May Contain Nuts

Midfield still an issue. This isn’t a Warne issue, it’s been a problem all season. Bird dangling legs in and too tentative for far too much of games. Hourihane largely anonymous most weeks.
Then when you play 3 at the back and 2 of them are so unbelievably slow, you’re asking them to cover out to the touchline which they can’t do.
Most of our downfall, beyond the referee, was the inability to win headers today. Was 30mins in before Cashin headed the ball in the right direction. Caused so much pressure it was silly. They weren’t a big side, we just lacked any kinder of muscle about us. 
All that said, we win that game with a referee that wasn’t that guy. 

Rent only, I'm told the owners/builders get a subsidy from the Council/Government?‍♀️
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/new-picture-what-apartment-block-7008700
If it ends up like those on Gower Street it'll be a cess pit ☹️

Have turned gender neutral, too!  ?
Just confirmed an order for a couple of these... 

 
Yeah... Yeah... I know!
But who needs a crossbar in this day and age!  The days of getting my leg over are soon to become a distant memory!  
Hired something similar for a couple of days when in France last month, as Muckerette had a bit of jip with her back, but didn't want to miss out on the cycling (the main point of the holiday) and I have to say, we were both immediately and exceedingly impressed at just how good these fancy battery bikes are. 
It also made a nice change to not be constantly overtaken by 70 year olds! ?
Still need to pedal, otherwise the motor don't help at all, so it's not a complete cop-out, fitness-wise.
Decided to go full-on continental, and follow the lead of our highly regarded Dutch neighbours, so opted for the Mary Poppins stylee!  After all, one man's "Ladies Bicycle" is another man's "modern unisex bike"!
Well, that's my defence, so laugh all you like... but I'll be laughing longest!  ?

I'm offended that you chose the spice girls version.

Dogs just need to man up a bit really. Bunch of giant pussycats.

Dogs just need to man up a bit really. Bunch of giant pussycats.

Dogs just need to man up a bit really. Bunch of giant pussycats.

Dogs just need to man up a bit really. Bunch of giant pussycats.

Got home and third kit
 
like having no sponsor on it! I’m not normally one for buying kits, the last one I got was the 00-01 version! But I do like this seasons look  

Anyone with a season ticket who chooses to stay at home to watch England instead should receive a 6 month stadium ban! ?

Anyone with a season ticket who chooses to stay at home to watch England instead should receive a 6 month stadium ban! ?

Anyone with a season ticket who chooses to stay at home to watch England instead should receive a 6 month stadium ban! ?

Anyone with a season ticket who chooses to stay at home to watch England instead should receive a 6 month stadium ban! ?

I don't support England men's team anyway.
When I was a kid, I thought you chose your national team like you did your club. My favourite colour when I was 5 was orange, so I always support the Netherlands anyway...

Loach - 5, shaky, handling not great compared to 'safe hands' Wildsmith and didn't command his area
Cashin - 5.5, some good covering headers but on the wrong side and it showed, rubbish for his booking
Stearman - 5.5, some good blocks first half, but done easily second, nowhere to be seen on their goal along with the other defenders not anticipating that it may be missed at the front post, and an abysmal penalty
Forsyth - 4, often seems to lower himself to the opposition's level. Terrible penalty.
Roberts - 6, (7 for forward contributions, should have had 2 assists not 1, & 5 for defensive duties)
Knight - 5.5, didn't add any control to midfield or influence any upturn from others
Mendez-Laing - 5.5, should have had an assist despite terrible crossing, dogshit penalty (pace and power is his trademark so, um, what was that?)
Bird - 6, good ball to Dobbin in acres of space, but its quality/difficulty massively overstated to make it seem like it's something we haven't seen from him before.
Dobbin - 7, nice goal (he had to have a good shot eventually!), willing runner taking up some good positions, but offside too much and should have scored the first chance.
Barkhuizen - 4.5, out of place but always a willing runner, still think he'll come good but I'm not reallly seeing 'it' yet with him.
Sibley - 5, one good run, but gave the ball away a lot and generally looked behind play, poor passing for one particular potential breakaway
Thompson - 4.5, he does nothing with the ball, little off it and gets bullied now more than he ever used to. Back to the U21s please.
Robinson - 5.5, not sure what to expect from him. Not his fault but just joined the melange of mediocrity as Mansfield's midfield murdered us.
Cybulski - 6, some nice link-up play but what's a striker's bread and butter? Unlucky with the shot off the post, penalty decent
Odurah - 5.5, can't think of anything to say
Aghatise - 5.5, I've simply never seen him do anything that's impressed me or made me think there's a league footballer in there, but I'll admit my attention had drifted by the time he was on the pitch.

The answer is quite simple though - because the format of the competition defies normal logic.
We drew the game but lost the tie.
It's like when 'away goals' was a thing - lose 3-1 at home, win 2-0 away and it's 3-3 but you lose? How can you lose the tie if you've scored the same number of goals as the opposition, isn't that a draw?

Roberts was decent on the ball and put in the cross of the match. He still very clearly has some talent & understanding of the game and will be a very good footballer in the future.
..but he isn't a wing back, it's debatable whether he's really even a left back, and positionally / helping out the defence he was caught out quite a bit.
He's totally unsuited to what we're asking of him, he was a player who came here because of his links to Rosenior but it's one of those loans that's potentially going to do both the player and the club more damage than good if we keep him around too long under a different manager than the one he was brought in under.

Roberts was decent on the ball and put in the cross of the match. He still very clearly has some talent & understanding of the game and will be a very good footballer in the future.
..but he isn't a wing back, it's debatable whether he's really even a left back, and positionally / helping out the defence he was caught out quite a bit.
He's totally unsuited to what we're asking of him, he was a player who came here because of his links to Rosenior but it's one of those loans that's potentially going to do both the player and the club more damage than good if we keep him around too long under a different manager than the one he was brought in under.

Nobody should read very much into that tbf.
We took the competition more seriously under Rosenior as shown by the team selection / subs, but Rosenior knew lots about most of his players so didn't need to use it as a learning experience filled with youth players, whereas Warne does and did, and he will have learnt quite a lot!
Ironically it's the senior pros who let us down in the shootout.
As I said earlier we'll never see that team playing in the league, and hopefully in the coming games in this competition we won't feel the need to make so many changes.
It is a concern that there will be times where our desire for fast football will result in us having as little control as we did today but again, that's something we'll only really learn from league games - we didn't see it against Cambridge.

Whilst I don't take tonight seriously and don't think anything should be read into it...
...I reserve the right to read a thousand things into tonight's performance and include them in any possible criticism of Paul Warne, should we have any poor performances and results in the next 10 games and/or find ourselves in a position any more than 6 points off the top two.

Whilst I don't take tonight seriously and don't think anything should be read into it...
...I reserve the right to read a thousand things into tonight's performance and include them in any possible criticism of Paul Warne, should we have any poor performances and results in the next 10 games and/or find ourselves in a position any more than 6 points off the top two.

I thought it was s*** from us but actually got quite a lot for my money.
Nice goal - first senior career goal at that - terrible goal, end to end football (although I'd prefer at least some bloody control!) , big chances missed, comedy penalties....

I thought it was s*** from us but actually got quite a lot for my money.
Nice goal - first senior career goal at that - terrible goal, end to end football (although I'd prefer at least some bloody control!) , big chances missed, comedy penalties....