Old Spalding Ram

You can only play what’s in front of you and there were some encouraging performances from the youngsters on view last night.  

What I don’t quite get is the comparison of Wolves youngsters to those of Man City from last seasons drubbing.

Bit of an update on that Man City starting eleven :-

Borges (hat trick and destroyed right back Rooney) sold to Ajax £17m

Shea Charles sold to Southampton for £12m

Rico Lewis & Oscar Bobb have both appeared in the Champions League & Premier League

Katongo (Peterborough), Breckin (Wycombe) and Burns (Stevenage) all out on loan to League 1 clubs

They also payed 350k for the 18 year old goalkeeper van Sas.

How the other half live……………………...anyway, back to the real world!

pick the bones out of that lot!
 

November 3rd 2023 Swindon news.

Michael Flynn and Wayne Hatswell sign new long-term contracts

Swindon Town boss agrees new deal until May 2026

November 4th 2023 Swindon news.

FA Cup First Round.

Swindon Town 0        Aldershot Town 7

As me old boss used to say………………timing is everything! 😃

11 hours ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

Wrestlers beef burgers they came out of a tin and were warmed up in water.🤮

Any similarity between wrestlers beef burgers and real food is purely coincidental 

 

 

 

Bloody luv em!           Westlers Economy Burgers In Onion Gravy £1.50 Asda

…………………contains mechanically separated chicken! 😜

                  Wildsmith

Nyambe Nelson Bradley Forsyth 

                     Fornah       
Barkhuizen Bird Hourihane. NML 

                   Washington

……..no drama tonight, 3-0 comfortable win.

Rams win 3-0      fgs NML

Can’t remember who posted it but the most telling statistic from Saturday was that we had 23 crosses and won 8.5%, we won two crosses, I’ll just repeat that…..we won two crosses!
 

If we’re keeping to the same game plan…….might as well play Bradley at centre forward!

22 hours ago, i-Ram said:

What about Fornah? Unsure why, if we did have a soft underbelly yesterday, he didn’t give this lad some minutes? It was his one and only midfield signing.  

Spot on.

Came with a decent reputation, gets around the pitch well in front of the back four,  my man of the match against Blackpool where he seemed to have a bit of a swagger about him, decent on the ball but I never quite got the plan of playing him with Smith.

Then seemed to get the role of some kind of headless chicken pressing midfielder chasing down opposition full backs, maximum mileage, minimal impact.

Substituted at half time against Cheltenham, substituted at half time against Shrewsbury been on the bench for the last two matches, never crossed the white line since and now seems well down the pecking order in midfield.

……………..shame.

Pinched from the Rotherham forum regards today result.

Fatty Evans has won the battle of our former managers. Stevenage 3 v 1 Derby.  Absolutely painful result for the Rams and PW is looking like a dead man walking right now.

*************

Oh dear oh dear, I was expecting Derby to win tbh, glad they didn’t even if I had them on predictions.  Think fans are singing **** again

**************

Derby fans in absolute meltdown! Tactically Evans did a right job on them. Apparently Warne clapped the Derby fans for about 4 seconds from the dug out and disappeared.

Read into that what you want!

***************

When he managed us we had some good stuff. 

Some average and some poor. 

He’s showing that if the players don’t run through brick walls for him which he installed with us he’s not very good tactically or makes good subs. 

It’s inevitable unfortunately he’s just not big enough for a club like that. 

You take your chances and you have to take the consequences. 

He’s a one trick pony.

…………………….no further comment required

5 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

I bet any of you any amount of money that Warne comes out and says he thinks he played well today in an attempt to gaslight and entire fanbase in to thinking that they didn't actually see what they saw.

Post match bingo, I’ll start the ball rolling.

”we were overloaded in midfield”

3 minutes ago, TheRamOfSwad said:

Paul Warne tries to protect his players, you can see that in the interviews. I think they are low on confidence especially with the ball at our feet. We played our best football when McGoldrick came deep and started a move 

I would play just 1 holding Midfielders and try and get them to own the position...

Playing bird, Fornah and Smith/ Hourihane is too much of the same type of player and in practice the midfield gets owned

I would play a diamond for a bit of pass and move

 

                       Wildsmith 

   Nyambe  Nelson Cashin   Forsyth 

                           Bird

         Wilson                    NML

                         Sibley           

                Waghorn   Barks

 

A bit of a change and get bird to dictate the passing play and give barks a go upfront as he looks dangerous and tell sibley to just enjoy himself 

Spot on!
 

pinched from the Exeter forum.

……………….we’re in free-fall 1 win in 7 league games against the team bottom of the league in Cheltenham who have won 1 game all season and also add to that 9-0 & 5-0 defeats in the football league trophy….

in the last 10 competitive fixtures in all competitions we’ve let in 28 & scored 4 winning 1 it’s seriously poor form and needs addressing fast. 

If we play defensive midfielders in Smith & Fornah in front of a back four against this lot then it really is time to seriously question the tactical nouse of the management team.

👍🐏

4-0

Fgs  BIRD 🐦‍

Complete clear out, 9 Paul Warne signings and the club captain, we’ll win this one.

…………………..prove us all wrong!

                                Wildsmith

             Nyambe        Bradley         Nelson

    Ward.                    Fornah.                     Elder

                  Wilson                   Hourihane

                       Waghorn     Washington

39 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

Cheltenham hadn't scored a single goal all season and we couldn't beat them...

Yeh but……………they “overloaded” us in midfield! 👍

Just read the Leigh Curtis opinion piece regards Saturday on Derbyshire Live……….OUCH!
 

Derby County anger grows louder as Paul Warne needs solutions and fast

Warne will know better than anybody that he needs solutions and fast if he to put a lid on the discontent as the top two start to drift out of view which is why there is understandable anger. To use Warne's words after the victory at Meadow Lane, Derby are failing and two points from games against Cambridge, Cheltenham and Shrewsbury is not good enough. But it does beg the question where do we go from here?

Ultimately, what happened at the weekend now goes one of two ways. It either becomes the point in the season that serves as inspiration or the same problems keep on occurring and those advocating change get their wish. The response on Tuesday night against Exeter City will tell us everything.

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-talking-points-shrewsbury-8849144

I posted this a few weeks back……..suppose I better stick by it!  😃

Next run of fixtures……….six league games in October.

Blackpool, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury, Stevenage away

Exeter & Northampton at home.

 If we’ve got any ambitions of getting out of this turgid division then we’ve surely got to be top six by Halloween!

When you’re young there are certain games which stand out…..this one was right up there.

Watney Cup Final       Derby County v Manchester United 

Baseball Ground     8th August 1970      attendance 32,049

The Manchester United side which faced Derby included World Cup winners (Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles), European Footballer of the Year winners (Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best) and the squad who were the first English European Cup winners just over 12 months earlier.

It was a privilege to watch players who are still legends of the game come to the old Baseball Ground.

Thanks Sir Bobby for these great memories………..may you rest in peace.

Will Clowes patience soon run out?………….pinched from elsewhere.

EFL & Sky Sports broadcast rights agreement

EFL clubs have agreed a record domestic rights deal with broadcaster Sky Sports worth £935m over a five-year period, starting in 2024/25

The new deal represents a 50% increase on the current rights value and will see significantly enhanced exposure for all EFL Clubs with an uplift in coverage across all divisions

The current domestic broadcast deal is effectively a share of Championship 70%, League One 18% and League Two 12%.

The uplifted element of the domestic broadcast deal is likely to be fed into the distribution calculation and be split between divisions on an 80% / 12% / 8% ratio.

Weighting is given to Championship clubs as primary drivers of rights values, with clubs agreeing the distribution formulas up to certain levels

According to the existing distribution formula, clubs in the Championship will be approximately 46% better off and 25% in League One and League Two respectively

From 24/25 it’s either a tv deal worth between £1/1.25 million in League 1 or a deal in the Championship worth around £8.7 million plus increased revenues, crowds and corporate opportunities, therefore the financial implications of not getting promoted this season are going to be huge!

There’s some big decisions for Clowes the businessman over the next few months.

I’m no businessman …………….but I certainly know which league I’d rather be in!

I can’t believe some of the stuff I’m reading on here!
I make no apologies in posting this which I pinched from elsewhere.

Taken from a press conference before a match against Forest.

Of all the directions we thought Wayne Rooney’s career may take after the end of his playing days, we perhaps didn’t expect this. 

The eloquent and passionate spokesperson for a community worrying about its football club. A father figure for young footballers fearing for their livelihoods.

But this is Rooney in January 2022. As manager of Derby, Rooney carries responsibilities far heavier than anything he experienced during his years as centre forward and captain for Manchester United and England.

Derby is more than a football club,’ Rooney said.

‘It gives everybody in this city hope. It gives kids the right to dream. It gives young players opportunities. It’s incredible that it’s been left in this situation.

‘It needs to remain in the football pyramid. If not there will be a lot of hearts broken.’

He has already spoken to parents of his players about their mental health, asking them to look out for red flags. Local supporter groups, he revealed on Friday, have his phone number.

Rooney has paid for vital training ground equipment himself and has promised football staff made redundant over the last 12 months that, if brighter days do return, they will be the first ones back through the door.

In short, Rooney has vowed to carry the load of Derby’s troubles on his own shoulders and on the field at least there has been a revival.

So, there has been some brightness but trying to find a way through the gloom of impending extinction continues to represent the greatest challenge of Rooney’s career.

‘Yeh, I think it is,’ he said. ‘It’s been incredibly tough at times. It’s been emotional. I have seen staff lose jobs. I felt the right way to go about this was to try and burden myself and take pressure off staff and players.

‘I know they look to me for guidance and I try. The results and the efforts of the players and staff have been incredible. The players believe in me and I am more than capable of dealing with the stuff off the pitch. 
 

Impending extinction …………so for those Derby County supporters wishing the worst for Rooney hang your heads in shame.

     For home games
 

                         Wildsmith

    Nyambe - Nelson - Cashin - Elder

                             Fornah

                          Bird - Sibley

  Mendez Laing - John Jules - Barkhuizen

For away games to counteract us being “overloaded” in midfield.

                                                      Wildsmith

                                        Nyambe - Nelson - Cashin 

            Ward - Bird - Smith - Hourihane - Thomson - Fornah - Sibley

1 hour ago, Rampant said:

100% agree with this. Bird is as classy a midfielder as there is in L1. Utilise him in his best role and play it on the deck. Smith too can pick a pass. Fornah, Bird and Smith should be the fulcrum of our play.

I'm not in the Warne out camp  - his signing of Nyambe and Fornah buy him extra time for me - but the overall style of play needs to improve and should be better with the relative quality of our squad compared to most in this division. 

Absolutely spot on…………..early contender for post of the day!👍🐏

Plan A…….how to avoid an “overloaded” midfield.

0-0

10 minutes ago, Archied said:

Unchanged team for me please , not bad considering it was the most derided team selection pre game on here for quite some time , perhaps lampard s Wembley selection

Same here.
This is the initial set up for away matches for the rest of the season, injuries permitting.

Ward will replace Wilson when he’s back fit.

…………………….home matches could be completely different. 👍🐏

Pinched from score predictions on the Cheltenham forum.

Lose 
1-3
Malcolm
47

In years to come, there will be a pub-quiz question about which team was the first to concede a goal scored by a Cheltenham player...

You can’t beat a bit of good old gallows humour! 😂