Hector was the best

Gutted for Elder, he’s done well recently 

With the players we have available right now a 433 false 9 would suit us well, with either Gayle or Sibs in the 9, unfortunately though to truly make that work you need to be able to pass and move tue ball quickly and decisively which is a skill we seems to have forgotten.

Warne post match interview was pretty honest. He explains what he saw and where we were poor and how the players gave their all etc. I’d just like to get his view on why we struggle to put more than 3/4 passes together and why we lose possession so quickly. 

Watched the game on RamsTV as per... I have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable game to watch. Both sides looking to play attacking football, both defences playing well enough to allow only 16 shots the whole game, 6 for them, 10 for us. Both sides had 4 on target and they enjoyed 58% possession.

I was happy to see Bobby Madley had been replaced as the ref to avoid any semblance of bias. His replacement did well. Not a perfect display but he was even handed with what he let go.

Towering header from Bradley for the 0-1. Good goal line header to prevent Cash getting our 2nd. Header away from Cash then fell to Phillips 20 odd yards out and nobody on him, easy chance put away well giving JW no chance. Same player headed home their 2nd. A game either side might have won, they did, IMO a draw would have been the right result. Results elsewhere didn't "punish" our loss.

Back 3 or 4? In a 4 Cash and Nels have been immense all season. Bradley is finally showing why we bought him. A 3 puts Nyambe out of the equation which is a shame as he's a very good RB. 3 allows us 2 wing backs and more attacking options and gives us 2 up top (strikers hunting in pairs, the way I like to see them). With players starting to become available again following injury, PW will have a fair few selection headaches.

4 of the next 5 games are at home. Blessing or curse? Hopefully we'll see big crowds getting behind the team and a plethora of points. We start with Charlton and Port Vale and I'd be looking for 6 points from those games. Brizzle Rovers away another 3. Reading at home, yes, they do seem a bit of a bogey side but time to lay that one to rest. Then it's Bolton, 32K crowd, buzzing stadium, simply a don't lose game. I'm looking at either 13 or 15 points from the 5 games and that would keep us in with a good shout of top 2.

The two things that annoyed me most during the game were :
Ball was threaded to Hourihane in the middle of the pitch, if he'd turned he would have had room to run into. Instead he just passed it 20 yards backwards to a defender who under pressure passes it back to the keeper.
Bird collects the ball which has been cleared, Derby are on top,  he is facing the goal with a few yards to run into..he turns away and tries to slide a pass out wide that trickles out for a throw in.
They are our 'ball players' and seemed happy to leave the 'match winning' to our 'skillful' players- Wilson, NML, Barks..who all struggled to do that yesterday.
Defence largely looked solid. Adams worked his socks off ...really felt as a pair they contributed too little.  I know a lot will say its all down to Warne telling them to how to play but we just didn't look after the ball in midfield at all.

Footy scran.

Feeling good about this. We dominated them at Pride Park and hopefully we can manage this again. Should be a great atmosphere with 5,000 making the trip too 🙂 

Stoke sold their stadium for £70m without any critisism.

It's not what it's "worth", it was valued on the basis of what it would cost to replace it with a new one, less the wear on it, which is an absolutely standard way to value assets like this.  When you consider Brentford have just spend ~£70m building a 17k stadium, and Brighton spent ~£90m on a 32k one pretty recently, those figures look more than reasonable.  Neither the EFL's independent commission, or the appeals into that decision, could find anything wrong with the valuation.
If you want a detailed explanation of exactly how and why it was valued at the figure it was, I suggest you read the report from the first tribunal hearing.  There's a very detailed breakdown of everything in there.  And consider that the EFLs inexperienced valuer, who basically valued it on the basis of it being equivalent to a 3-sides-terraced stadium, still thought it was worth £50m+.

Oh I don’t know……..reckon it’s got a bit of a way to go yet! 👍😁
 
 

I remember Steve Claridge was doing the highlights punditry on the telly. The main TV man was saying although Madley got the main decision badly wrong, perhaps he was influenced by Chris Martin's "repeated fouling" earlier in the game? Madley had blown up something ridiculous like 5 or 6 times against Martin in the first half. Claridge went through all of those decisions and kept saying "it's not a foul, it's not a foul". Referees like Atwell are clearly incompetent, but I've never seen one go into a game with such an agenda as Madley did for that match. Should have been banned.

I have a sneaking suspicion we may end up pulling for Pompey in many of these games…. Accept that they will be top and let them damage the other teams going for second place… which we will take 😎🐏
Don’t care if we aren’t Champions…. Just want to escape this league.

The team should do exactly as you state and I'm sure they will but us fans can speculate surely? 

The EFL had to review and accept anything we offered him, I highly doubt they'd just let us chuck a load of money at him. Even if he is on a promotion bonus of some kind, the benefit of promotion would far outweigh whatever we would be paying him.

I would be very surprised if there wasn’t a sizeable promotion bonus in his contract.

So relieved we've got Gayle signed up - Saturday was all the evidence needed to prove this side will struggle without a conventional forward option. Irrespective of lack of match sharpness, he has to start at Barnsley to stretch the pitch or we're going to struggle to get out of our half - if he can give us 60 mins, they will likely have tired enough by then for us to be able to escape the press.
Am not particularly concerned about his spell at Stoke - that club is a graveyard for decent managers & players and given the sheer squad size they have, must be difficult to get consistency in selection & therefore performance. Looking at the highlights reel from last few months he still has plenty of attributes that I believe will make him a success here - quick feet, great decision making, vision/awareness of other players in the final 3rd and a decent finish. Being a stocky type with a low centre of gravity, I'd also like to think he could hold the ball up reasonably well & am looking forward to seeing how he links up with Mendez-Laing & Barkhuizen. Warne will no doubt want him pressing like Collins but that might be a couple of games down the track once he is up to match fitness.

One thing that was particularly great about today’s win was the contribution of Smith, Bradley and Sibley.
It’s great to see players who had been written off in some quarters play an important role in an important win.
As we’ve seen with all of the injuries, we are going to need everyone to play their part.

I'm not sure some of us realise how important the home support can be in seasons like this. We're not going to play like Man City so we have to get behind the players from the off. 
Poor control, bad pass, a slip or mistake........roar them on rather than moan. Encourage every player, all the time, 
It will be the difference between staying in this god awful division and going up,

I like this a lot even if Collo hadn’t got injured I would have been pleased with this signing 
A goalscorer and more importantly a different type of striker …I really wanted us to sign him when he left Newcastle as I’ve always thought he’s a threat 
well done DCFC getting this done 👍🏻 

Tell you what I did see coming. Promotion.

It was telling in his interview when he mentioned the Derby and the fans have made him enjoy playing football which is telling to how Cardiff treated him. Reckon he’s one player who will be pushing for a permanent transfer 

They were epic today. It was only as we entered the last 3rd of the game that we started to try and play and exploit spaces left by tired Stevenage legs, but the fans were raucous throughout, much to their credit. The players will of course respond and I suspect the support will be appreciated. It's my impression that the team and coaching staff have felt a bit unloved at times in recent weeks, so it was nice to hear the fans doing more than their fair share today and themselves getting rewarded with a late winner and a clean sheet.

3 more points on the board and more pressure applied to the chasing pack, who couldn't be happy with that!

I really believe today that the crowd got us over the line. All the players burned their reserves, the manager responded to leaks in the system but the whole ground lifted as the half progressed. The lads responded in kind, dug deep, kept trying - for themselves and us. It paid off. 
 
it wasn’t my choice of football style but circumstances dictate that sometimes and you just have to accept a poor hand. It’s was a grubby match but every player gave his all and Pride Park sensed it. 
 
Really pleased for Sibs, Adams is such an honest player, back 3 were all monumental. COYR.