Animal is a Ram

We were the only team Mitrovic didn't score against that season, if memory serves?

Smith and Bradley really stepped up towards the end of the season when we needed them most. Nelson and Cash were great for the majority of the season, but I thought Bradley was a colossus over the last month. Similarly, Smith really came into his own around the same time as well. I love that we really carried no one this year. At different times in the season everyone has contributed something.

Let me celebrate promotion first!

Wel they’re both regular church goers so it’s an easy mistake to make especially as we’ve got Vicars already. 

The Rowett team’s play off home leg win against Fulham. Was a proper atmosphere under the lights, and a big result.
Curtis Davies an absolute rock that night. Pocketed Mitrovic.

Nixon describing Adams as a 'live one, apparently' 👀

Derby 5-0 Hull, 2017.
A stuttering start to the season, then we blew Hull away, including a first goal for Curtis Davies against his former club.

Derby 5-0 Hull, 2017.
A stuttering start to the season, then we blew Hull away, including a first goal for Curtis Davies against his former club.

Derby 5-0 Hull, 2017.
A stuttering start to the season, then we blew Hull away, including a first goal for Curtis Davies against his former club.

Derby 5-0 Hull, 2017.
A stuttering start to the season, then we blew Hull away, including a first goal for Curtis Davies against his former club.

Sadly this will be my last match today. My first was in 1956 as a 13year old, My dad used to take me before that but he stopped going when we went down to the third division north. My mate and I would catch the 12 oclock bus from Melbourne and be the first in the ground. We stood in the Normanton end pigeon loft, I think it was 3 shilling. To this day I remember that team. We were champions in 1957 and I ran onto the pitch after the last match against Southport, Ray Straw scored 37 goals that season, The next ten years saw me start work, get married and have two children, I had moved to Derby, and after my family, the Rams were the most important thing in my life I never missed a home game in those ten years even though we were only an average second division side. And then in 1966 after England won the world cup my mate and I decided to have a season ticket, Little did we know what would happen that season, I was at work one day and a Rams supporting work mate told me we had signed a player from Bradford Park Avenue, his name was Kevin Hector I'd never heard of him but he was without doubt the most wonderful footballer to grace the Baseball Ground I had ever seen, and because of this we wanted to see more players like him which led to Tim Ward getting the sack and BC becoming Manager, what followed was ten years of unbelievable success and enjoyment. And then things started to go wrong off and on the pitch and I stopped being a season ticket holder during Peter Taylors time as manager, i still loved The Rams of course and when I turned 65 and retired my old mate from Melbourne and I bought season tickets again. But sadly covid left my best friend of 80 years with a dementia problem and he know no longer knows me. For the last two seasons I have been going alone to the match but its just not the same for me. Therefore I am calling it a day, as I write this I am welling up as I will do this afternoon. Thank you Derby County for every thing I will love you till I die.     

That game was the first huge target my dad gave himself the morning after the stroke. His recovery in 7 weeks has been incredible!
He may not have been able to clap, or bounce to prove he’s not a Red (but take our word for it, he isn’t), but with my help and with assistance from a steward, he was able to invade the pitch…
The short walk to the stadium was the limit of what he could do. Another enormous thank you to the absolute gent that is @ram59, and his mate Paul, without whom we simply wouldn’t have been able to make it.
UTR!!

I’d question if any Derby fan is actually human if they didn’t get emotional at least once yesterday. 
We nearly lost it all. Everyone has their ritual, whether it’s going with lifelong friends and getting on the beers, travelling from afar to visit home, seeing family they may otherwise rarely see… would be all gone  
There were kids that pitch who were probably too young to remember the Villa play off loss, let alone the QPR one, they wouldn’t have seen a single moment of success watching us. I’m 33 and don’t remember promotion in the 90s, all I have is 07. Suppose we could support Man City? Nah, never, that’s not football. That’s not belonging. That’s not family.  
There’s a lot of pain in the recent past, and yesterday was a stark reminder of what may never have been again. 

Not sure if I am alone in this today but I feel an overwhelming sense of closure after yesterday’s achievement. What a relief to be back in the Championship. But it’s more than that.
It feels like all the hurt over the last couple of years: the administration, the points deductions, the financial turmoil, the humiliation, the relegation; it feels like we can finally turn the page on that sordid chapter of our history. Like we can move on. 
I’m not sure why I’m sharing this, but it feels even more personal for me than that, too. In the summer of our relegation, I lost my grandmother to cancer. She was the major connection to Derby for me. My whole ritual of going to the matches involved staying with her for the weekend. For some reason Derby County, the city of Derby, the supporters bus that would pick my Grandad and I up from outside The Gate in Swanwick, the cone of chips before the game, all just seemed to have disappeared.
I know it sounds strange but I feel like I lost my connection to the club in so many ways that summer. 
Yesterday, watching everyone celebrating and the tears and David Clowes and Ed Dawe’s’ tears, just felt like closure. The end of the trauma and the start of something new. It felt like moving on.
Thank you, Mr Clowes, for all of that 🐏

Don't know whether people noticed, but when the players walked out onto the pitch with their kids pre-match, Sibley had Fozzy's son with him. Nice touch.
May have been other younger players with similar, but it demonstrates the togetherness in the squad.

Couple of side notes to add -
 
My 1 gripe with Evatt is that he is a bad loser and needs more grace when things don't work. I hate excuses and as I've learnt from reading other forums, every set of fans thinks they're hard done by by the referee every week and sometimes just accepting that we didn't take our chances is a better way to learn, move forward and grow.
The other side note is that I live in Stockport, have various friends who are rams around here and have a soft spot for you, especially as someone who went to Uni in Nottingham and developed a great dislike for Forest, mainly over their arrogance in referring to themselves as "the famous club"

Hi all,
I just wanted to pop on and say congrats on a successful season and well deserved promotion. I know there's been some ill feeling between fans, mostly on the toxic social media platforms (not helped by a large number of idiots of which we at Bolton have f****** loads). I've scanned through your forum and a few others to regularly to check in on the thoughts of some of our promotion rivals over the season and as forums go, this one is generally positive and full of good and honest opinions. We have another fan called Wanderlust who often peruses the various forums and I feel he is a good fan for honest opinions too. I hope we can join you, I'm sure there's plenty of you hoping we stumble and end up stuck in L1 for at least another year, mainly for the fans who've been making stupid excuses for us not winning points this season. Reality is, you and Pompey were the most consistent teams over the season and thoroughly deserve your promotion, so well done and good luck in the championship next year. With your stadium and fanbase and what your fans have been through (trust me, I know what it feels like too), you deserve some good times now!
 
All the best gents (and ladies)

The thing with Ed Dawes, is it's easy to forget there are much much worse commentators littering local radio coverage. He's genuinely not that bad, and imo much better for the absence of the rammage banter.
He cares, he does his best, he's frequently been on the end of fans venting frustrations far beyond not liking his commentary.
Graham Richards, Ross Fletcher, Colin Bloomfield (who was not a natural sports commentator and really had to work at it) Owen, Dom, Colin Gibson, Radio Derby genuinely do a really good job of covering DCFC and I'm pretty sure that's because they do love the club beyond doing the job.

I would have preferred more entertaining football and control in games. I think that the lack of control in games led to unnecessary physical exertion which there is a good case for saying led to the amount of injuries. Some may argue our style of play played a part in Bird wanting to leave. Pure speculation of course.
I think much of the recruitment was ill thought out. Too many signings of players who were arriving with injuries, too near the end of the career or hadn't played for a while which didn't fit well with Warne's style of play. He signed Fornah to do a job he want physically capable of doing. 
There is an argument that our superior budget dug us out of a mess of our own making with the arrivals of Nyambe, Adams and Gayle later in the season.
I thought the whole captaincy process and back 5 insistence made him and Bradley look weak to many people. I can see the sense in a vote on captaincy but there was a perception amongst fans that Bradley was brought in to do this and that Hourihane wouldn't have been his choice.
On the plus side, we bounced back from adversity well. We never went on a dreadful run like we have under other managers. Some more cynical may suggest its easier to bounce back as you are never more than a couple of matches from playing a poor team.
We showed some good resilience in important/difficult games. Our away performances against Pompey, Posh (first half) and in patches Bolton were very good. 
He eventually solved the back 4 problem with Nyambe and in January solved the midfield energy problem with Adams.
In terms of PW I don't hate him. I hate very few people. I didn't like 2 interviews he did this year and I know they irritated many on here, some of whom have a rosier view of PW than myself. I'm fairly ambivalent to him generally. I dont feel the love that i had for Cox and Smith but he equally isn't a Pearson or even a Clement.
He has talked about needing a lot of changes for next year. I hope that means looking after the ball a bit more and not just taller, quicker versions of what we have now. His admiration for Bird gives me some hope in that direction.
My view of fans on here defending/over defending PW by pointing to limited resources is a bit off. They are only limited in terms of fees and in comparison to the MM Madness. We had a very good budget on wage bill compared to the rest of the league.
That is my constructive view.
 
 

The coffee cup game was better than the 5-0 for me. Dont know whether it was jus the expectations at the time or my age, but I’ve always loved that. 
Southampton play off semi. Pitch invasion in torrential rain. Epic that was. 

Might not even be $50 of phone credit once the courts are done...

Curtis Nelson 10
Callum Elder 5
Joe Ward 6
Sonny Bradley 5
Josh Vickers 5
Kane Wilson 6
Martyn Waghorn 5
Conor Washington 5
Tyrese Fornah 5
Elliot Embleton - cant really rate him
Ryan Nyambe 6
Tyreece John-Jules 5
Winter:
Ebou Adams 9
Dwight Gayle 6
Corey Blackett-Taylor 5
Max Bird - doesnt really feel right rating him as it wasn't really a signing. 
I think a lot of them haven't been given a chance to score higher due to injuries etc and for some of them that was predictable given their profiles. Most of them have played a part in this promotion to which they deserve credit but overall quite a lot of so-so signings. Nelson the obvious exception from the summer. 

Summer window:
Curtis Nelson 10 - near faultless and free, our best bit of business
Callum Elder 6 - not managed many games but when he's come in he's shown something
Joe Ward 7 - patchy early doors but grew into an important player toward the end of the season 
Sonny Bradley 6 - same as Ward really, I'd written him off by January but was what we needed this past month. Lower mark as the start of his time here was woeful
Josh Vickers 6 - decent back up keeper
Kane Wilson 8 - rough diamond to an extent but already a good acquisition and still time to grow
Martyn Waghorn 6 - not really hit the heights but that hattrick was pretty spectacular and quite important
Conor Washington 5 - Very limited moments, have to score him lower than Waggy as a higher fee and less goals
Tyrese Fornah 5 - When we needed something else in midfield he wasn't capable of stepping up
Elliot Embleton - NA
Ryan Nyambe 9 - Lovely signing on a free, shame his season was curtailed, but consultant and ready to step up a league
Tyreece John-Jules 5 - Gamble didn't really work. Never got going
Winter:
Ebou Adams 10 - in that bracket of loanees like Osman and West that single handedly change a season. Love the sight of him celebrating winning tackles or free kicks. Sign him up
Dwight Gayle 7 - May have been somewhat brief but very important goals
Corey Blackett-Taylor 5 - Expected a second NML, very disappointed apart from rare moments. Hopefully a full preseason will see us get nite 
Max Bird* 7 - stepped up a level after being sold, and showed whaf he could be

Summer window:
 
Curtis Nelson 10
Callum Elder 6
Joe Ward 8
Sonny Bradley 7
Josh Vickers 7
Kane Wilson 10
Martyn Waghorn 7
Conor Washington 6
Tyrese Fornah 5
Elliot Embleton 2 
Ryan Nyambe 8
Tyreece John-Jules 6
 
Winter:
 
Ebou Adams 10
Dwight Gayle 6
Corey Blackett-Taylor 7
Max Bird* 9