angieram

I think it cranked up when the Stevenage supporters started singing our earlier songs back at us sarcastically. 

For a group of fans with average 3-5,000 home gates they really are an incredibly arrogant lot.

9 hours ago, gfs1ram said:

Well I for one enjoyed the game and obviously the result. Thought we were lively and energetic throughout but without creating very much and could not really see a goal coming. Without a CF then I guess that's how it is going to be.

Well done to the South Stand. Thought you were loud all game and it was great when North and East joined in in those final minutes. Best atmosphere at PP this season by far.

And West!

3 hours ago, Sandman said:

A determined performance is not a good performance. DCFC were once one of the finest football clubs in the country - and now we are reduced to giving a "determined performance" against a little team called Stevenage in the third division? Look on my works you mighty, and despair, said Brian Clough before he fell into ditch on his way home from the pub to his house in Quardon.  Que Sera. Sera.

I was talking to and about @Caerphilly Ram.

2 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Scrappy 1-0 win, Nelson, Cashin and Bradley all very solid, we didn’t get bullied in the way we can normally. Adams did well too. Well done to Warne for making the changes to the side that swung momentum in our favour.

Clean sheet at home for the first time this year, 3 points in the bag, no more injuries (🤞) not been fun and felt pretty lonely on here in terms of optimism but I’m happy with that. 

A determined performance,  never gave up hope. Well played @Caerphilly Ram! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Never have I been so pleased to see a set of cheating players, haranguing management team and arrogant fans go home with absolutely nothing!

Rams 2 - 1 Stevenage

FRGS Mendez-Laing

1 hour ago, ram59 said:

Perhaps as a club, we've been guilty of being too nice and honest in our negotiations for players?

Maybe we've negotiated with only one or two targets rather than five or six, the one or two being unlikely to be let down by us choosing another player. A more cynical approach would be to negotiate with 5 or 6 players, leading all of them to believe that they are our first choice, only for us to complete the purchase on the our highest rated target which we can get over the line.

After all, this seems to be the approach of the players and their agents when dealing with us. How many times in the last couple of transfer windows have we been told that a deal has fallen through at the last moment because the player or his club have backed out?

It's not just the players who are variable. The two premier league strikers suddenly start getting game involvement around the time the transfer window is open. Do they continue to see action when it shuts? I suspect not but it is done by cash rich EPL clubs to keep them sweet. 

1 hour ago, Carnero said:

So true... I've noticed that too 😂

Same as when we sing "the rams are going up, the rams are going up, now you're gonna believe us, now you're gonna believe us, now you're gonna believe ussssss, the rams are going up!"

I don't mind that, usually because it's impossible to disprove it in the remainder of the 90 minutes. But top of the league, na, that's immediately moveable and what better way to motivate the opposition?

9 hours ago, SamUltraRam said:

In the Championship Season 2021-22, game 2 under Rooney

We were the early kick off away at Peterborough and when Jack Stretton gave us the lead, I took a screenshot before Peterborough scored 2 late goals to beat us

There was even some tongue in cheek but brief chanting of " we are top of the league" 🤣

I hate when we chant that, because we inevitably f*** it up later in the same game! 

Just a reminder that Jake Rooney will be back next season, is still under contract, and will be a year stronger. 

This is a great interview with Jake. He appears to be making good progress with his injury, as well as becoming a guitar virtuoso! 

1 hour ago, Cook1988 said:

Bit random but does anyone know what time the derby players get to the ground in the bus and how busy is it lol 

My son wants to go 1 game and not sure what time to get there 

They usually arrive individually for home games, around 12.45 - 1.15 pm.

3 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

He said this just before the away fixture too. 

Yes, he did. It's all a bit tedious and you'd think refs wouldn't fall for it. But then seeing some of the refs we've had this season.... 

As this is vote-based, someone must like him. 

1 minute ago, TheHomunculusLives said:

As it stands, he's arguably been the most successful of his Academy group, despite being discarded by Derby pretty early. Just goes to show some players develop at a quicker rate than others. Sibley looked a very exciting prospect at 18 but 4 years later he's a League One squad player while Whittaker is getting interest from Lazio and top scorer in the Championship.

Archie Brown is playing for KAA Gent.

1 hour ago, DavesaRam said:

So ignoring the youth, sending Dajun Brown out on loan have paid off well, especially as Brown’s loan agreement was so well negotiated that we can’t recall him until next month. Its the Derby way.

Someone on here says 20th February, which if correct would mean one match without a centre-forward (worst-case scenario).

I personally expect to see Collo as usual this Saturday.

Memdez-Laing didn't say 10 wins when, though, did he? Could have been for a set period that we are partway through.

2 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

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.

There are also a lot of family and friend tickets that aren't used each game. 

I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a lot of local non-regulars around us on Tuesday night. I think these might have been returned family and friend tickets as we could not get any closer to the centre of the pitch despite being on there at 10 am sharp, first day of sale.

15 minutes ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Except he didn’t, Forest green played 5-3-2 with Kane and Barnsley’s Nicky Caden as wing backs 

Not when we were there, they didn't.  Maybe they changed it about too? 

Anyway, I think Wilson can defend a bit. I felt sorry for him against Shrewsbury. Just entered the pitch as throwin about to be taken, and there was fault with about three players.  Clever by Shrewsbury,  as much as anything.

9 hours ago, whiteroseram said:

Oh yeah definitely not a criticism of KW, more a point of how difficult it is for a wing back to be put at full back. I think a lot of fans would assume it's an easy transition but look how much ward struggles at times 

He played full back for a whole season at FGR, did alright there! 

It's the changing of systems I think affects players. They like the routine of a familiar system with partners they can then play instinctively with.  Not going to get that under Warne. 

1 hour ago, Carl Sagan said:

As we near the business end of the season, with 14 games to go, the path to automatics is becoming more distinct:

• win 11 and we're likely promoted;
• win 10 and it's very much in the balance;
• win 9 and it's the playoffs for us.

Those 14 games are split 8 home and 6 away:

1. H Stevenage
2. A Barnsley
3. H Charlton
4. H Port Vale
5. A Bristol Rovers
6. H Reading
7. H Bolton
8. A Northampton
9. H Blackpool
10. A Portsmouth
11. A Wycombe
12. H Orient
13. A Cambridge
14. H Carlisle

We used up one life last Saturday by only drawing at home to Shrewsbury. If we want automatic promotion, in this mediocre division draws are effectively defeats unless playing Bolton or Portsmouth.

For this match we need to step it up in home, as we should be hoping/expecting to win 7 out of the 8 remaining home games, and then 4 out of the 6 remaining away games. It isn't quite "must-win" but it very nearly is. Let's hope the crowd gets behind the lads, and the lads give the crowd strong reason to get behind them. Come on you Rams!

Mendez said something in his interview about being set a target of 10 wins, I think?

2 hours ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Only got back into Leeds at 8.30am this morning after a nightmare with a connecting coach but here are a stream of thoughts from my sleep deprived mind.

Absolutely clinical display from Derby - felt like the game was pretty even first half until Max's goal. Thereafter, their need to attack opened up acres of space that Mendez-Laing & Barkhuizen thrived on - both should have had another goal. Exeter obviously had a lot of ball in the second half as we looked to break on them & had a couple of real opportunities but we did look reasonably assured. The possession stats showing 30% for us would likely have been higher if the game was more even but it does reveal a lot about how this team finds success.

Ebou Adams is the missing ingredient this team has needed for months - perpetual energy, real hunger to protect that back line & plays it simple. Successful midfields are all about blend, not just your best players & his skills perfectly compliment Bird and/or Hourihane.

Lovely to see Max on the scoresheet again - he seems to be really enjoying his football & I hope he realises the majority of Derby fans appreciate what a bloody good player he is & that he's staying with us until the summer to take us up. He deserves a good reception every time he returns to PP as an opposition player.

Away support was fantastic but would agree with others that the truncated nature of the away end made for pockets of fans singing rather than a group effort. That said, had a great time - very loud around us (right behind goal) & enjoyed the celebrations immensely.

Massive game on Saturday against the type of team we tend to struggle with - physical, niggly, clinical & hard pressing. Real test of our promotion credentials as these are the games (both auto promotion challenge & potential playoff games) that we need to win. Would be a real shame not to follow up yesterday's great result with a home win.

Blimey! We were just going down to breakfast then.

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

I gave him 7.0, as per @Ellafellarating, but @Comrade 86description was fitting IMO. He had close attention from 2 defenders at all times and took an absolute pounding at times with no protection from the referee. I was amazed he lasted 90 minutes, but with no other forward on the bench, he had to stay out there and did a good job for me.

Also, his closing down is the reason Exeter players hurry a pass or mis-hit the ball allowing us to regain possession on numerous occasions. 

1 hour ago, hintonsboots said:

Thought the support was excellent last night. Managed to get a couple of seats right on the end of the home stand. Sat on my hands, couldn’t complain about the ref and made do with slapping my leg and saying rank bad defending every time we scored. Think I got away with it 🤣

Yet ironically you could have been sat with us, as there were a good number of seats unclaimed.

This was very lucky for @sage, who had to move seats at halftime after some tanked up prat had spewed up all over the place where he was. 

I hope he's reported  by somebody, because we really need to get rid of this sort of offensive behaviour.

I've never understood why getting rat-arsed and ruining everyone else's enjoyment of the game is considered acceptable in football and I do wonder how many more of the no-shows set off to the game and became too inebriated to actually get there? 

1 hour ago, whiteroseram said:

I will admit to being very naughty and being sat in the Exeter end (free ticket is a free ticket, can't afford nice things), front row right by the pitch, with some Exeter supporting mates, so had a slightly different view. Some interesting points that jumped out 

KW is super talented with magic moments, but 1st half when he was on my side of the pitch he didn't seem to have any idea what his role was. CN and NML constantly telling him to move forwards or backwards. No ones fault really, but he's a wing-back playing RN's role really 

CN is such a leader, partly jumped out because I noticed him talking KW through a lot 

CE is looking better every game, finally some depth there

Everyone around commented on EA, nothing we don't already know, what a guy 

When I told Exeter mates that MB had left and loaned back they assumed he was off to a far bigger team than Bristol.. Just worth reminding ourselves how much he stands out to those seeing us for the 1st time 

The quality of subs, Exeter subs are league 2 quality, ours aren't a massive drop off and can offer slightly different roles

Chicken curry pie was excellent/ pint was poor 

Game management, most of ours biggest critisim recently, was excellent this time around 

Did I miss anything? 

Good comments generally but a couple of things.

We didn't get any beer - be grateful for what you had!

I see it as a positive that two more experienced players were coaching Kane Wilson out there.

Knowing Kane he probably asked for the help. He's young, at a new club where he's been played in several different roles and formations already without a steady run in any one of them. He's eager to learn and that is all to his credit.