IlsonDerby

Weird after announcing a deal with puma we’ve released the 2002 home and away shirts as remakes. 
 

Errea was the manufacturer of those. Do puma own them now? 
 

Peterborough are outperforming initial expectations this season. They didn’t expect a serious promotion push this year - they were expecting to blood the youngsters they’d had to bring in to their side. The fact they’re the best attack in the division and are third favourites for promotion with 2/3 games left is an over achievement. 
 

Evans is horrible but Stevenage are massively over performing this season too. 
 

Weird that Cash isnt short listed mind. 

2 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

I don’t like the rails which gave been put in/imposed - space is much more cramped, and they are actually at waist height so should be moving forwards into them you simply spin forwards and drop down head-first into the next row down!

It makes going down for a pint or a pee much more hassle, and we have to fight our way past those season-ticket checkers lying in wait at every opportunity!

But apart from that ……….

Waist height? Are you a giraffe? 
 

safely midriff 😂

6 hours ago, Foreveram said:

So you want to move season ticket holders that have been there since Pride Park opened.

If it’s so popular and in high demand they could increase the price inline with the East stand.

We had to move when the away fans moved from SS to SE corner… 

4 hours ago, rammieib said:

But it does make the signing of CBT pointless if you want to play three centre backs.

I wonder if in Warnes mind he wants to play 2 CM but realises we struggle with 2 at the moment and when he has 2 that can get about like Ebou it frees up that extra forward role? 

For those who want to see the whole table since that Stevenage match. 
 

Comfortably the best side in the division based on points won since that match. 

I don’t mind if we have 2 1-0 wins where both goals bounce in off someone’s chin as long as we go up but it’d have done us a world of good to convert one of those good chances we created from open play yesterday. 
 

Same questionable finishing which cost us v Northampton and Wycombe. Fingers crossed we get enough set pieces to get us there! 

42 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

From the U21 squad, we already have Evans (3rd matchday GK), Radcliffe, DRobinson and DBrown who I would consider to be on the fringes of the first team squad. Weston a little bit behind them.

We then have several players who could still play U18 football but stepped up early - 2nd year scholars Cox, KRobinson and Hawkins, and 1st year scholars JThompson, Gill and Allen.

Davidson has had a lot of trouble with injuries but has always looked promising when in the side. He missed the first half of last season and most of this one (last played in October), but would have been a regualr in the U21 squad (still a 2nd year scholar) if he stayed fit.

McAndrew is on the cusp of stepping up and is still only 16! 

 

I think all of these youngsters have a very good chance of being Championship footballers (or higher), with some doing it with us in a couple of years.

Thank you!

12 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

4 games to go. The challenge now will be to hold on to 3rd place

Do we have a group with a good chunk ready to break in to the first team in a few years time or do we just have a team that’ll do well at this level? 

17 hours ago, YorkshireRam said:

I thought Kone was decent as well, just read his wikipedia though and came across this very strange section... Can't work out what this means 🤔

I suspect he’s probably gay but has forced himself back into the closet for the good of his career and or personal relationships which is a crying shame for the lad. 

@Owen87ITK what are your thoughts Owen? 
 

Still think we’ll have enough fans ‘hopping on an airplane’ to keep the enjoyable match day product you guys provide? 

16 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

So you think he should be sacked for wearing his heart on his sleeve and saying he failed but, if he'd been a little more measured with his response (which I believe was given immediately after we'd just lost the last game of the season) it might be a different story? I don't get that at all and he should be applauded for recognising his part in our failure to get promoted (but not necessarily sacked for saying it).

With regard to our end of season form, our most comfortable position was 9 points clear of Posh but still with 39 point to play for so, I wouldn't count that as "hugely secure".  We did indeed have a bad spell in March (losing 4 out of 5 between 7th March and 1st of April) which, unfortunately, coincided with Peterborough's purple patch. However, those defeats included Plymouth and Ipswich, it was immediately preceded by our own purple patch (that included only 2 defeat in 21 games) and was followed by a run of 6 games without defeat. 

So, if you want to take that Month in isolation, yes we fell away. But, if you look at the bigger picture (including our fantastic run immediately prior and, to an extent, our bounce back afterwards) it wasn't such a mighty decline as you may think. 

Not necessarily but it can’t be overlooked that Warne was brought in to bring promotion. If Clowes wanted to give time then you might as well have stopped with Rosenior. 
 

I don’t particularly want him sacked either I just want to be excited by some of the football played by us. 
 

Im not one of those misers that haven’t been able to enjoy this season - I’ve loved every goal and every win this season and will keep backing them to get us over the line. 

2 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

Have you seen the standard of the National League this season? Chesterfield and Barnet apart, its abysmal! I'm not decrying what Brown has done at Gateshead but to suggest he's ready for League One, even for an occasional start or even a place in the squad is far too early in his development.

That big fcker that was playing up front for Wycombe was playing non league until January… he turned our defence inside out on a number of occasions. Just couldnt hit a barn door with his nob in the lock. 

Not be long before every man and his dog are on the dodgy sticks. 
 

Sky, the premier league and the EFL could see illegal streaming as a symptom of what they have created and try to proactively meet fans halfway and come up with a solution that doesn’t harm the pyramid but allows for clubs to still stream. 
 

Instead they treat illegal streaming as a problem in its own right. 
 

An example of an idea which will have its obvious flaws but gets a conversation started:

Clubs can stream to fans who have a paid membership. This membership allows fans access to purchasing the stream for a match. 

Membership fees go into a pool to be redistributed across the football pyramid.
 

Clubs earn their revenue from the sale of the stream not the membership. 

5 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

What did you want him to say? “We didn’t get in the play offs but that’s OK, we’ll go again next year”?

There aren’t many industries that are cut throat enough (and football is one of the most cut throat) to see an individual sacked for achieving an improvement (in terms of results) in year 2 from year 1 but still narrowly failing to hit a key objective. I know some people will point to what happened to Darren Moore and John Eustace but I don’t think many of us would entirely agree with their sackings.

With 11 games remaining we were 4 points clear of Wycombe and 7 points clear of eventual play off achievers Posh but they both had a game in hand. I wouldn’t describe that as “hugely secure” given there were 33 points still on the table.

I think that the language he used didn’t have to include ‘failure’. 
He could have said we gave ourselves a real chance but in the end we couldn’t quite get over the line. 
 

I don’t suspect he’ll be gone this summer regardless of what happens. I think he’ll be given a summer unhindered by restrictions and Clowes will reassess during the season. 
 

it may not have been with 11* games to go then but ultimately we were in a position last season where it would have taken an awful run of form to drop out. That’s what happened.
 

3 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

I don’t agree regarding last season (and presumably neither did DC) given despite our wage budget we were restricted to who we could sign.

And yet Warne himself labelled it a failure? 
If we didn’t go on the run that we did I’d agree with you but ultimately we were hugely secured in the play offs with about 11 to play. 

               Wildsmith 

Wilson Nelson cash Sibley 

                    Ebou 

         Smith Thompson 

       NML* Collins** CBT 

* replace with Barkhuizen as soon as we can get Barkhuizen on (assuming around 65 minutes into the match)

** Let him run himself into the ground and then replace with Waggy or Wash. hopefully get 60 minutes out of him. 
 

Tell CBT that you are putting all your faith in him and. that he is starting every game until the end of the season and that he’s the main man for making things happen.
Put your faith in him because he’s the only wide player not injured.

9 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

You might do if you accept that year one was a difficult year for all concerned and if year two some element of improvement (in terms of outcome) was achieved despite some challenges still remaining. if that someone only narrowly failed to hit their key objective (if that’s how it pans out) and you had believe that, with any challenges further reduced, they may achieve their objective in year three.

Now that play offs as a minimum is guaranteed, I am convinced that DC will stick with PW. Let’s hope we get promoted and DC’s faith isn’t put to the test.

I think that due to having one of the highest wage bills in the league last season needed us finishing in the play offs. I think losing in the play offs would have been acceptable. It’s the nature of the drop off that concerned me last year. 

Im hoping that Clowes has his business head on because it’s clear he’s a huge personal admirer of Warne. 

 
Promotion = job done and par for our wage bill. Warne (whatever you think of him and I’m very critical) deserves to try and hit par next season too. 
 

No promotion = a second season below par. Would you keep someone in your business that wasn’t maximising the resources at their disposal? 

Only way this season ends is in promotion. It’s been vile at times. It’s got toxic but we’ll hobble over the line either 2nd or through shithousing the playoffs. 
 

It’ll be looked back on as another nervy finish - no more no less. 
 

*** I have to keep telling myself this. 

1 hour ago, TomTom92 said:

Maybe playing was the wrong term from me, but they won 2-0. We play like poo and have to settle for 0-0. 
 
I can’t see us putting Leyton Orient to the sword. Think we might batter Carlisle but that could be a dead match if we don’t buck our ideas up.

They have Collins scoring that sitter that CBT missed tbf. 
 

Im angry that our players have fluffed easy chances that have led to this. I’d be pointing squarely at Warne had we not have created enough chances to win both the two disappointing games recently. 
 

Warne for his many faults has put together a team that has made it into the top 2 with 4 left to go and yet glaring misses in the Northampton and Wycombe games mean we are 5 points worse off than we should be and are now fighting for our lives to stay in the autos. 
 

We can argue the toss of how bad the football has been but we’d be just going over old ground and I’m sure we both see things similarly in terms of the football on show. 

Still think we go up automatically because I still think we’ll finish on 92 points. 
 

If 92 points isn’t good enough for second then we accept we’ve been a little bit unfortunate and try and go again in the play offs. 
 

I was so angry at the performance levels last night in the second half but I’m hoping for a post-Barnsley or post- Charlton reaction that sees us over the line. 

1 hour ago, TomTom92 said:

Our main issue is that Bolton and Peterborough are playing like teams who deserve to go up. Before people point out posh’s shock result against Carlisle, I’m referring to how many goals they’re scoring. 
 
We seem unable to score more than 1 (minus Pompey) in recent weeks. We’re really making hard work of it. Are we running on empty?

If we win our last 3 we’d be unlucky to miss out on 92 points but as things stand our momentum has somewhat stalled.

Bolton played sh*te against Rovers on Saturday. They looked second best. I sat through it because derby weren’t playing. 

1 minute ago, Tyler Durden said:

No the first part of my post, if you care to recall, was that we gained a goalless away draw tonight. 

I said nothing about our performance yada yada. 

If you want to twist this to fit your own narrative then fill your boots. 

“Teddies flying out of prams all over the forum” 

You also didn’t answer about whether you’d watched it. If I’d seen the result I’d probably think ‘solid away point. 3 home wins should do it’. But having watched it I was deflated. 

For what it’s worth I still think we’ll go up 2nd since January alone we’ve gone and won 3 on the bounce after a disappointing match a number of times. 
 

Just seriously underwhelmed that we looked so so off it despite being fresher.