California Ram.

Stretton is better than Cresswell in almost every way. Duncan needs a target man to play off. We won't see the best of his whilst he's leading the line

Come home Captain Chaos!
Scrapping the legal nastiness and bringing him back.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Applications are now open, membership is free, you just have to love having a striker that doesn’t end up on his arse every 5 minutes and can piggyback defenders with ease.
Who’s in?

erm, lets hope that doesn't effect the players too much...

Any other news of this game ? 

Jonathan Mitchell played in Northampton's 2-3 away win at Wigan and was booked in the 97th minute - I'm guessing for timewasting!
Florian Josefzoon played the whole of Rotherham's 1-0 defeat away at Stoke.
Jack Marriott started in Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 away defeat at Wycombe, before being substituted in the 77th minute.
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson was on the bench for Bristol Rovers' 1-1 away draw at Rochdale. He was brought on in the 72nd minute.
Hartlepool lost 0-5 at home to Torquay yesterday, with Ravas on the bench. Maybe it means he'll get his chance, or perhaps it was one of those games where the keeper plays a blinder to prevent double figures.
Scott Carson didn't make the squad for Man City's 0-1 away win at Sheffield United.
 

A fantastic achievement at any level captaining your country ? 
 

A lot of rusty feet on the pitch, but my goodness what an energizer bunny Ebosele is.  He will be in the main squad before too long, i should imagine.

So after a dodgy start the u23's turned in a very savvy performance to dispatch Liverpool u23s 2-1.
Quick recap (although @angieramwill do it better), Liverpool started very strongly and went ahead in the first ten minutes with a stunning free kick from Jake Cain.  There were no over age players from either team but Liverpool did play Ben Woodburn who has 10 full Wales caps (and 2 goals) and has appeared 6 times for the Liverpool first team.  Bizarrely he's from Gumpland.  Even more bizarrely, Liverpool has a second Gumplander in Max Bearne.  For the first half hour they looked very accomplished.
But as time went on we grew into it, and our first attack saw Tyree Wilson drive down the right.  He cut the ball back, Ola Ibrahim faked a shot and the ball came to Shonibare who took a touch and curled it into the (nearly) the top right corner.
Six minutes later Shonibare broke free and took the ball from near the half way line into the box only to be denied by a last ditch tackle by the Liverpool right back.  Unfortunately the ball fell into the path of Jack Stretton who volleyed home emphatically.
From there, Liverpool had the ball and we had the better chances on the counter attack.  For a young side Derby were very disciplined.
Man of the match was Shonibare.  On the basis of his performance and his Rams TV interview this week, where he talked about the benefits of being involved with first team training, I'd keep him around the place.
Other thoughts include that all of the front three (Wilson, Stretton and Shonibare) are pacy, talented and will forge careers in football.  And on pace, Wilson appeared different level and put in hell of a shift defensively.
Further back, no one played poorly.  Bateman playing at CDM did very well and Harrison Solomon is going all the way.  At 17 years old he was immense.
And finally?  Archie.  Was a Rolls Royce of a performance.  For those who aren't too familiar with him he is the sort of player who looks as if he's doing everything slower than everyone else while actually being quicker than anyone else.  For cricket fans he's a Malcolm Marshall of a player.  Playing at left back there were several occasions where he kept the ball in play where it defied logic.  Occasions where he went past players, or played little through balls that he had no right to.
I said a few weeks ago that Archie has to take inspiration from Sibley, and his progress last season.  He is tall, physical and technical and I am desperate for him to succeed.  On the left of a front three he could develop into an absolute monster.  It really is all down to him and his work effort from here on in.

When the first team, U23s and U18s were all playing on the same day with our very stretched resources, I really feared for us. Brilliant from both teams of youngsters. A 3-3 draw with Man City with that U23 team showing such resilience is  a stunning result in the circumstances.
The great thing is that these youngsters know there is a route to the first team open. If they impress, they will get their chance. Today there were seven academy graduates in the first team squad, four of them starting.
It's important for the Academy to be a continual production line rather than just giving us a one-off golden generation.

Minkley and Archie with the goals

Just wanted to celebrate this kid who has introduced himself in the  rams around the world section of this forum. Many will know of his super-quick goal clips provided on Twitter, this South Korean lad appeared recently on Rams Review Podcast (where he politely tolerated being called Lee the whole time, which is his surname/family name)
Somewhat bizzarely, he became a passionate Ram since the play-off final against QPR (must be drawn towards injustice and tragedy) and gets up at 3 or 4am to watch matches.
He also writes pieces promoting our club in South Korea.  I'm not on Twitter but I'm sure many have welcomed him already. Hopefully we can reach out and help him visit Pride Park one day. I think he will feature more on ramsreview pod so a relationship is developing there.  Hope the club are aware too and might assist.
 
 

U23s drew 1-1 with Birmingham, Ibrahim scoring for us. Idem saved from the spot after giving away a penalty. 
 
I think this was the team, although it’s hard to tel from the limited highlight footage.
Idem
McDonald   Bateman   Wassall   Trialist(?)
Dixon   JBrown
Borkovic(?)   Ibrahim   Archie
Stretton
Subs used: Matthews, Cashin, Bardell(?), Cybulski(?)
https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2020/09/under-23-highlights-Derby-county-1-1-birmingham-city

From the Liverpool site - under 23s lost 3-1 to them today
 
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/academy/407202-lfc-u23s-see-off-Derby-in-latest-pre-season-outing

From the Liverpool site - under 23s lost 3-1 to them today
 
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/academy/407202-lfc-u23s-see-off-Derby-in-latest-pre-season-outing

From the Liverpool site - under 23s lost 3-1 to them today
 
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/academy/407202-lfc-u23s-see-off-Derby-in-latest-pre-season-outing

From the Liverpool site - under 23s lost 3-1 to them today
 
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/academy/407202-lfc-u23s-see-off-Derby-in-latest-pre-season-outing

U23s beat Sheffield United 2-1 today. The new keeper played and there was a particularly fine goal from Tyree Wilson. Highlights: https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2020/08/under-23-highlights-Derby-county-2-1-sheffield-united

Not brilliant replys if im honest . Hes an injured sportsman and however that injury occurred he was an top player for this club. I hope his rehabilitation goes well and he goes on to have a few more seasons at the top. shame its not with us.