StarterForTen

Or injured?

So crap that we’re second in the table.

It’s not five though is it; it’s three. Neither Sibley or Ward are full backs.

BBC showing the line up as 4-4-1-1 with Bird just behind Gayle.

3-2-4-1 in front of Wildsmith. Nelson - Bradley - Cashin Adams - Bird Wilson - NML - Barkhuizen - Sibley Gayle

Of course, not everything Puma makes is that good....

So many get fixated by individual match results but really the only thing that matters in the promotion challenge is to maintain a rolling 10points return across the last five games. It doesn’t matter where the points come from - they all count the same value. If we keep that rolling two pints per game average we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. And even after today’s game, we are still at 10 points from the last five games.

🧨🧨🧨

Is it now 3-4-3?

As long as the headline isn’t ‘blowing a Gayle’ !!

Vale have offered him an 18 months contract, according to the S-o-T jungle drums. (EDIT: that’s from my brother in Newcastle under Lyme)

For that scenario to happen Portsmouth would have been beaten twice ( by us and Bolton) so the most they could get is 102 points, making promotion in our own hands.

I haven’t seen the game so can’t comment on how we’ve played but I have to say I don’t get this whole ‘we should be beating Stevenage’ line, as if they are canon fodder. They have occupied a top six spot for more of this season than Derby, have a top three away record and set up in a way that many ‘ better’ sides struggle against. As the old adage goes, you have to earn the right to win a game before you win a game. That appears to be the case today.

He was on £35k a week at Stoke. Surely he’d want more than our allowable salary limit wouldn’t he? (EDIT: Not that I’m saying he’s worth that!)

Are you the VAR?

there’s no such player; stop monkeying about.

Would that suggest the club spends circa £17m a year on costs other than player wages?

Still with bloody wing backs I see!

Have you seen match threads? Some of the comments on there are as rational as a toddler fuelled on blue Smarties.

I hope his duties at Roverum did not include away games. They’ve not won a match on the road for 15 months!

Do you sing Ray?

Just had a text from a journo friend north of the border who reckons Rangers were sniffing around Bird as a summer target. A 'cross border' transfer would have seen him go for virtually free (a bit of FIFA compensation would be due I think), which might point to why this deal was done in this window perhaps?

I think Warne might consider Barkhuizen a better option than any of the above. My brother is a Stokie and his view on Gayle: “Proper sh1te. Scored three in 50 appearances and two of those goals were when the ball just hit him and went in.”

Not quite. Brown can be recalled at a moment's notice AFTER 28 days, so the earliest he would be available to Derby is the week of the Barnsley match. If Collins were to be injured this Saturday, that would mean three games.

This match could be the third in a month when we are facing a team who have just changed their manager; Fleetwood and Burton being the others. For Fleetwood, it was Adams' first home game, second game overall.