Hoppo

After a night of severe (and I mean SEVERE) sleep deprivation thanks to a new addition, I did a deep dive on other club's forums to try and gauge the feel of the place and try and get an understanding of where fans expect their clubs to be come the end of the season. Who knows the clubs hopes and aspirations better than their own fans... right(?)! 
You could probably split the division into 5 categories, however due to the sheer confidence of one side then I had to go for six categories. 
Tier 1 - automatic promotion, nothing less: Blackpool. 
No team has more confidence going into the season than Blackpool, although they've lost some (key) players they have absolute faith in their squad and management team. They even have a thread: 'we'll piss league one' where they're united in that thought. Ok, some are obviously more pessimistic about their chances but largely most feel they're at worst a play-off team next season. 
Tier 2 - play-offs, automatic promotion hopefuls: Barnsley, Bolton & I would put us here. 
Barnsley are still very confident of a good season, the general belief is they have comfortably the best midfield in the league (which I thought was ironic since most of their wins came when they barely touched the ball and still feel they have enough to mount a challenge. Bolton, too, who I think were hoping for a better transfer window than they've had but they have faith in the players remaining. They're optimistic about their frontline, more so than their defence. We're the opposite, I would say, but all three sides believe they're 2-3 players short from cementing a tier one space next to the mighty Blackpool. 
Tier 3 - play-off expectation, upper mid-table floor: Portsmouth, Charlton, Oxford, Wycombe. 
I was surprised about the confidence out of Wycombe since they've lost Lewis Wing (their best player IMO) but their recent transfer activity has them a little bit giddy. Portsmouth, who a lot of people are tipping for top 2, aren't being held in the same belief as their fans. They feel they lack creativity and goals in the side and whilst Poole and Scully have earned good reviews - the rest of the players have underwhelmed in pre-season. Charlton are a little more confident, but still feel they're quite a few short. Oxford are absolutely buzzing after their pre-season and definitely have an expectation they will be in the top 6 come the end of the season. Ruben Rodrigues as their top goalscorer. 
Tier 4 - upper midtable, play-off hopeful: Reading, Bristol Rovers and Burton Albion. 
One of these is not like the other, Reading are quite negative in their assessment and but some are still hopeful they can get to the play-offs this season. Bristol Rover and Burton Albion are more in hope than in expectation they can make it. We'll have to see about Reading, obviously they were making an impression in the market before it all got shutdown. 
Tier 5 - midtable sides with very little hope of play-offs: Lincoln, Fleetwood, Peterborough, Wigan, Leyton Orient & Cheltenham. 
Surprised at the apathy regarding Peterbrough but can only assume it's due to the news floating around the club at the minute, not surprising as we have been there. Wigan fans are confident midtable obscurity is where they will land following the -8 point deduction. I tend to agree with them. Cheltenham are fairly chipper for a team that's just lost their top goalscorer but believe Keena can more than replace him. Leyton Orient are obviously buoyant after winning League Two and keeping their better players around, bar the goalkeeper which is understandable. Lincoln are happy with their business, still many predict them to be within the 8th-14th spots. Fleetwood, somewhat surprised me, but they think they will be well clear of relegation too given Marriott and Stockley upfront. 
Tier 6 - lower midtable sides, relegation worries: Cambridge, Exeter, Shrewsbury, Stevenage, Port Vale, Northampton & Carlisle. 
I won't go into it too mcuh, but all these sides are the ones who are anticipating a struggle on the whole. Cambridge, Northampton and Exeter are the three I worry most about after looking at their fans concerns. Shrewsbury very downbeat after losing Steve Cotternil and Luke Leahy. Carlisle, Northampton and Stevenage are just promoted teams looking to survive the year. No surprise none of them have aspirations of play-offs. 
In terms of other teams expectations - definitely felt most expected us to finish top, more often than not the top two predictions were us and Bolton. Portsmouth thrown in at times, as were Barnsley. Despite Blackpool's confidence, very few had them finishing in the top 2 funnily enough. 
If I was going to use all this and make my own prediction: 
Derby, Bolton, Blackpool, Charlton, Oxford and Barnsley would be my best for a top 6. 
Cambridge, Northampton and Carlisle/Exeter for the drop. 

Stuart Pearce anyone? 😂 https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2020/05/snapshot-in-time-stuart-pearce-dons-a-derby-shirt-in-ted-mcminns-testimonial

That's an absolute beaut of a goal.

We’re on fire!

Smith 

It’s amazing how much more balanced we look with Smith in midfield. Looking good, strong at the back, good in the middle and Collo leading the line well. Again good service and he scores. 

really good header. His one midweek was as simple as they come but the power he got on this one whilst stretching a bit was impressive. 

Honestly... that Bristol City shirt looks absolutely disgusting on him I can't lie. I haven't watched the "farewell" video either because losing players like Knight to Bristol on 4 year deals because its a more attractive option is just a horrendous state of affairs and where we are currently at as a club. 
The money we got was decent but Bristol City? Nigel F'in Pearson? 
There's nothing good to see here. Pile of s**t
 
 

Congratulations Lee.
A key player for Derby in the late 90's under Jim Smith. His England U21's are now the European Champions.
A good bloke too, he turned up for a few years to give out the awards to my son's Under 11's Football Team.
 

Docherty destroyed the best club in the country. No one else can come close. 
I felt sorry for Gregory as he jumped ship from Villa to come to us IIRC. Then it didn't work out.
Billy Davies started out with a good team that took us to the top of the league, miles ahead, but then he dumped most of them to bring in his mates, meaning we went into the Prem with a team that would have struggled to stay up in the Championship. Horrible man.
Lampard somehow failed to get us promoted with Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori in the team, aided and abetted with the likes of Harry Wilson, Jayden Bogle, Craig Bryson, Tom Lawrence and a fit Keogh and younger Davies to choose from. That's quite some achievement. In hindsight perhaps his managerial abilities were already becoming clear?

1) Tommy Docherty - for destroying a good squad and replacing it with dross.
2) Billy Davies - famous for saying that as we held the play-off trophy aloft he thought it should have been Preston-coloured ribbons on the cup, not Derby’s. He then blamed Gadsby for limiting the transfer budget to explain his awful signings for the next season. He forgot to mention that he went on holiday for two weeks as soon as the transfer window opened, and by the tome he got back all the players we should have gone for had been signed by other clubs. He also tried to take on the Premiership with hoofball. 😡
Frank Lampard - yes, I know he got us to the play-off final, but with the loan players he was able to bring in we should walked the league. Strings were pulled to make him look good so he could go to Chelsea, who wouldn’t have been able to sign a complete rookie. And as we approached the final, Chelsea came sniffing, but he wouldn’t have bern able to leave the Rams if he had got us promoted. So he didn’t get us promoted. Come final day in his head he was already off, hence leaving Waghorn and young Jack on the bench, and only bringing them on when it was too late.
And having sold us down the river he then kept us hanging on until more of the transfer window had gone than Billy Davies had done.
Poor Phillip Cocu had no chance, only meeting his new squad halfway through their pre-season tour in America. And the only players he could sign were of the “you’ll have to do, there’s no-one else” category.  He didn’t stand a chance. And despite the desperation of the Joswiack and Beilick signings, Mel had blown huge amounts on the Lampard project, setting us up for the misery we are only now starting to come out of.As such I would put Lampard as our worse manager of all time because of what followed.
Even so, there are only two things about Lampard that I don’t like - both his faces.

Ah, come on. Davies was the last manager to get us promoted to the Premier League, and when he got there found out a) he didn't have the squad or the tactics to compete and b) there wasn't any money to buy better players.
Yes we were awful that year, and yes Davies didn't exactly cover himself in glory with some of the things he said when he left.
But he isn't a worse Derby manager than Nigel Pearson.
 

Player I think we need to keep hold of us Cashin…

He didn't sign anyone.

Disappointing to not make playoffs after that amazing run we were on in the middle of the season, when it looked like we could challenge for autos.  Our small squad with some older players ran out of steam. Still, a decent effort after where we were 12 months ago.
Weds deserve to go up after getting so many point for 3rd.
With a broke Wigan and Reading coming down, you'd hope we'd be a main challenger for Autos next season.

Hope Wednesday go up now so that's another 'big side' out the way. With the three coming down, there isn't too much threat being added to the division.
We played well today, we should've got something. Get more athleticism in the squad, sign some players to suit Warne a little better and hopefully have some extra room to manouevre with the business plan, and we have a real chance next season.
I'm gutted to miss out but I said before I think we'll be better off in the long-term having another season being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. One more year where we have to take our little papers to the EFL and ask if we're allowed to sign a certain player or not. It's easier for us to compete in those circumstances than if we have to try and battle with other clubs for free transfers at a Championship level who can offer more.
Trying to find a positive, but we'll be alright.
 

Bristol Rovers clinging on doing us a massive favour. A draw next Saturdaywill do as long as Peterborough don't win by 3 or more goals at Barnsley

That bloke at the back of the South stand nearly got his head on it

Well so far we have:-
Drawn with Sheff Wed
Won 1 lost 1 against Barnsley
Won 1 drawn 1 against Bolton
So not really sure what your concern is?

5 mins of this injury time has so far been spent with Pompey players rolling around on the floor

5 mins of this injury time has so far been spent with Pompey players rolling around on the floor

Surely if they are going to go full strength to beat us, that means they believe they can beat us and therefore would rather play us, cause they believe they can beat us? 
 
My head hurts!

We're still in the much better positon. Peterborough HAVE to win to stand any chance. A draw would do for us, you never know we could even lose and still make it. But of course we should go out there to win. Somehow I think we have the easier game. Sheffield Wednesday could be despondant after their bottlejob letting the top 2 slip whereas Barnsley have pretty much known they'll be in the playoffs for a long time.