Grimbeard

Whilst I'm posting, thought you might enjoy this "alternative" commentary on our Oxford game. Please note it contains a lot of swearing and - more worryingly - Peter Kay so not for the "sensitive".
 
 

Whilst the very slow mo version shows the ball hitting Gayle's arm, it's hardly cheating  nor is he a con man. Harsh words, imo.
Likewise the goalkeeper may have looked almost stationary to you in a slow mo replay, in real time he was thundering out of his goal.
So, a refereeing mistake.
Now, who benefitted from a refereeing mistake against us earlier in the season? 

You know I try to be fair in my comments and I have to point out that I hope you do play like you did last week, because every other referee on the planet would see what everyone impartial fan in the country saw and would have sent the cheating, handballing con man Gayle off and you wouldn't have won leaving us ahead of you in the league. Is that not fair or are you going to convince me he didn't handball it and dive into the goalie?
 

Really wish I could be there today, instead of being stuck here with my foot up after doing a swan dive on the stairs the other day.
 But, I refuse to miss out - I'll get my fix...
 I'll be listening in on Rams player wearing my lucky shirt, sat in one of the small chairs with scrave at hand, and a flange of 150C hot choc for half time. Before the match I'll log onto the megastore website and complain loudly that they still dont have any "Argentinian" shirts, and I'll get my youngest to call me and shout expletives down the phone at crucial points during the game.
 I'll have to make do with getting my wife to get me to stand up so she can squeeze past me 5 mins before half time and 10 mins before 90 mins, but jumping up to cheer the Rams many goals - well that could be a little interesting, but I'll manage!
 Of course, I'll stand outside the loo for 10 mins at half time for that true match day nervous bladder feeling and I may even see if I can get a recording of the radio Derby moan-in so I can have some background noise of people wingeing about Warne's tactics so I get the true sound of the crowd! 🤣
 
 Come on Derby, get the 3 points in style for an 'owd bloke with a bad ankle!
 

It’s a fruit made up by someone at Waitrose who was drunk on Advocaat.
 

Apparently describing "2nd v 3rd, you know, like, when rangers play aberdeen usually" is both insulting and inaccurate.

Excellent train-spotting Sir! What’s in your flask?

Wow. There are a few contradictions and changes of mind in that short post. 😀

Enjoyed Rampant's bio especially the artistic licence re the laxatives. Being a Wanderers fan is a life sentence so we need a laugh every now and then. After our recent performances one thing we don't need is laxatives though.
I think it's fair to say that a draw would favour you and prior to our Oxford game I'd have snatched your hand off for it. Saturday will be our 22nd game in 75 days and the punishing schedule had taken it's toll with injuries to key players throughout, a couple of suspensions and the constant disruption of the starting eleven. Our form went through the floor and in the 10 games before Oxford we'd slipped to 16th in the form table, blown our games in hand and picked up even more injuries in the process. So going into the Oxford game I was bricking it. Perhaps out of desperation as much as having his hand forced, Evatt made changes to the way we've played for a couple of seasons now. Way I see it, he actually dropped some of the instructions/processes instead of adding to them - and backed the players to do what comes naturally to them rather than having to conform to a rigid - and therefore predictable - system. The term "letting them off the leash" was bandied about. Teams had been setting up to nullify us and let us have possession in pointless areas beforehand, but on Tuesday we confused the s*** out of Oxford and messed up their game plan in the first five minutes. And nobody was more surprised than us Wanderers fans as Evatt has a reputation for being dogmatic about our playing style.
What we can expect is high-risk attacking and entertaining football. OK we'll leave gaps to exploit, but if the lads can replicate the pace, effort, quality, discipline and creativity they showed on Tuesday it will be close game. Slightly concerned they're too knackered but it's the last game in our congested fixture schedule so I hope they give their all.
For the first time, I actually welcome the international break and hope the lads who go on international duty don't get picked to play so they can have a long overdue break - plus we should start to get injured players back by the time it's over, notably our goalie and strikers. So from our perspective, it's one last effort before they can take time to recover and reset.
Absolutely no idea how it will go on Saturday - two different styles - and we'll be playing with a back 3 (occasionally a back 1) against your excellent strikers so big Rico is going to have his work cut out, especially on the counter.
Looking forward to it and hope that we're blessed with a decent ref for once. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we got a card-happy loony and a bad-tempered game given what's at stake. Hope not.

Saturday 16th March
vs Bolton Wanderers
Pride Park   KO 1500
 
This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others
Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.
Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 
Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.
Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.
They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.
Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.
Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.
Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:
Bolton have never won at Pride Park.
There, I've said it. 
Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.
Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.
My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.
Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.
Peterborough vs Portsmouth
Barnsley vs Cheltenham
 
COYR
 

No it’s a hard standing to the rear of your property laid by some ‘reputable’ Irish Labourers.

Yep.
Just wondering if the Dcfcfans elete could hand out a list of songs that they approve of outside the South stand before the match?

But apart from all that?

But apart from all that?

But apart from all that?

Yeah let's turn all the ground into one massive west stand.
I'm hardly a young pup, but still enjoy a bit of back and forth with opposition fans and sometimes have to remind myself that I'm 60 with aches in places that I never used to have.
But compared to the stuff we used to get up to,  the fans you want banning are angels and are just blowing off a bit of steam. Maybe they should all stay at home and play on their X boxes and leave the football to the flask and blanket brigade!

No, just no.

But apart from all that?

I would absolutely hate to lose a game like that.
Got to be honest, I don’t really like winning games like that either.
Leave that kind of thing to Patrick Bamford. 
We can do better than that.

What could possibly go wrong.

Disgusting foul and a deserved red card 🤥

When that Barnsley fan came on here and said his team were "going through the gears" I didn't realise one of them would be reverse.
 

All banter aside mate, all the very best to you, and all that.  👍🍻

New profile picture confirmed

You've deffo taken Inverness Caledonian Thistle to the Champions League on champ manager haven't you.