MikeS

I know we’ve got good players to come back in but our squad is paper thin. A couple more injuries and we’re absolutely knackered. It’s a long, relentless season in the Championship and not having the option to rest / replace players will make life very difficult. Things look ok at the moment but it’s still August. 

I agree, the fluidity and off the ball running up top has increased massively. I would be tempted to give Stretton a run of games. His movement and ability to get himself in the right position is meaning he’s getting chances in every game but he’s just not taking them, the goals will start to flow eventually I’m sure of it.

It’s the first time that Wayne has been consigned to the prospect of no more players coming in. I’m fully expecting a “go with what we’ve got” type interview next week after the deadline. 
 
Waynes took a lot of stick from a coaching perspective since he started, from the media and fans especially. For me he’s starting to prove this season he may have what it takes to cut it. I’ve enjoyed our start to the season, we’re playing decent football again, there’s an actual style of play developing but the squad is threadbare. The lack of options off the bench is stopping us from turning the tide of games back in our favour. Unfortunately he’s being severely let down by the people at the top of the club, with a few more players we would easily achieve survival this season.

Yeah I thought the sub was going to be for either Sibley or Morrison both of whom looked knackered. Jozwiak still looked bright at that point. 

I thought he was very unfortunate to be substituted this afternoon.  Morrison had exhausted himself first half (he was everywhere).
Jozwiak was excellent. 

We threw it away
We threw it awa - ay
We're Derby County 
We threw it away.
Strange how a couple of seasons ago I used to get all manner of rollickings because of my dissatisfaction with the match officials, and I did tone it down a bit. But now I hardly need to say a word, because people have started to cotton on to what the officials get up to. And for the last couple of seasons we have been so poor that the ref's decisions have been irrelevant.
Today, however, we are the architects of our own downfall. Forest were really, really poor and were there for the taking, and but for a few better decisions with the final ball - Lawrence not putting Joswiack through on goal being a major one - we would have been out of sight by half time. But second half only Forest came back out of the changing rooms. We were lackadaisical and sloppy and half-arsed for quite a way into the second half. Yes Hughton did make a couple of changes, cutting of the supply lines through the first two phases, and pressing our back line to make them play back to Roos. Yes his distribution wasn't good today, but mot of the time he was put under huge pressure by the awful back passes. And Rooney singularly failed to change things. We kept getting pressed and closed down like this last season, and eventually learned to stop faffing about at the back. And again it wasn't working today, but we kept on insisting on doing it until late on in the game. If it doesn't work, try something else, for goodness sake. So having shown what a rabble Forest are, we let them improve to the point of looking like a poor team.
But if the match officials had done their job things would have turned out differently. I have watched the Sky highlights, and Fozzy does get his foot onto the Forest player's wedding tackle, but no way was that intentional. Apart from the fact that Fozzy isn't nasty enough to even swat a fly, he wasn't even looking, so no way did he deliberately place his foot there. Apparently Sky were blathering on about it for ages afterwards. And despite showing the Worrall handball in the highlights, they didn't give it much attention. It was blatantly clear that he knew exactly what he was doing, and there were two Derby players in line to receive the ball. Definite red card. Definite penalty. But they didn't show the blatant foul on Sibley when he would have through on goal in the first half. Yet again, a definite red card. Neither did they show the all-in-wrestling move on Davies towards the end of the second half. That it happened while the ball wasn't moving doesn't matter as it is serious foul play in the penalty area, and the corner had actually been taken by the time that Davies hit the floor. 
In the end, we threw the points away because of our dozy lack of effort in the second half, but most definitely the ref cost us two points today. WITHOUT A DOUBT. And no, I don't normally shout! In addition, he couldn't wait to yellow card Derby players, some of which technically being fully deserved, yet he failed to card Forest players for repeat offences throughout the match. And what was Joswaick booked for when he was the one who had been wrestled to the ground? That was almost as bad as giving Middlesborough a free-kick when one of their players brought his team mate down last week. It is easy to understand people thinking that there are special EFL directives on how to officiate at Derby County matches.
The positives are the way Derby are playing now. At the end of last season, and with all the off-pitch problems, I thought we would be playing even worse than we were then, so our play at the moment is a revelation. After such a poor performance a few matches ago, Joswiack has really improved, and Max Bird has become the Max Bird we all knew and loved.
Keep it going, you Rams. It has become a pleasure to watch you again, instead of just supporting you regardless. Thank you!

Seems to me that a lot of the stuff put out by Percy is a load of tosh, just trying to keep the pot simmering. Most of his "stories" are  wide of the truth, but nobody notices because by the time the actual information comes out, we have all moved on....and forgotten. 
His background summaries are often erroneous too. Let's wait for the real facts.

Seems to me that a lot of the stuff put out by Percy is a load of tosh, just trying to keep the pot simmering. Most of his "stories" are  wide of the truth, but nobody notices because by the time the actual information comes out, we have all moved on....and forgotten. 
His background summaries are often erroneous too. Let's wait for the real facts.

Seems to me that a lot of the stuff put out by Percy is a load of tosh, just trying to keep the pot simmering. Most of his "stories" are  wide of the truth, but nobody notices because by the time the actual information comes out, we have all moved on....and forgotten. 
His background summaries are often erroneous too. Let's wait for the real facts.

Fans from other clubs are replying questioning why the EFL are even discussing/negotiating with us on the punishment.
It's a valid point, why are they?
The answer is pretty obvious at this point, they haven't got a leg to stand on and all this is a face saving exercise to please some fella up in the North East that's beyond tedious now.

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Reporter from BBC Radio 5 at the game said that Rooney had told him that he's confident the transfer embargo will be lifted on Tuesday...

Jagielka looked a class above in the preseason games and showed it again today. He’s getting on a bit, but he still looks very comfortable at this level. We have to be careful with him, but he still looks agile enough and doesn’t look at all slow. I think he can be an inspired signing, providing we don’t lose him in January.