7.0 Better from Barks, but he's yet to really hit his straps this season. Was good yesterday though and ran hard. Thompson: 7.5 Love him, proper little terrier and typical of him that he got on the end of a cross despite being a foot shorter than everyone else in the box. Méndez-Laing: 7.5 Threatening again without being absolutely at his peak. I'd start him again against Posh then give him a week off. Collins: 6.5 Tough day for Collo but he did bravely get his nut on the cross setting up Fozzy for our opener. John-Jules: 7.5 I've read a few posts on here writing the lad off - can't fathom that. Looks like he could prove a class above to me and it'll be interesting to see what happens next with him. Warne Watch: Got everything right. The transformation in the side this last month or two has been marked and results like this give credence to the argument that this is not a flash in the pan and that we are winning on merit. It's good to see Clowes' patience rewarded, long may it continue.

Just a thought but won't our lads be on some hefty bonuses should they get us promoted? It's looking like they might be wanting to hang around and collect them to me. And £3 million for Cash? Nah! We get promoted and he'll already be worth double that. I'd hang onto any and all of our good young prospects, if at all feasible. We're going to need them next season in the Championship.

Just back. First thought... Match thread's gonna be an absolute doozy. Thank you fellow Rams, you didn't disappoint. And this on the same day that we discover Roymac hasn't got a willy too. Time for a single malt and some group texts to Oxford supporting pals, I reckon.

Oxford 0 Derby 1 FRGS Nate

Scoring for fun, good on him. Was always going to be a decent player once he strengthened up. He has loads of natural ability and it's nice to see him prospering. He had a rough old finish to his time at Derby, especially for a young'un and I can't help but think it could all have been handled so much better. Difficult times, but regrettable all the same.

Just finished Slow Horses 3. Won't say too much as others have yet to see it, though in one major regard, it's nothing like the previous seasons. Did enjoy it though, but then I think Jackson Lamb might be one of the greatest characters ever created for TV, played by one of our greatest actors.

I thort he looked ok too, but it might be too loki a signing for for a club like Derby.

Honestly, almost from the first minute, it never felt like a game we could lose, despite the wasted chances and a scoreline that suggests a close match-up. The fact is, we absolutely battered this lot. For nigh on 70 minutes, they were chasing ghosts and some of our football was as slick as I've seen since Mac1. Our work off the ball was excellent too, by far the best I've seen under Warne, with a bristling Conor Hourihane at the heart of it. I think we've got the old man fit at last and we're a better side for it. Some consistency now please skipper! As much as anything, that off the ball work the lads were putting in today is what gets the coaches purring. That and clean sheets. So where do we stand? On this kind of form, where we're beating teams quite comfortably, even in games where we are not playing at our best, I reckon we are a prime candidate for the autos. Our defence seems impregnable, bar occasional brainfarts (we are in L1 after all*) and we remain a tad goal-shy on occasions*, but we are now starting to exercise real control in games. Critically, I think there's still gears left in this side and in fitness terms, the value of a full pre-season this year is clear to see. Some kudos to Warne on that score, at very least. Some are only just now finding their legs (see Hourihane), whilst NML can now run flat out for 70 to 80 minutes, when last season he was gassing out before halftime. We may not have the searing pace of youth that some sides boast, but we'll run harder for longer than most in this division and I genuinely believe think we'll finish as strongly as we have done in a very long time. Like butcher's dogs, this lot. A last thought would be around the transfer window. My mindset has changed on this in recent weeks, mainly because the lads are stepping up and filling what I'd considered to be gaps. I no longer think of this window as 'critical', though I obviously agree that a couple of decent signings might further strengthen our chances, hopefully without disrupting what appears to be a well settled squad. Wanting a statement win against Oxford to take us into that window might perhaps be greed on my part, but I can see us doing, it at which point Derby County become the fox in the henhouse with everyone else just hens. Honestly, that's how I see it right now. Few will want to play us, that's for sure and that will present some new challenges, I concede, but taking a pragmatic view, that's quite a luxurious 'problem' to have. I can't say I've watched a lot of the other teams in and around the top, but on what I have actually seen, there's no side we should fear. Quite the opposite. A swift closing doff of the cap to Curtis Nelson. It seems a case of, Curtis is dead, long live Curtis, as we've lost one warrior to father time, but found another in his stead. He and Ryan Nyambe are our best signings in feckin years and just look at how they've got Eiran playing. £3 million? Brighton can feck right off! Somehow, old man Fozzy keeps running through the pain and that back 4 is a collective monster right now. Frankly, if anyone gets us promoted, it'll be those lads. COYR

Never in doubt. COYR

A rather anticlimactic event I thought. Not without good bits, but ultimately falling short of the hype. Wilder a busted flush who has not improved his skills one iota in all the years he's been fighting. Never seen a supposedly elite fighter telegraph his punches as badly as he does. I don't think his team even bother trying to tell him what to do anymore. He's clearly not listening if they do. As he found out, Parker may not have his power, but he's twice the skills and this was an embarrassing night for the American. Honestly have no idea how you could fancy Wilder to beat AJ, though many won't anymore I guess. Conversely, AJ seems to have taken a massive step forward and was unrecognisable; great feet, working behind a nasty jab, throwing combos, not just single shots, wasting absolutely nothing. Where the hell did that come from? He barely broke a sweat. The downside is of course, that no one will want to fight him now. This is the fighter we all thought he'd become and by far his most complete performance to date IMO. Perhaps like Wilder, AJ was too power focussed, and maybe being schooled twice by Usyk convinced him to spend more time on his art and less time throwing iron. The fight I'd now love to see would be the final part of their trilogy. Call me crazy, but I'd punt AJ all day on that form. AJ aside, few other highlights; Miller getting his yap smashed in was amusing, especially after trying to taunt Dubois when the first bomb landed, inviting him on like a clown. Dubois' reaction? Don't mind if I do pal. Did make me laugh. AJ feckin hates Miller and I'd hoped that fight might get made at some point, but sadly we may not get to see him piece up the chubster now. Shame. As for Arthur, well he didn't come to fight. Bivol is a spiteful puncher, not a killer, but Arthur took no risks at all and seemed happy to take a points defeat. As luck would have it, there's another Artur out there, one who is carved from the same Russian granite as Bivol and that is potentially THE fight of the 2024 for me. Artur Beterbiev is to my mind, the scariest mofo in the game, but at 38 years young, can he get shot of Bivol the way he has everyone else he's fought as a pro? He also has to get past Callum Smith first. Please, please, please, get the fight made. Given they're both Russian I can see it happening as both fighters want it. It would be the biggest domestic fight in Russian boxing history and a classic contrast of styles, pure power vs pure technique. Bivol for the win, I reckon. Quick nod to Jai Opetaia. His previous fight against Breidis, who had only been beaten before by none other than Oleksander Usyk, marked him out as one to follow. That said, I'd rate Zorro an easier task, so I'm not sure what we learned. Billam-Smith next up apparently. Given how easily Masternak was able to tag the Brit in his last fight, that might not be the best plan for a fighter who remains pretty raw to my eye.

Top dad-skills right there mate, but £45 a pop (with or without toddler sized socks) is an absolute liberty. It's a pet hate of mine; dads are the frontline of marketing for all football clubs, so kicking them in the nads for delivering the next generation of lifelong Derby fans (read: customers) feels off to me. Thing is, us dads (and mums) are a soft touch where their kids are concerned and the vendors exploit that to the max. Anyways, bah humbug aside, I hope you and your newly formed clan have a wonderful first Christmas together.