Carl Sagan

The tacit assumption is that we are going for automatic promotion, so will not have a collapse in form. If we do collapse, it doesn't matter whether or not Barnsley catch us as we're not in the race for the autos anyway. Win and we'll have 69 points from 34 games. Even just on season-long form that points to 93 or 94 points, but we know how poor we were in the opening games of the season. If you look at, say, our last 20 games, we're averaging 2.25 points a game and a continuation of that would see us end the season on 96 points. In this situation Barnsley would have 60 points from 33 games, so only a possible 99 if they were to win all their remaining 13 games. Lose 1/13 and their max is 96; lose 1 and draw 1 and they only get 94 points; win 10, draw 2 and lose 1 and they're already down to 92 points.

Win and we're 9 points ahead of them and they will have only 13 games left, so they wouldn't be able to catch us (unless they won at least 12 of those games). Meaning win, and automatic promotion becomes a three-horse race between Portsmouth, Bolton and us. That's what's at stake. Gayle isn't going to be fit, but will surely start on the bench. Meaning again we don't have a true centre forward, but Sibley showed us the way to goal, and has to start as an attacking midfielder. Wildsmith Nyambe Nelson Cashin Elder Adams Sibley Bird Wilson Mendez-Laing Barkhuizen Bench: Loach Bradley Ward Hourihane Smith Blackett-Taylor Gayle Harsh on Thommo and Fornah, but given Warne brought Smith on first last weekend, and Hourihane is the skipper, it's tough to see either of them included.

Geoff Norcott's at the Derby Theatre on Wednesday, on his basic bloke tour. Me and Mrs Sagan saw him in London, and it was a good night out.

A goal that was a huge moment in the race for promotion. The movement and anticipation for the goal, then the execution, are the highest level. Absolutely magnificent. Yet it's likely Sibley won't start next week, or if he does he'll probably be first to be hooked around half-time if we're not winning, or will simply be shunted to left back. I hope I'm wrong. I would *love* Warne to prove me wrong.

No, but thanks. This is from the corner flag - I was keen to see it from our cameras behind (or in) the goal.

It's the most extraordinary finish. I can't wait to see it from behind the goal to try to understand it better. Presuming it was deliberate, it looks like an incredible piece of skill by Sibley to divert it into the corner that way, given the pace the ball came to him at. But it is indeed vey hard to fathom - one moment we're on the attack and the next the ball is in the net, and it is hard to understand the process.

in his Radio Derby interview. Said we'd sent everything to the EFL on Friday, but we're having to wait because of the restrictions we're working under. (I think that's a quote.) And that we'd hopefully now find out on Monday if he's allowed to sign.

Amazed they found so many. You have to say that's a remarkable finish. Hardly a chance at all, but a quite brilliant goal.

Huge shout out to the fans today. Sounded amazing on the radio. And Warne commented it was the best he'd heard Pride Park.

Absolutely fantastic to gain 2 points on Bolton today. They play again on Tuesday, away at Cambridge. Obviously you'd expect them to win but, should they drop points we're properly second (based on points per game) for the first time this season. Currently it's: Portsmouth 2.12 ppg Bolton 2.03 ppg DERBY 2.00 ppg Barnsley 1.88 ppg It's a four-horse race. Win at Barnsley on Saturday and it's a three-horse race. Today's other results for the top 4. Portsmouth 4 Reading 1 Bolton 3 Charlton 3 Fleetwood 1 Barnsley 2

15 minutes for Brown today, with Gateshead winning 2-4 away at Wealdstone, all the goals before he came on.

Knee ligament damage, says Warne. At least not before mid-April. That's the very earliest.

For the Warne thread I suppose, but as I've said before, 90-95% of managers would have us in a better position. With no striker, Warne benches our most dangerous attacking midfielder? He got lucky.

Nine wins now needed from the remaining 13 matches. If one of those is away at Barnsley next Saturday, it effectively makes it impossible for them to catch us and cements this as a three-horse race for automatic promotion. Absolutely crucial victory.

Excellent. A vital 3 points. For me it's a win despite of rather than because of the manager, but at least we got over the line. Sibley should have been on the field 81 minutes earlier, but at least he was finally brought on with a whole 9 minutes to score the goal. Come on you Rams!

Absolutely we have to go for wins, even if it risks losing. How does no one understand this? A draw is as bad as a defeat, unless against Bolton or Portsmouth. If you want automatic promotion, you need 3 points from almost every game.

Over an hour for Warne to realize we didn't need five at the back and two holding midfielders. A tactical genius at the helm. Is this last last half-hour enough to win the match in? At least we've had a shot!

In fact Smith for Nyambe. Finally the dynamic exciting attacking substitution we were all hoping for.

Subs on their way. Sibley and Thompson warming up. Alas I suspect that means Sibley for Elder in defence and Thommo in midfield. We need Sibley in midfield.

Going well so far. How on earth can Warne not change this?

Surely we need to bring Sibley as an attacking midfielder?

We'll have to agree to disagree. In the heady days of Apollo and just after, people were planning for massive O'Neill orbiting colonies and Mars in the 1980s or 1990s. Yet Human spaceflight went backwards for decades. The occasional brilliant robotic systems fired off towards Mars or the outer solar system are like surviving off scraps - a tantalising glimpse of what might have been, had we progressed. By now we should have orbiters around every planet and swarms of robotic probes everywhere. The most impressive robotic probes are perhaps the Voyagers from the 1970s, still going strong despite having travelled so far they have crossed the heliosphere, where the influence of the Sun is overcome by that of the rest of the Galaxy. Voyager 1 is almost a light day away. I presumed by now that Human spaceships would long ago have overtaken it, but we cannot get beyond low Earth orbit!

This has to be the setup. Very surprised Elder starts over Sibley.

In the unlikely event this was Jonson Clark-Harris, it would simply have been naive to think MacAnthony ever had any intention of selling to us. So I hope it was someone else. If Collins is really out, then that's terrible news.