Tamworthram

I would have thought it’s obvious that any of us need to have watched a player enough times before we can form such a strong opinion as to call into question our recruitment process if we don’t bid for that player. Fair enough if you’ve seen him a few times. That’s why I said “genuine question” and didn’t assume you hadn’t seen him play much. Regarding being local, OK the ideal would be to recruit locally but that should a factor for the player to consider (having said that, he is 22 and not a 17 year old. I would imagine all professional players accept moving home a few times nearly always goes with the job. Dobra has already moved from Suffolk so it’s not as if he’s Derbyshire born and bred) not so much the club. McGoldrick is a whole different situation. As has been discussed many many times, he chose to join (and presumably end his playing career) at the club he supports. We’ll never know but do you think, if he’d still been at Ipswich he’d have rather stayed in Suffolk than take up an opportunity at his boyhood club?

I can’t say it would change my life in the slightest.

Genuine question, how many times have you seen him play (not just very limited highlights) to make such a critical comment of our recruitment process (assuming we don’t make a bid)? Him being local shouldn’t be a factor as to whether we try to sign him and, just because one of our competitors are interested doesn’t mean he would be right for us.

The better for who?

I’m a tiny bit miffed, all the little increases add up, but I watch enough on Prime to not want to give it up. I guess it depends on how many adverts (the number of ad breaks and how long they last) there will be. I watch plenty on ITVX, 4 and My5 with ads that I can cope with so I’ll probably just put up with them. I certainly won’t be cancelling. In my case, I’d just be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

I agree. Mull of Kintyre is an awful song but many of them do sing it currently. Some might say they wouldn’t sing it so much if they were back in league 1 but, I doubt many of us would sing along to SBW even if we were back in the Prem. We’d just clap along and join in the chant at the end. Dambusters wouldn’t be good because the only words are about another team (even if we changed it to “we all ducking hate reds”). Imagine how amused (possibly even flattered) we’d be if Leeds ran out to a song about how much they hate Derby. Unfortunately, the better tunes are perhaps a little too contrived or complicated to really get the masses involved so it needs to be a simple (possibly even crap) song. The only one I can think of is “Sailing”. A poor choice but I’m struggling to think of anything better.

You can’t take anything for granted in this league. Portsmouth and Peterborough (both of whom I’m sure have ambitions of automatic promotion) have dropped points (at home) against teams on that list. Having said that, January really does look like an great opportunity to strengthen our challenge. What could possibly go wrong. 😮

Is there any such thing as “league 3”? Fornah “wants to be here” because we have offered him a contract and, presumably, there is no one from a higher league sniffing around for him as their maybe for Bird. That’s not a criticism of Fornah but neither should Bird be hung out to dry simply for being interested in furthering his career at a higher level (if indeed he has indicated he doesn’t want to be here as you seem to be implying).

I really don't understand how you can say you'll never be convinced by his management style. If (and it's a big if at the moment) we start playing consistently good football (as I said earlier, there will always be the occasional blip along the way) and get promoted won't you be happy with his style? I really don't get how anyone can be so inflexible and not be prepared to accept the possibility (however remote) that things could improve and we perform (in terms of quality of football and achievements) at an acceptable (or better) level. The same could be said of anyone so pro Warne not accepting that he (and his style) isn't working but I don't think there is anyone on this forum that is so determined to see Warne stay come what may. So, to repeat, although I accept you really can't see it happening, IF we did play good football, got promoted and weren't battling against relegation the following season, you still wouldn't be pro Warne? If the answer is no then he must really done something personal to upset you (IMO).

For me, to say promotion or no promotion is too binary and many other factors probably need to taken into account. If we somehow make the play off final then the difference between promotion and not could be very fine. Are you saying, for example, that if we won the play off final on penalties you’d be “convinced” but if we lost it on penalties you wouldn’t be? If we finished 3rd on goal difference behind the team in 2nd but narrowly lost the play off final would that also be a no for you? For me, I’d be happy to stick with PW provided a) the recent improvement in performances (not just results) is maintained for most games (there is bound to be an occasional blip) and b) we make a pretty good fist at gaining promotion. That would probably mean gaining promotion, performing well but just falling short in the play offs or even performing well but just falling short of reaching the play offs. If we’re playing well but just miss out on the play offs on goal difference or a point or two then I don’t really see there would be anything to be gained by getting rid.

I’ve said before that the problem with the dam busters is that we all burst into a chorus of “we all ducking hate Leeds” which obviously turns it into a song about Leeds. It’s OK to have songs about other teams but not for one to be our “theme tune”.

With due respect, if you can only “comment legitimately for once” how have you have managed to form an opinion on Warne’s style/approach up until now? Today wasn’t our finest game, but every team has an off day so you’re right when you imply a single game is too small a sample size, and we simply came up against a team that played very well today. Based on my observations as a season ticket holder, having attended 4 away games and watched a few more on RamsTV I’d say we’re looking good enough to be decent play off contenders (not just scraping in) but probably not good enough for top 2. Having said that though, we all need to have watched most of our opponents games, rather than just highlights or when they’ve played us, in order to draw a true comparison.

Why are some people too lazy to check for themselves? I know, because they rely on mugs like me😀 8 out of their 10 outfield players today also started the earlier game.

Oh yes, I heard that. I thought he was being critical of what Warne had said about the game. Apologies @Seaside Ram.

Please elaborate. I listened to his interview on the drive home and didn’t hear anything justifying such a response.

I think most sensible folk would agree that whilst the score lines were the same the two games were completely different. Oxford raced to an early 2:0 lead and then were under the cosh for most of the next 75 minutes especially in the second half when it was pretty much wave after wave of Derby attacks. Today, Peterborough were, IMO beyond much doubt the better team but they didn’t have us pinned back for the majority of the game in the same way we had Oxford. I agree, they looked a step above us today but there is no way they battered us.

Talk about negative overreaction. Peterborough deserved the win. They were the better team and outplayed us but not to the extent that they battered us.

I don't get that at all. Peterborough were just that little bit better both halves.

If you're going to judge PW by our performances and results (which doesn't sound too unreasonable) then given our football has been much better and our results have been excellent of late surely Paul Warne is currently looking good rather than just less rubbish?

No. Winning this league (or I’d just take top two) is the equivalent of completing this jigsaw not just completing the perimeter. When we’ve done it, we get a new, and more difficult, jigsaw out (I.e. competing in the Championship) for which we might need some new pieces in the summer.

A quick Google search suggests the following order for deciding league position according to the EFL rule book section 9: 1 Points 2 Goal difference 3. Goals scored 4. Record against each other (for the tied clubs) 5. Number of wins 6. Goals scored away from home 7. Lowest penalty points (for yellow and red cards) 8. Sendings off 9. Play off game (or games, to be determined by the league) against each other (but only if a final league position needs to be determined to settle promotion, relegation or play off position (including home and away advantage in the play offs).

Oxford weren’t very good but I also think it’s worth recognising that we didn’t allow them to play much better. As was said by one poster on the Oxford forum, we were relentless.

It’s not been forgotten. I openly criticised him for conceding the penalty (and I’m pretty sure he’d freely accept that criticism) but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognise the good things he did last night.

According to t’internet, the building of the fourth stand was shelved when they dropped down the leagues and didn’t need the larger capacity (and obviously because of costs).

Perhaps I’ll have to rewatch the whole game as, after one live viewing, your comments feel a bit harsh to me. I don’t recall feeling any nervousness or concern about his game tonight. It could be any dodgy moments were perhaps down to a change in formation (more exposed at the back?) as time was running out and we had to commit even more to attack?