SSD

I wasn't surprised by the result nor the performance. No control yet again against a really average side who we should be dominating against. Sat on a 1 goal lead for some bizarre reason. Our only saving grace was Adams coming in and finally stopped midfield from getting bulldozed, he's a great player for this side. Exactly what we need. Every point we have picked up since the turn of the year feels like "that'll do." The standard football is "that'll do." Unimpressive, turgid guff with no confident platform to build on if we gained promotion. Winning or drawing purely based on a team which happens to have some quality when needed, absolutely nothing to do with the manager and his setup. It's deflating and I can't believe I feel like that in a promotion race. We did get unlucky at the end with the header that somehow ended up hitting the bar. But then I'd argue we should have been 1-0 down when Bradley yet again fluffed his clearance and their lad hit it wide. Thought the crowd gave everything for the team today and did well to put up with more horrible football on offer. It's definitely déjà vu of last season but we don't have McGoldrick to bail Warne out this time.

One of the most ridiculous ideas I've come across in football. If someone goes in the sin bin, the team with ten men are going to clearly sit in with everyone behind the ball, making that 10 minutes completely boring. This isn't Rugby. Make it simple, cynical foul is a yellow card. Dissent is a red card. It's going to cause even more confusion. The referees can't get VAR to a good standard.

Amazing what one player can do for a team. Adams had one of the best debuts I have seen for a long time. What a monster of a player in the middle. He's not afraid of getting stuck in.

3-5-2

I think DC has given Warne a good enough budget to work with this season. No excuses in my view. Warne chose to go for experienced freebies who would demand higher wages and signing on fees. He could have looked lower down the leagues for younger talent, pay a transfer fee but less on wages, bonuses etc. The manager might want to be daring and risky in his football tactics, so far his transfer policy is safe (putting it politely). This short term transfer policy of buying older players has never worked in the 30 odd years I have watched Derby County. Every bleeding time we try and go for signing these "experienced, been there done it" players, we always end up increasing wage budget and struggle to ship them off because they're passed their best. And funnily enough never gain promotion, end up clearing a mess and starting again. Thankfully this time, most of them are not tied into silly contracts because we are lower down the football food chain.

Serves us right not bringing in a striker yesterday

I hope they're paying him at least what Bradley earns every week. Congratulations Cash!

We are missing a striker, that's obvious to everyone involved. The loan option was the right move because why would you sign a permanent striker when Collins doesn't need replacing? We needed a back up who could rotate when Collins got tired. Warne didn't think Brown was ready, hence why he left on loan to gain experience. Putting my pretend football manager hat on, why not approach a young player on loan who wouldn't be a starter but have some energy to come off the bench and compete with Collo? I couldn't get my head around why we insisted on trying to look at the Sheff Weds old boys when it was pretty nailed on they would not move unless we gave them silly loan fees. We have been unlucky though. Ennis was taken off us by Stoke at the last moment. JJ doing his hamstring again. Washington injured on international duty. I just don't think it was the right call to let Brown leave on loan without bringing someone else in. He might have proved himself as a really useful option. But letting him leave without a replacement beforehand was a huge mistake. Collins is one bad tackle away and then we have no strikers for a number of games. We are risking having to rush back Washington. Happy with the two lads we signed. In comparison to our rivals, I don't think we have had a great transfer window and I do think this will come back to haunt us again. Whether that's Warne being stubborn on his targets or our recruitment team not getting deals over the line. We will never know.

"Well I waited outside Hillsborough all day for Smith and Gregory, and forgot there's other clubs with players available."

There's that fine balance between signing hardly anyone and doing a King Billy and signing a whole new squad in January when you're top of the league. We will absolutely regret not bringing in a striker. Granted we signed a couple of good players but that's not enough when you consider rivals have really improved their squads and we simply haven't supported the squad enough with more bodies in the building. Another really missed opportunity and questions need to be asked.

Think there's more chance of signing Peter Sutcliffe as our new attacker from Yorkshire than trying to bother Sheff Weds again.

Me every 5 minutes tonight

I hope he didn't leave his Coke behind.... The drink, the drink 😶

Can't believe those chip eaters pinched one of our targets.

Hopefully we will find someone late one. I'm sure I'm stuck in January 2023. We did the exact same last year? Panicking around, couldn't get anything over the line until the final hours. When it happens two years on the trot questions need to be asked of the club. Our rivals are surging ahead with recruitment. It's a shame we couldn't bring in Ennis.

I don't understand what Bird's done wrong? He had a contract, he doesn't want to sign a new one. He's got every right to choose what he wants to do. Stayed through the dark times and now he wants to play at a higher level. He has a manager who does not play to his strengths. Fair play to him. If people want to point fingers, go to the club for selling him at the last minute and causing a scene.

Seeing the Bird abuse online makes me hate the Internet and I want to go live in my log cabin in the woods and socialise with nobody.

I think Warne will chuck it at Michael Smith. He's been desperate to sign him for ages. Even if Bird was sold weeks ago, I don't think Warne had any intention to invest the money into a permanent striker. He wanted Smith last January, wanted him in the summer and finally he might get him today. If Smith signs, that tells me a lot about his transfer policy.

It's the right decision to sell Bird. It's been fairly clear for awhile he was never going to sign a new deal. I'm concerned at the timing of the sale. I would have given him two weeks into January to sign a deal and then gave green light to sell him if he wasn't going to do it. Thankfully we will get him back on loan. Are we really going to invest that transfer fee into loan fees? It stinks of desperation, lack of planning and deja vu of last season. We desperately need a centre forward and another attacking player.

I hope Brown hasn't moved into his Gateshead apartment yet.

Everyone knowing for days these deals were never going to happen

Charismatic chap. Hopefully he's an upgrade on Fornah, who I've not been impressed with to be honest. Adams is what I thought Fornah would bring to the table. Sounds to be Warne had no faith in Fornah and that's why he's been looking at Adams for a couple of months to potentially replace him.

Feel bad for Conor Wickham. He looked amazing for Ipswich then did okay in the Premier League with Sunderland. That move to Palace ruined him. Constantly injured, never fit. Looked really useful at Forest Green. Maybe as a last resort.

Being a lazy statto, is there really much difference between him and Fornah? Could argue Fornah has started more matches in the last couple of years. Sounds like a midfielder is on the way out.