Fla Ram

It's frustrating but I don't really think we had a leg to stand on. Mel used that amortisation policy to get around FFP, he sold the ground to get around FFP. Let's face it he has run the club into the ground.

Should be suing their mates on the EFL.
If they were to succeed then the floodgates for these types of cases would open and we’d have an open and shut case against QPR and Villa due to precedent!
 
The EFL have opened a right can of worms by emboldening that Gibson individual!

Well some big revelations today. Notably the losses were considerably more than we had been led to believe and upon restating the accounts in line with the way the EFL want them doing (not going to say rules as there’s still nothing in the rule book to say it should be straight-line) and the rest of the league comply with we incurred multiple points breaches in excess of the 9 we’ve been given. In other words we’ve got off lightly it could’ve been worse, not that it really makes any difference now. 
 
Are the EFL vindicated? Absolutely not. Doesn’t change the fact they’ve allowed a competition that is grossly unfair with parachute payments and allowing bigger losses for those clubs, brought in P&S rules that are vague in some parts, complex in others and don’t really protect the integrity of the league, they don’t punish clubs who are promoted, they allow the additional dodgy practices of Wolves’ Mendes deal and use of loan system and deferring payments to essentially make top half premier league signings, they allow the dodgy practices of Watford and Forest who move players between clubs to dodge FFP. The way they have singled out Derby is a gross hypocrisy, entirely political, vindictive and is in no way about protecting the integrity of the league. If it was they’d be finding ways to go after Wolves Leicester Leeds, they’d have punished Bournemouth again upon relegation, they’d be stopping Forest’s loophole of moving players between clubs and they would be clamping down on Stoke’s dodgy practices around Covid. They are not. They are a joke of an organisation, odious to the core, and an independent regulator is badly needed.
However the EFL is not in any way to blame for our predicament, that honour falls to one man. If he’d stuck around then we might have forgiven him an FFP breach but he plunged us into administration as well and said it was in the best interests of the club. Given what has gone on, given the FFP deal the EFL put on the table to Mel is effectively the one we have now, I can see no benefit to administration other than Mel didn’t want to fund the losses any more caused by his crippling mismanagement and exacerbated by Covid, this when losses now are a great deal smaller than earlier in his stewardship. We are in this because of Mel and Stephen Pearce and no one else. 
We need to take our medicine and rebuild. The critical thing is we get a new owner by Jan as if not we could face a January that will set us back years. Get an owner in, we might be able to bounce back quickly. 
 
Final point on the EFL, will they relinquish the highly restrictive embargo should we get new owners willing to stand behind us? I get retaining it while we’re still in admin but to continue it post takeover is unnecessarily draconian and vindictive. And also, they cited a breach of the 19/20 and 20/21 merged P&S period in the judgement, so will points deductions apply when about half the league fail this accounting period? How can they not with wage bills significantly larger than ours and significant reduced revenue through Covid. 
 
The one positive is our costs are now under much better control, with a buyer, a ground (the last decent thing you can do Mel) and retaining our academy status then we will be in an excellent place to rebuild. But we need that buyer and quickly!!

B4, I absolutely agree with you and that was the point I was making. I hate to remain silent when the efl has done such an injustice to our club. 
Mel Morris and his staff are to blame for our position, but the efl have added to this by their unfair and vindictive  treatment of our club. They have not applied their standards and rules to other clubs who are in a similar position to Derby. We seem to have been singled out for very unfair treatment. We must show our anger because if we don't this might be seen by the efl as agreeing with our punishment. Yes, the Derby fans have every right to come out and protest with banners. Keep the faith! ?

I'd suggest a more muted protest with bedsheets etc daubed with "WHAT ABOUT LEICESTER, QPR, WATFORD, WOLVES, MIDDLESBROUGH, VILLA AND Q-P-EFFING-R?????" or "WHERE'S OUR JUSTICE? #WEMBLEY 2014"

Matchday 15 – Saturday 30th October 1971 & Derby day in the East Midlands as we visited City Ground, Nottingham
Forest came into the game 3rd bottom & had been destroyed 6-1 at Spurs the previous weekend – a game pleasingly captured in a ‘Right Hammerings’ compilation VHS I had bought for me as a kid. For those of you who think the City Ground is shabby now, you’ll be interested to learn the 1971 version mostly didn’t have a roof & their away end appears at first glance to have an electricity pylon plonked in it;
 
Goals there from Alan Hinton (pen) & a screamer from John Robson giving us the points in a game that saw Steve Powell make his first start for Derby, aged 16 years & 40 days. Forest’s penalty missed by Ian Storey-Moore, who infamously was on the verge of a move to Derby later this very season before Forest changed their minds & sold him to Man Utd instead. Bit more on that here;
https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/nottingham-forest-hero-reveals-embarrassment-4939829
 


 
Programme of the day from Notts;

 
A cracking day for the Rams who apart from local bragging rights, also moved up to 2nd after Man City could only draw away at lowly Huddersfield. Elsewhere Man Utd lost their first game for 2 months (at home to Leeds) meaning their advantage over Derby was cut to 2 points;

Matchday 14 – Saturday 23rd October 1971 & the visit of reigning League Champions & Double winners Arsenal to the BBG
Arsenal started the day in 5th place, a point behind the Rams so a good result was important here. Some familiar names amongst the Arsenal side – future BBC Sport front man Bob Wilson, future title winning manager George Graham & one Charlie George…
 

 
Pre-match edition of The Ram reporting that the club made a marginal profit in the previous year – greatly reduced from funding the transfer of Colin Todd in particular. Also at the top of the page, a clown at The Sun (Frank Clough – no relation) declaring after our defeat at Man Utd he would eat his match report on toast if we won the League…

 
Derby’s win lifted them into 3rd place as Sheffield Utd lost yet again, this time at Man City. The gap to leaders Man Utd was still 4 points though as they won away at Newcastle;

Charlton Athletic are set to sue Derby County for £25 million after the ball burst in the 1946 FA Cup Final. If it hadn’t burst then we might have won or got some good players or something, said a Charlton spokesman. Meanwhile Ipswich Town also announced they were going to sue Derby County due to some reason or other. We might have won more games if they hadn’t beaten us in them, cited an Ipswich spokesman. It simply wasn’t fair that they had better players and scored more goals. We want £40 million and Martyn Waghorn back. 
Meanwhile American fast food chain McDonalds announced that they were going to sue Derby County for fielding a player with their brand name. Flagrant breach of copyright, claimed a spokesman for the evil corporation.
In other news the EFL announced a further 9 points deduction for Derby County after the midlands side finished their 0-0 draw against Swansea with 5 full backs on the pitch. Everyone knows you should have two full backs, said a source close to Rick Parry. Derby ended the game with 5 players who full back could be considered their tecognised position. That is clearly too many. We checked the rules but couldn’t find anything specific about this so we all agreed that 3 points per extra full back sounded about right. 

Meanwhile Wycombe have announced they aren’t going to sue Derby County for getting them relegated by buying Nick Blackman when they were two leagues below after they realised it was totally ridiculous and so far fetched as to be laughable. 

 
*Has anything ever gone wrong with your football club? Not won enough points? Let in last minute winners to players who can’t even drive and park their car properly? Why not sue Derby County? Contact Gibson and Parry Solicitors for your claim form. 

Get Bielik back and these draws will turn to wins. It keeps us in the pack and that’s all we can ask. 
 
Well done Derby 

Anyone else think Knight has come back from injury in tip, top form?
Things you love to see.

Matchday 13 – Saturday 16th October 1971 & a visit to Old Trafford to take on league leaders Man Utd
Unfortunately, the last unbeaten record in the division was to go as Derby fell to a 1-0 defeat here in front of 53,400 – Utd’s winner coming courtesy of George Best just after half time.
Here’s Alan Hinton taking on two Utd defenders from the game..

 


 
Programme of the day from Old Trafford..

 
Derby stayed in 4th place despite the defeat but now lay 4 points behind Man Utd. A good day for the leaders as Sheffield Utd lost again & Man City were beaten at Leeds;

Matchday 12 – Saturday 9th October 1971 & Spurs were the visitors to the BBG
The TV cameras returned to catch this top end of the table clash…
 
Goals from Todd & McFarland only enough to secure a 2-2 draw - curiously, this was the 3rd time the cameras had featured Derby this season & all three were 2-2 home draws. This draw was also our 7th after only 12 games – (spoiler alert) we would only have 3 more draws in the remaining 30 league games of the season…
 


 
Pre-match Cloughie in typically robust mood about recent signings Roger Davies & Graham Moseley, as well as cup outings at Dundee & Leeds…

 
Derby’s draw saw them slip into 4th behind Man City on goal average. Elsewhere, Sheffield Utd’s second consecutive defeat saw them replaced at the top by Man Utd, who won at Huddersfield;

Hi EFL, whats that?
You want us to play in our away kit? Of course, glad to help, only...well, you see it's not so easy as the strip needs washing. And we're low on Persil and Lenor.
 But tell you what, we'll get it sorted if you can do us a favour and cut the points penalty to say 6 points?
That OK?
Cheers for that. 

Bloody hell! Those games, that league table! I wonder if we'll ever get close to that again.
Thanks for a great thread @LeedsCityRam

Being a young gun on the popside in the sixties I loved the songs and camaraderie from that time especially when old Bighead started to get us going. I still sing them, to myself of course, even now.
We were in Division Two then,  of course, and one song particularly suited that time. It was sung to Nat King Cole's 'Daisy Bell',  I am sure many from that era remember it well.
'Daisy,  Daisy,  give us your answer do, 
We're half crazy oh for the love of you, 
It won't be a stylish marriage, we can't afford a carriage, 
But we'll look sweet upon the seat at the top of Division Two, Four, Six, Eight,
Who do we appreciate, 
D, E, R, B, Y,
Derby
followed by incessant clapping. 
God,  I must be getting old!
 
 

I will probably get absolutely shot down for this but the the club, fans and players have been all though so much I think it’s time to let bygones be bygones.  For a large number of reasons the club hasn’t covered it’s self in glory and we would all cry foul if the wider football world were to condemn us to eternity for our misdemeanours. It’s a personal choice and the world isn’t a very forgiving place these days but I’m glad that Keogh accepts time is a healer and still has a place for Derby in his heart.

Fair play to Allsop tonight, had a great game, came up big when we needed him ??

Something weird happening here.
Wednesday night home match v Reading. The Rams on minus 2 points, in administration, without an owner and massive uncertainty over the future, against a poor team with a tiny away support and yet we had an atmosphere at times that was as electric as anything i've felt in my 50 years as a Ram.
Hairs stood up time as stood in the middle of the South Stand and heard the roar build up from the East and West stands, never felt that raw passion and support since the Baseball Ground years. No play off or promotion glory to get excited over, just survival, backs to the wall Derby support.
Proud af to be a Ram tonight.
 

Thought Allsop had a good night. Like many, I wasn’t happy to see his name on the team sheet but he saved everything (mostly routine bar one or two) and even caught a couple of things too. 
Stearman worries me a little. Although not sure if he improved second half or I wasn’t as nervous about him because he was further away from me in the South Stand. Seems slow to move his feet and looked a liability. 
Don’t think it was a coincidence the goal came from the first time Forsyth used his acre of space to actually dribble forward rather than come back. He needed to do that more often to keep the defence honest. 
Midfield did a decent job of rotating deep to fetch the ball from the defence which was good. Trying to play out from the back with our personnel is not fun but they made the best of it by helping out - we did still manage one huge calamity after half time. 
Stretton looked decent but needs a big stint in the weight room. Reading do have some quick defenders which didn’t help though.
I am not one for conspiracy theories but after the red card and injury time penalty last game and now we have an unbelievably bad referee and linesman this game it doesn’t half make you wonder. The linesman missed some shockers, especially the ball being miles out first half under his nose. The referee didn’t give a blatant foul on Ravel on the edge of the box, a blatant penalty for handball, seemed to not bother booking them for the same thing Stearman got booked for, then booked Buchanan for his first foul. Just a baffling display of biased ineptitude. 

The linos were just as bad, particularly the dolt running the East Stand line. Three times in the first half it was as though he'd dozed off, suddenly remembered his role by which time he was at least 5 yards behind play. Yet 3 times he gave the decision to Reading.

I loved hearing him say in his interview after the game that he intends to bring those made redundant back to the club when the new owners are here. 

Great character being shown by each of the players. All I ask from any Derby player is 100% commitment. The current crop are going above and beyond this. 
 
Last season we would have definitely lost the West Brom game and not beaten Stoke or won the game tonight. 
 
My only hope this season was a siege mentality and Rooney seems to have got this. We will lose games but I’m enjoying being a Rams fan again. 
 
UTR

Wayne ducking Rooney and all the players, take a bow lads. It's times like this when boys become men and men stand up and are counted. Against all odds, we're showing huge pride in the shirt and a steely will to win and doing it with a certain amount of style and panache too. 
So ducking proud of them all tonight, each and every one.
COYR

Really well deserved win today. Should have perhaps done more with our chances but also limited them to not a deal. Forsyth and Knight standouts tonight. 
Other aside observation, I think we look better with Stretton up top.