Carl Sagan

Roos 6.5

Byrne 5.5

Buchanan 5.5

Jagielka 6

Davies 6

Shinnie 5

Bird 5.5

Morrison 7

Sibley 5.5

Lawrence 5

Baldock 5

Stretton 6.5

Knight n/a

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Birmingham "pressed higher than in any other game this season" because they've seen our matches and know we will likely gift them a goal or two as a result. The thing Rooney needs to realize and sharpish is that every team will do the same this season. He's very stubborn and you watch today's game and think, if we continue to play this way, we will be relegated.

We need points sharpish. And to get over this sharpish.

I never thought I would say this, but thank goodness for Ravel Morrison. He was the daddy in our team of boys versus men tonight. We are the side in which he will get the responsibility to demonstrate whether he has it or not. Not a brilliant game but decent. He stood up and never shirked, driving us forward and not taking it from the opposition or the ref. Shame he didn't have more composure for that shooting chance from distance.

Disappointed with Sibley at the moment, but the team shape and his position doesn't suit him. Of course the second goal isn't all on him, but I'd say 40%, which is still significant. He can see the Brummie forward alone on the edge of our box, but still makes the tackle to send the ball that way. You have to be smarter than that.

I really like the look of Stretton, but this is a tough team to come into at the moment.

Our players had no protection at all from the referee, which was terrible, and having played in games like that I know how it leads to frustration. But again you have to be smarter than Lawrence, who was very lucky to leave the field as a sub instead of seeing red. Maybe as skipper he felt he needed to protest to the ref and try to protect his lads, but he didn't do it the right way.

Great to see Jason Knight back on the field.

But a game that could point to a long hard season unless we can change it quickly and go on a run.

Oh ffs. 2-0. We tackle the ball straight into the striker's path. 

After we've had a good 10 minutes despite the physical mismatch and bullying of our players.

I had a coach who used to say "football is a simple game, often played by idiots."

The main example of that is our constant inviting of pressure onto our back four. Always turning back, always looking for the backwards pass. As the opposition forwards charge at us around our penalty area, instead of playing the ball long over their heads, we try to thread a difficult pass through them. Once we've done that we turn round and play it backwards again.

But giving away so many throw-ins in our own half against a team that specializes in long throws is another example I've pointed out earlier in the thread.

The next is assigning Nathan Byrne to mark Jutkiewicz at corners. You.cannot.be.serious. But sadly we are. 

Come on Derby! There is still hope.

2 minutes ago, atherstoneram said:

A good old fashioned shoulder barge,nothing wrong with it at all,i love how people blame the ref,it's the same every week

It was not shoulder to shoulder. It was a blatant elbow in the middle of the back. Look again.

2 minutes ago, sheepyderf said:

Please please stop playing the ball back to roos, he can't kick a ball to save his life. Yes the goal was down to buchannan but it wouldn't have happened if we tried playing the ball the other way. Roos has scuffed a few balls played back to him and a better said would have made more of it

I agree the constant putting ourselves under pressure by playing backwards when the opposition know we're going to play it backwards is simply idiotic.

I disagree that Roos can't kick. He's amazingly talented with his feet for a goalkeeper. But it's bound to go wrong sometimes and we keep doing stupid things and not learning.

Oh Derby and long throws. When we signed world-record holder for long throw-ins, Rory Delap, Jim Smith refused to ever let him take a long throw despite it being such a weapon. When Delap was sold to Stoke and terrorized the Premier League with his long throws, defences worked out the way to counteract it was not to give away any throw-ins in your own half. Derby are kicking it out for a throw all the time. Use.your.brains.

Meanwhile how was that not a foul and booking for the vicious charge in Byrne's back on the side of the box? We will get nothing from this ref. I hope he looks at half-time at the coverage of the sandwich on Sibley, that foul on Byrne, and all the fouls on Morrison, and realizes he's been taken for a mug by Birmingham. But somehow I doubt it...

Sibley sandwiched in a run through on goal. No foul given. Goal-scoring opportunity. Unsurprisingly, Don Goodman saw nothing wrong with it. It's hilarious when commentators see the replay and the clear and obvious foul, but keep to their daft original opinion.

21 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

A good start but that was frustrating. We did a lot of fannying about at the back with all this "risk and reward" nonsense people hate. But we persisted and played the ball out, breaking the line with a pass out to the right. Maybe to Byrne. But instead of charging forwards as you absolutely must do in that situation to reap the benefits, he just turned immediately back and took the ball back to our defense. It might not have been Byrne, but whoever it was should have the hairdryer thrown at them at half-time.

This fannying about with the ball at the back, always looking backwards, trying to draw opponents on and deliberately put ourselves under pressure, is an absolutely idiotic way of playing unless your team is full of world class stars. I do not understand why we try to do it. We are so very often the architects of our own downfall. Just stop it.

A good start but that was frustrating. We did a lot of fannying about at the back with all this "risk and reward" nonsense people hate. But we persisted and played the ball out, breaking the line with a pass out to the right. Maybe to Byrne. But instead of charging forwards as you absolutely must do in that situation to reap the benefits, he just turned immediately back and took the ball back to our defense. It might not have been Byrne, but whoever it was should have the hairdryer thrown at them at half-time.

6 minutes ago, sage said:

Anyone want to run a sweepstake on when Jutkiewicz scores

Sibbo scoring from outside the box and Deeney scoring with a header was 100-1 so I put a free bet on it!

Famous last words but their large yet lumbering forward line has surely got to be what suits Curtis and Jags best (when they're not fighting crime)? I hope Joz is on a sufficient high from the England game that he plays some part in this one, despite what Rooney said.

Feeling OK about this. We really do need to start bagging some wins in case the EFL go all out for their 9 point deduction.

17 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

Nah it won't, the Premier League will do the fixture arranging. How could you arrange your own fixtures? 

Clubs rarely play at their own grounds so have to liaise with the owners (eg Loughborough) for when they're free. The U23 games are played on all manner of different days for no obvious reason (it's not like there's a TV schedule to accommodate). The League will surely simply say to "play the game week commencing whatever". I really don't think they mandate date and time for this. That's down to the clubs to agree. Here are this week's games:

I'm sure we could have played this game tomorrow or Monday had we wanted, like the other teams.

2 hours ago, Jubbs said:

Why would we be organizing our own fixtures?

Surely that's how it works at U23 level. 

2 hours ago, angieram said:

Whilst I agree in principle, our non-playing first team squad don't appear to have been made available to our under 23s this season anyway.

Even if Sky hadn't moved the match from Saturday, those players wouldn't have been available. 

Agree it's terribly weakening an already young team, though.

I'm sure earlier in the season Rooney talked about using U23 games to keep some of his non-playing first team squad fit. But agree it's not looking that way right now. 

The U23s are playing away at Everton at 7pm tomorrow night: https://southportfc.net/information-everton-u23-v-Derby-county/

I cannot fathom, with our threadbare squad, why we are organizing our U23 matches to coincide with out first team games. For me it's a recipe for the U23s being relegated from the top division this season.

3 hours ago, angieram said:

No idea, an extra three qualifying rounds, I think. She hasn't dropped a set yet, though. 

Yeah eight matches won so far, to reach the semifinal. The toughest and longest seemingly having been the second qualifying round! But no sets dropped is amazing.

https://www.usopen.org/en_US/players/overview/wta328366.html

Hate the idea. Arsene should have been intelligent enough to realize scarcity increases value, but alas no. There's just too much greed in football now, without taking care of the long-term future of the game.

13 minutes ago, angieram said:

Blimey, this girl is good! Such  a shame these matches are tucked away on Amazon Prime.

Oh I wondered why I couldn't watch them anywhere. But it turns out I can! Will be glued to the semifinal. 

I think she's the first qualifier to reach the semifinals, and has done it without dropping a set. How many games is that? 

Looks headed to superstardom. What an amazing rise.

If we conceded the first ever league goal in world football (typical of the various other records we hold!) does this mean this was the first ever league game (or were there several that day or previous 0-0 draws)? 

And if it was the first ever game, then presumably we are the first club in the world to win a league football match. That sounds pretty impressive.

Young Jason Knight is available for selection!

But Joz isn't going to feature.

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/jason-knight-Derby-birmingham-rooney-5889413

6 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I'm not sure it's a case of owing HMRC money as such.  As a business it's making none.  So it's quite likely to be penalties for non submitted accounts at companies house showing no corporation tax is due, which it seems clear the club aren't doing for some EFL related reason.  The HMRC debt might be a grand in associated penalties. If it was PAYE/NIC owed we would likely be up in court already and the magnitude would be common knowledge.

Exactly this. We've all seen over the years that HMRC isn't backwards about chasing clubs for money and are always issuing winding-up orders against clubs. My understanding has always been we don't owe money to them, but the EFL are including it as part of their non-submittal of accounts.

Which maybe connects with the issue that EFL supposedly wanted us to resubmit old accounts to the HMRC which we can't do because the accounts were fine, accepted and are now historic, so we've given the EFL the information on "this is what they would have said if we were doing the accounts differently" but now we seem in limbo with that. Perhaps it's all waiting for the recent accounts to go to HMRC, but maybe the club are saying we can't do that until EFL approves the material we've resubmitted to them, and they're saying, we won't approve this unless you take a 9 point deduction and we're saying no. It never ends...

25 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

On Mel Morris: 

When he sold Candy Crush in 2015, he became immensely cash rich as per the above. Whilst I do believe he has lost an uncomfortable amount of personal fortune in owning Derby County, in which time he has looked to spend above the means of the competition rules of his own volition. It would still make him an immensely rich person, who has absolutely no excuse for running the club as badly as he currently is. 

What I would say to him, given half the chance, is clean up your own mess. The cutting of corners is doing nothing but to agitate fans and to downtools as significantly as he has, i.e. not pay the HMRC or other clubs, not to mention the fiasco with the ticket office, is absolutely inexcusable.  

If he can get the club stable again, which isn't going to cost the world, and away from the 'crisis club' narrative then it will become a lot more attractive to potential buyers - real potential buyers and not blokes who know how to steal videos from TikTok or look fancy in a big white robe. 

Which is the thing about all of this that doesn't seem to add up/make sense. 

21 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

I don’t agree with the lack of transparency coming out of the club.

But let’s be honest, trust between the fans and the club is broken.

Would we even believe what the club has to say?

I know that if Stephen Pearce told me Ankara was the capital of Turkey, I would have to ask 100 Geography teachers just to be sure.

An excuse to remember this:

But of course it's Ankara. Even Stephen Pearce is right twice a day.

1 hour ago, Shipley Ram said:

I'm trying to read a Roger Penrose book at the moment, it's tough going. The 120 pages of the mathmatical appendixes he keeps refering to make the EFL judgment as easy read.

I'm guessing that's The Road to Reality? I felt for the poor publisher who did that, having paid a big advance expecting a beautiful short book  but then he delivered them that and they had to make the best of it. But they did well. I'm trying to find my copy now, as he signed a lovely dedication for me (I was his publisher later on), but where has it gone!?