Hector was the best

The effort yesterday to keep the ball out of our net was an absolute thing of beauty. 

The desire to keep them out and to limit them with very few clear cut chances, 😍
Great choice to bring on the extra midfielder when Gayle went off. 

Well done Derby
🐏

Sheehan drove me to distraction. Constantly fouling Adams off the ball, moaning at the ref, claiming throws that were even disputable. Huge credit to Ebou who never lost his cool and just seemed to enjoy the 1 v 1 battle 

My favourite was the free kick the goalie got after he got after he grabbed a shirt by the neck with both hands at a corner, then fell over.

I've not been happy with Hourihane's contribution in many of this season's games. He may turn up for brief spells but goes missing to often in games like today, where we needed all hands to the pumps.
The remaining games will be all about not dropping points. So we'll need players who'll fight tooth and nail for every point. And I don't think Hourihane is able to do it.
I won't care how ugly we win, I just want us to promoted.

Well done to players, management and fans. Stood up and were counted on the biggest day of the season so far. Seven games to go, but there is clear blue water now.

Let’s make pride park a cauldron of noise and get right behind the team , weather we are playing well are not , not one bit of negativity please . Let’s remember what it was like in our relagation season with everybody united . Any body who wants to moan today please stay away , this could be a turning point for our club and help us get back to the championship 

Today's the day Warne's 'characters' should come to the fore.
Massive game,  full ground... Nelson, Adams, Sonny, NML, Gayle,  Waghorn, Cashin... Big time players who have been here before.
The loser stare the play offs in the face having just choked in a critical moment to someone they could play... psychologically it's massive we don't go into our shells.
Embrace the occasion,  play on the front foot as we have been. Bolton will be at least as worried about this as we are. 
Stand tall lads and smash 'em.

Anyway, back to today. There have been big calls for Derby fans to make it a "Black and White Saturday", so I'm doing my bit. I've dug out my old Avon Tyres Rams shirt, with Avon now being used to advertise my beer gut, a black and white Derby hoodie, and some black and white socks my daughter bought me for when we have a family get together to watch an away match on Rams TV - while the match is on the three women there are blathering on about anything but football, then at key moments want me and my son to stop watching and explain what is going on. My constant reminders that "we are here to watch the football, so stop blathering on about plant pots, dusters and hamster's toe nails" have meant that my daughter had the socks marked with "SHHHH - The Match Is On". Haa very Haa!
But today, the match is on, but DO NOT BE SHHHHHH!!!!!! I'll be in the South stand as part of a wall of sound!
 LOADS OF NOISE PLEASE!!!
 

There's a difference between creating an atmosphere and being a knob.  Unfortunately we have a lot of fans who fail to know the difference. 

O'Hare and Hector surely LOL

That's true. Even today we (BWFC) have a few idiots but attitudes towards them have changed substantially since Sharon Brittan saved us from oblivion and took over 4 years ago. The woman is dead set on us being a "community club" that attracts families and community groups so over 50 lifetime bans have been handed out to trouble-causing d******** so far. With more and more families coming to our home games and occasional "Community Days" where tickets cost a tenner for adults and much less for kids and other concessions (including away fans) nobody tolerates the idiots any more. Home games are like a village fete for the masses.
That said, the club can't ban idiots from going to away games, but for the most part our away support is big, vocal and peaceful - but there's always one with ego problems, isn't there?

Blokes abusing the Bristol Rovers fans, chanting paedophile at them, picking on young kids, then crawling across the netting to get at them when WE scored our second. 
They were 7 or 8 stood in about 5 places, meaning the people behind them had to move as they couldn't see a thing.
At no point were these blokes watching the game. They were facing the opposition fans. They were just there looking for trouble.
I'm sorry but I sing all game, didn't grumble when the spillover fans fell on to me, but personal abuse like that is just too much. 
 

Unchanged team for me please , strong bench to change things up if needed or fresh legs if all going well, 
this is the love hate aspect of being a football fan , I love we are right in the thick of it and the games are SO important ( this one especially) but there’s a part of me that hates it too 😂, checking the table over and over again , working out different scenarios, excited as duck but bricking it too,
we are due some real good stuff from the football gods , we have endured and keep turning up in our thousands , I want to be in pp celebrating promotion on the last day so so much 🐏💪

For me we are playing at home and have to keep the attacking intent of Ward and Sibley at wingback, however i would bring Smith in to strengthen the centre of the park. Forsyth is a great option to bring on if Sibs is struggling defensively. Barks had a good game Tuesday night and has to keep his place, running at the defence.
Lets have a real go at Bolton, forget what they did last Saturday!!
                           Wildsmith
            Nelson     Bradley     Cashin
Ward          Adams          Smith          Sibley
Mendez-Laing       Gayle       Barkhuizen

With no disrespect to the team or fans - f*** Bolton. f*** the idea that we should be worrying so much about this match. Over 38 games they’ve not been as good as us. We have finally stumbled onto a system that is producing decent performances, Why should we change how we’ve taken to the last 3 matches? 
 
Go out and show them why we’ve got the best goal difference in the division. Go and attack them from the off. My heart not take watching us trying to soak up 90 minutes of pressure for Wildsmith to sprint out and foul their striker in the 86th minute for a pen. 

Too far ahead? Pompey play Posh this weekend, there’s a world where on Saturday night we are 2 points behind them with still needing to play them. 

At their very best, I would have Bolton as aesthetically the best team in the league but they do have a soft underbelly which has shown itself constantly this season. I'm intrigued to what the messaging to the players is going to be from our management staff - do we take confidence from the last three games and go toe-to-toe as we've hit our stride OR does Warne ensure we remain solid, robust and look to hit them on the break? Both approaches have merit, but feel that Bolton naturally don't like being on the back foot and so I would be very strong in that we continue to play how we have been the last few games. I do suspect that we will see Forsyth come in for Sibley and the 3-4-3 will resemble a 4-4-2 for the most part, though. 
I honestly don't care how it happens on Saturday, just win. 

Saturday 16th March
vs Bolton Wanderers
Pride Park   KO 1500
 
This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others
Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.
Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 
Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.
Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.
They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.
Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.
Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.
Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:
Bolton have never won at Pride Park.
There, I've said it. 
Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.
Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.
My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.
Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.
Peterborough vs Portsmouth
Barnsley vs Cheltenham
 
COYR
 

I was too far away from the second booking to add anything of note (being up in the Captain’s Club celebrating my birthday) but the first booking the ref had already spoken to him twice, so it seemed inevitable the yellow card was coming out for the next foul. 
Yiadom didn't learn anything from this and continued to contest every decision,  he was clearly on borrowed time. Gives the referee a decision to make. 

This feigning injuries by goal keepers is getting beyond a joke, and annoyingly, I have to agree with this, but they can stop them having a mass team meeting with the coaching staff, maybe allow no more than 2 players to go over for a quick word.

I think the second yellow is harsh but in real team it looked like he had caught Hourihane and when you’re moving into the box if the ‘foul’ doesn’t happen then it’s always going to be a yellow. 
 
The penalty I’ve seen given and I’ve seen not given. I think they’d have wanted it if it was the other way round and we’d have probably been frustrated by it. 
 
We had the rub of the green but really should have been 2/3 up by half time. 

Another Joe Ward assist tonight too for the Gayle goal, that’s 3 assists in 3 for him right? 

That could have been a real banana skin game, but Derby navigated that brilliantly. Two great halves of football, lots of chances created and on another day that could have been comfortable. Still we did enough and deserved to win.
Props to Barkhuizen, I have criticised him in the past but he worked himself into the ground. My man of the match.
Gayle is such a clever striker. Great addition. 
Finally, Adams' calm in midfield was huge for us at key moments, another top performance from him. 

Fantastic result!
My nerves are about gone... think the Bolton game on Saturday might just finish me off 🤣

I've got a mancrush on Dwight Gayle.
What superb control and class finish. 💪🏻