Tamworthram

Yes, I remember him saying we wouldn’t suffer financially as as result of one of the injuries.

I’m not sure “brilliant” is the right word if he’s out for 4 weeks but certainly less bad than the whole season.

I really don’t understand your point or what you expect. Aren’t most goals “individual moments”? What were the three goals prime examples of? The three different players were directly involved (Bird, NML and Barks) annd only the first was annything like a solo effort although others contributed (for example Elder’s run off the ball for the first). I don’t know what the team could have done differently in order to display this elusive “identity” you crave.

Unless he plays then we’ll know it’s not bad at all at 2pm. 😉

Isn't the preference to get the ball out wide as often and quickly as possible and getting crosses in a "way of playing as a team" just as much as any other way you might be able to come up with? Isn't that a pattern of play (whether we like it or not)? I'm not convinced we have any less of a defined "way of playing" or are reliant on individual moments than most teams.

So no change for those of us without Sky Sport or BT Sport? No change for me then. Man United games will always be screened (yawn) regardless of who they are playing, I’ll watch the occasional game on the BBC or ITV, one of the big 5 or 6 teams will win it and Derby will be knocked out in the first round they play in (second if we get lucky). Rinse and repeat.

How do you define an identity then for a team? Sounds like just one those catchphrases that don’t actually mean anything.

Do you have reasonable grounds for thinking he might be?

I was having a bit of a laugh (hence the laughing face) at the fact that instead of saying he'd picked up a knock that was being assessed he said he could play Saturday or could be out for the rest of the season. Kind of stating the obvious. But never mind.

So essentially, the worry is that Collins could be out injured for zero games, the whole season, or somewhere in between? Talk about hedging your bets. 😀

That’s your opinion. 😀

100% option A. We then reset in terms of the objectives PW is set. Option B might appeal to some that just want him gone (for a variety of reasons including brand of football played, utilising and developing younger players, ability to keep us in the Championship or even to get us into the Premier League which seems to have become a new favourite amongst some) but it would interesting to know who they think would get us promoted, is available and would be prepared to take the job on.

I think some people are just getting their ducks in a row ready to continue criticising Warne even if he gets us promoted and to become an established Championship team. Perhaps they're beginning to worry. 😀

It's very disappointing to here PW has set the players such a target. Why do it? why not, as the saying goes, "take it one game at a time" and have a target of winning each game as it comes along? I have been, and remain, largely supportive of Warne but this doesn't sound like the smartest thing to have said to the players even if in his own mind he thinks 10 wins will be enough.

Yes. Contact the club and get yourself on it. If any tickets are returned (because the original purchaser can no longer go for example) the club offer them to people on the list. I managed to get one for Burton, on the day before the game, by this means. One challenge you’d have though is that I think they generally have to be collected from PP (if there isn’t enough time to post them). For Burton I could collect mine from the Pirelli but I don’t know how common that is.

Warne’s current remit is to get us promoted to the Championship and become an established Championship team. Getting back into the PL is a long term goal which we can worry about further down the line. I really don’t understand why you think DC would or should sack the manager he appointed on a long term contract if he achieves the first of those objectives but was not given the chance to achieve the second. I’m not overly confident that PW will do well for us in the Championship but I definitely think he would have earned the right to have a crack at it. I’m pretty confident that DC does as well. My gut feeling is that the only way PW will be sacked before his contract expires is 1) we miss out on the play offs this year AND plummet down the league [neither of those are looking likely], 2) we narrowly miss out this season AND are not seriously in the mix after a dozen games or so next season, or 3) we get promoted but really struggle and find ourselves in a relegation battle. The third scenario is the most likely but heck, whatever some of us may think of his tactics or management style, or how much reliance we attach to his track record at Rotherham, he deserves the right to have a go. edit: I’d go as far as saying getting back into the PL is more of an aspiration than a target at the moment and certainly not something that would be on a managers list of measurable objectives right now.

Weird thing for him to say especially publicly. The target should be 14 wins.

I understand your concerns and thinking but have you ever known a manager get sacked (other than for non football related issues) as soon as he gets him team promoted (apart from Darren Moore and that was an insane decision)? Whatever you might think of his abilities I reckon DC, along with a lot of other people, will think he has earned, and deserves, the right to give it a go in the Championship. Regarding the top teams in the Championship, you can exclude Leicester, Leeds and Southampton from any stats. As usual, most teams relegated from the Prem have an unfair advantage. I have no idea how we'll fair in the Championship (if we go up) but I think DC is a man of some integrity that will keep the manager he gave a long term contract to on unless things do go belly up very quickly. Sorry, but whatever you, or any other anti Warne supporters think or want, I can't see DC sacking him in the summer if he gets us promoted. That's why I would be stunned, not because of what any of us on this forum think will happen.

Neither the result or the stats are “false”. Just that neither a higher possession percentage or more shots on target necessarily mean you “deserve” to win. It depends on what you do with that possession and how threatening the shots were. Even if the shots were all good ones and on target it still doesn’t mean you deserved to win unless you were genuinely unlucky. Failing to score due to missing the target or good defending isn’t unlucky. Nobody out of 100 means zero percent. Does that mean you don’t think so either? 😀

Presumably all tickets have now been released and sold for Barnsley now that the website is showing as sold out and the update today said that the allocation had been increased (slightly) to 4,891. Get on the waiting list anyone still after a ticket. A few of us have found this to be successful in the past.

I still can't believe people are saying this. Whatever any of us may think of his ability to manage a team in the Championship (remember, past achievements - either good or bad - is no guarantee of what will happen in the future) whether you like it or not I'd be truly stunned if PW was sacked after getting us promoted.

I agree but, my point is, as the game did actually pan out, we surrendered a lot of possession (by choice, because of the refs incompetence or Bolton’s ability. Probably a combination of all three) but still nearly came away with something.

Very good defending can be considered as good as a goal or an assist. I don’t remember anything spectacular off the top of my head but Nelson had yet another very solid game. If that prevents good goal scoring opportunities or a goal, then it should be recognised as much as what the forwards contribute. Maybe less so for player of the season but, when it comes to man of the match, I take a different view and think they are generally biased towards the forwards. If a player scores a couple of goals, you can almost guarantee he will get man of the match even if a defender has contributed more to the result. In short, I’d say good goal scorers get the attention and the headlines whilst good defenders go under the radar.

The Bolton game was influenced by the ref’s big mistake but even at 11 v 11 they were dominating most of the game if my memory serves me correctly, but we were able to absorb the pressure and prevent them scoring until the heavily deflected shot.

I think they’ve sat on the fence a bit with their predictions. If my maths is correct, I reckon they have Portsmouth drawing 38% of their remaining games (compared to 27% year to date), Derby on 42% (compared to 19%), Bolton 25% (17%), Barnsley 44% (29%), Peterborough 33% (26%) and Oxford 36% (22%).