eccles the ram

I'm so very very sorry to hear about your baby. People do not talk about miscarriage. We had four. And yet before then, I had not known anyone who had experienced one. There are so many things that we face alone, and which are still fairly taboo.
(I always light a candle for all four of my lost children when I visit a church.)
And I have a lovely son - although I often forget how lucky I am!
The suicide of your bother-in-law is terrible. I was close to doing so last summer.* It is quite extraordinary how the mind can work. And I am sorry for him and everyone affected.
* And I've never told anyone else that - only you, and the forum!

@MackworthRamIsGod very sorry to hear about your terrible year.
Very best wishes to you, your wife and extended families.

Those of us who know the pain of miscarriage sympathise greatly pal!  Been there myself more than once. Keep talking and keep going!

I thought 2020 was a tough year, 2021 has been absolutely mental so far.
5 weeks ago my brother-in-law committed suicide and then last week my wife lost our baby whilst 4 months pregnant and we spent a rough couple of days in hospital having to still give birth. Tough times.
I was at least hopeful Wayne Rooneys Rams would cheer me up slightly on the Saturday, but it wasnt to be.
My escapism has always been the Rams, but at the minute it's like going on holiday to Normanton to get away from it all.
 
 

The reason why I don't want us to play for a draw, is because we're playing an opponent who absolutely have to win. If we were playing a mid-table side with nothing to play for, and knew a draw would still keep us safe, then maybe that would be the right plan.
However, I have not seen anything from this current set of players or coaching staff which suggests we would be able to set-up and have the mentality and organisation to stay firm for an entire 90 minutes. Us trying to hold back an onslaught of pressure is going to result in a goal conceded at some point, and then what? We suddenly have to do something that we also aren't very good at, clawing our way back in to a game.
When we're drawing, there's too many ways the table can swing rapidly out of our favour in the blink of an eye. If we can win this game then we don't need to worry about anybody else. I don't want to be level with Sheffield Wednesday and constantly checking to see if Rotherham have taken the lead in Cardiff for the whole game. That might happen in the 89th minute, and then we give ourselves no time to win our own game.
Worry about ourselves first rather than trying to do the bare minimum please.

Remember that time Forest only needed to not loose by 3 goals to qualify for the play offs, and then went and lost by 3 goals. Not really relevant, but always makes me happier to think about that. 

BOGOF, buy Burton, get us free.

Really worried now. Preston game is the most important game we will play in more than a decade. Forget about matches involving playoffs etc.. We have to WIN! Not draw not lose. Win we still have a chance. Anything else you can forget playing the red dogs for the next few years. For the first time in many years I feel we have blown it. However, whichever league we are in I will support this club, whoever is owning,managing or playing next season. Must be mad but since a boy THIS is MY TEAM and I will support it through thick and thin. COYR

Really worried now. Preston game is the most important game we will play in more than a decade. Forget about matches involving playoffs etc.. We have to WIN! Not draw not lose. Win we still have a chance. Anything else you can forget playing the red dogs for the next few years. For the first time in many years I feel we have blown it. However, whichever league we are in I will support this club, whoever is owning,managing or playing next season. Must be mad but since a boy THIS is MY TEAM and I will support it through thick and thin. COYR

I am not one for must win games as it doesn't normally matter where we get the points as long as we get them.  However a difficult situation turns significantly against us if we don't win

Really worried now. Preston game is the most important game we will play in more than a decade. Forget about matches involving playoffs etc.. We have to WIN! Not draw not lose. Win we still have a chance. Anything else you can forget playing the red dogs for the next few years. For the first time in many years I feel we have blown it. However, whichever league we are in I will support this club, whoever is owning,managing or playing next season. Must be mad but since a boy THIS is MY TEAM and I will support it through thick and thin. COYR

I TRUST Wayne Rooney. He is Derby County Football Club.
I TRUST Joel. He is Derby County Football Club.
I TRUST Derby County Football Club. My Football Club.
At a time when our club needs us supporters the most, at a time especially, supporting them for supporting us in our community.
D.C.F.C. Love, Life & Unity.

Nope! Invest in a chain of paella restaurants instead!

I'm a tired middle aged man. I don't have reserves of rage to bring to bear on topics around what might go wrong, or what should have been done. I'm sad that Mel is walking away, sad for us and for him, that the effort in sweat and treasure he's put in to getting us promoted never worked out. Blame him if you want, but few of us could or would have done better. He deserved to sit in the executive box at Old Trafford and The Emirates and watch our team mix it with the best again. I'll always respect him and wish him well.
The new guy is a clean slate, a fresh start. We have a new season over the horizon and if we can just win a couple more games and stay up, positives in the academy and the managers office and hope for the future.
Good luck to him, and I hope the takeover and the relegation battle conclude successfully in this next couple of weeks.
Up the Rams. It's all about the hope.
 
 

As I said before with the Sheikh, following a football club is much more than the owner's far right politics.
We'll all be here long after he's pissed off, I can't stop following the club that is a huge enough a part of my life for me to post regularly on here for the past decade even though I can't stand Alonso's politics.
Derby isn't the owner, it's the fans, players, pubs, mascots, ex-players, managers, coaches, academy lads who make one appearance then never play again, blokes pissing in the Derwent on the way to the stadium, old women in the west stand and little kids in the south stand.

So we have owners with little experience, a manager with little experience and a young squad with little experience. 
Could we get sponsored by Virgin? 

With our final 6 games as they are, including home games against Birmingham and Sheff Weds, if we cant get the results from those games we will deserve to go down.
It’s in our hands. It’s all about us. Play like the past 2 games we will be fine. Play like the 7 games before the international break then it will be touch and go. 

Its all about points in the bag at this stage of the season. Games in hand are good to have providing you've got some good form or able to find some form. Its easy to look at the table and state Rotherham and others have games in hand, They've got to win them. The key date will be Tuesday the 13th (unlucky for some) Hudderfield who have 2 games in hand over the Rams, play Bournemouth that night. Sheff Weds who have 1 game in hand over the Rams, play that game against Swansea. Meanwhile (Covid card tricks) Rotherham play 1 of their 4 games in against QPR.
Key games up to the end of the season are Hudderfield v Rotherham this Saturday. Other matches Huddersfield v Coventry, Birmingham v Rams, Rotherham v Birmingham, Rotherham v Coventry, Rams v Sheff W.
Rotherham from this Saturday included, play 5 games in 11 days, 3 of them matches are against Hudderfield, Coventry and Birmingham. Somebody or both teams could be dropping points there. There is so many things against the current bottom 3, Wycombe Have a terrible goal diff of -32 and have tasted defeat 23 times, with 6 games left I predict they will finish bottom on approx 42 points. Sheff Wed have done really well tonight thumping Cardiff 5-0 but including that match have only picked up 7pts in their last 7 games. I can't see any change in their form and predict them to finish 23rd on approx 43 points.  Rotherham have a massive 10 matches to cram in 28 days, its a big ask to win more than 2 of their 4 games in hand over Derby. I predict they will finish on 46 points maximum having only won 2 and lost 8 of their last 10 matches.
So not having to rely on the down fall of teams below us, because its still in our hands. 50 points is the magic figure and with injuries currently in our squad I think we can only reach around that magic number.

Wycombe has done us a favour today. Knew we would be scrapping for a possible 1 point but it wasn't to be. Norwich is a free hit as no one would expect us to get any points from them on Saturday. At least we had some shots on target so that's a bit more encouraging. The worrying thing for me is Byrne going off. He is one of the few plusses of this sorry season. We need him back asap. Two more wins will do it but I don't know which matches? Luck is also needed and from looking at the Sheff Wed v Cardiff game Wednesday seem to have found some currently 5-0. WTF

Wycombe has done us a favour today. Knew we would be scrapping for a possible 1 point but it wasn't to be. Norwich is a free hit as no one would expect us to get any points from them on Saturday. At least we had some shots on target so that's a bit more encouraging. The worrying thing for me is Byrne going off. He is one of the few plusses of this sorry season. We need him back asap. Two more wins will do it but I don't know which matches? Luck is also needed and from looking at the Sheff Wed v Cardiff game Wednesday seem to have found some currently 5-0. WTF

@Footymum2017 I haven't seen you post anything that is clearly untrue.
I do not know why some on here feel the need to attack you, be sarcastic or derogatory in other ways.
You would think they'd all welcome someone with links to the club and who is ITK on many aspects.
Feel assured that some of us appreciate the information that you bring to the forum. Thank you.

I've been confident all season we will get out of this, even when we were rock bottom. I honestly believed we will stay up and I still do, but even I'm starting to get just a little bit worried now.
This is the most concerned I've been all season, probably because we're coming down to the business end and we're still in trouble not looking like we can score another goal let alone win another game. Add the comments from Rooney about Waghorn and this just looks like a recipe for League one.
We need to sort it over this 2 week break. Beat Luton first game back and we're halfway there.

Luton game is the most important game of season for me. Win it and we may then gain a bit of confidence. Draw or lose it and the fragility returns. Lawrence needs to play his one in ten good game for this one. Ten points needed but i fear it is going down to the wire. Guess who Forest have last game of season- Preston. Would they play for a win if we needed them to beat Preston to save us? I think not! 

Luton game is the most important game of season for me. Win it and we may then gain a bit of confidence. Draw or lose it and the fragility returns. Lawrence needs to play his one in ten good game for this one. Ten points needed but i fear it is going down to the wire. Guess who Forest have last game of season- Preston. Would they play for a win if we needed them to beat Preston to save us? I think not! 

Agree big big week. The team is gelling together nicely at the moment. Yes there needs to be improvement up top but I hope anyone that comes in doesn't undermine the 'team's togetherness' too much. Over to you Mel.