angieram

Good bit of defending there by Sibley and wins the free kick.

Famous last words, Shaun Barker! 

Reading done us a favour already, taking a point at Oxford, so -2 as far as we are concerned.

Charlton 1 - 3 Rams

FRGS Collins

The resurgence of Sonny Bradley starts today! 

12 hours ago, jimtastic56 said:

The Bird announcement on X was very strange . All the Family Guy stuff , and then he ends up in some sort of barn 🤷🏻‍♂️

Isn’t that something to do with the Bird song/chant that we have never been able to get going? 

I bet he's going to get loads more love from the Bristol City fans than he ever did from us.

You're just jealous because he's got a better career  penalty conversion rate than THE Chris Martin!

😉

3 hours ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Some of the reactions on here and twitter last night were beyond a joke to be honest.

"No prem club is going to trust Warne with their young players"

"Max Bird probably left because he cant stand Warnes football"

"Warne can't attract players, the club are lying to us"

"Warne hasn't got the contacts"

"The club said we had money, a good budget, this is a lie"

Amongst other things.

Yet if you take time to wait to hear the reasons and let the club have their say. We were two young strikers first choices, but unfortunately the clubs in question could not get cover and therefore wouldn't let them go. But apparently we have a manager who cant attract these young players because no premier league manager would trust Warne. 

Max Bird was leaving anyway. It really sounds like even if we had got promoted this season, he would have gone. He has been here for a long time. He wants a fresh challenge. Simple as that. No ulterior motives, no hate of the manager, he just wants a fresh challenge.

A deal agreed with a striker, all pretty much done, till at 8pm the gaffer of the club in question pulls the plug. What can we do about that?

We knew of every striker available, we left no stone unturned. But we just couldn't get one done. Despite trying our best and essentially having one agreed until the plug gets pulled at the 11th hour.

We clearly had a but of money left to bring one in, but through no fault of the manager or the club, it has not happened.

Yet yesterday the club, the manager got dogs abuse for failing to get a striker in.

Washington and Waghorn will be back in 3 weeks. You have Barkhuizen that can play through the middle, NML if needed. In the next 5 games we have one midweek game, so the others are all a full week apart. Plenty of times for Collins to recover.

We have ended the window with a better midfield than when we started & wingers that would be the envy of most clubs in this league.

Lets get behind them now and stop looking to pin blame and point the finger at.

UTR

The voice of reason. Thank you!

2 hours ago, Blondest Goat said:

Agree with most of what you've said but when Collins tires and needs replacing after 75 minutes tomorrow we don't have a single recognised striker at the club to replace him with.  That is unbelievably poor.

This is Collins we're talking about. He doesn't do tired.

I would only worry about injury, suspensions, sending off - and even then we have players who can cover that central position in an emergency. 

Just now, May Contain Nuts said:

Surely that still includes Sibley? Not that he's held in the same regard.

And Cash!

1 hour ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Maybe warm the bench.

Tell him he doesn't need to warm the bench - the seats are already heated.

2 hours ago, Srg said:

To me, he's shown enough to be worthy of game time here. Take minutes from Hourihane, he doesn't need them and maybe he can actually be more useful with more energy in the tank.

I don't disagree, srg, but it's not how Warne thinks, so I'd rather the young man was getting minutes than getting frustrated.

Just now, Srg said:

Am I crazy for being genuinely annoyed if we get rid of Fornah? Hopefully, it's all nonsense and he's going nowhere, but if he does go, I'd be so frustrated.

Maybe a loan out? He does need game time, and to learn the role a bit more.

I always thought he'd be one for the future, given Hourihane and probably Bird departing at season end. So a development loan would make more sense to me. 

Can't see a transfer fee generating much? 

I just hope we don't put any money in Sheffield Wednesday's coffers! 

55 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

We had Luke McGee on loan from them. He was also part of their 21/22 L2 promotion team

And a damn good keeper he was for them, too. Never got a look in here.

Great news, and he sounds just as enthusiastic as Kane Wilson did when he signed for us. We need players who want to work their socks off for the team, and both these ex FGR players do this. 

1 hour ago, David said:

Unfortunately you don't really get a choice, pretty much dictated by the area of the country you are in. 

Last weekend we had a 3 carriage train into Doncaster with one working toilet for a capacity of around 80%, which included a stag party.

From Doncaster into Derby we had to stand by the doors the entire way. 

Stood there questioning my life decisions, paying more for that train than it would have cost me to jump on a RyanAir flight to Spain.

That's a pretty good toilet to person ratio, compared to some of the away matches we've been to this season!

2 hours ago, i-Ram said:

Really, has anyone heard of this bloke before, or seen him play. I am reading a lot on here about what wonderful news this is, and yet he has started 5 games in the last 2 seasons. 

Yes, I saw him a few times playing for FGR, but it was a couple of seasons ago. He likes to get stuck into a tackle! 

Always hard to say when making the step up, and he obviously struggled with injuries in a very similar way to Wilson after he moved from FGR, but that team was pretty impressive and the biggest mistake Dale Vince made was not holding onto his best players when they got promoted. 

5 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Three at the back allows more in midfield, I think he might start with it.

I thought we played better when we went to three at the back on Saturday. Bradley was effective and Wilson immediately looked stronger with the confidence of knowing he had cover behind him. 

But Cheltenham aren't the most attacking of sides and I've been less than impressed with how the back three have worked together in previous outings. Especially at opposition set pieces. 

On balance, I would see how much difference Nyambe's return makes to the lineup before I made a change to a back three, and at least give Sibley a couple of further games at left back before his inevitable re-dropping. I thought he was one of our brighter players on Saturday (despite the odd mistake in a position he hasn't really played much of for the best part of a season.)

Is it possible to be concerned about a lack of midfield control despite winning games? 

I suppose the theory is to blitz the opposition early with our superior attack, then introduce that control through the substitutions to see the game out. 

If we don't score early this puts increasing pressure on the midfield, who are more and more stretched as the game wears on. 

We (and most of our players) are used to a midfield three, and I feel it would get the most out of the players at our disposal. The crowd noise seems to be suggesting that, and I think there's enough evidence from performance levels on the pitch that the players think it too. 

Will Warne give way to that pressure? I'm not so sure.

3 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

There were a handful up behind us prob including the two men who randomly shouted a couple of comments re Warne. It seemed to mainly come from South Stand (and not having a go at south stand before someone jumps in). 
 

does anyone know why we have started playing hey jude at final whistle so loudly it totally stops any fan singing. I know we have this discussion 6 million times a season but sure thats some of issue with atmosphere - so loud pre and post match at half time and after goals seems to stifle any crowd noise. Dont like being told what to sing when

I returned to my seat in the upper tier yesterday after an enforced spell pitchside. Blimey, I'd forgotten just how loud the speakers are up there! 

3 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

I think he's just being a bit stubborn to be honest. We did see a dramatic difference for changing to MF3 with legs and it's not the first time. If I had to level criticism, that'd be it. Even with the depleted defence, I think with a 4-3-3 we'd just outscore most teams anyway.

Fingers crossed that lesson has been learned now, as if we set up with a 2 in midfield again next week, some on here will be exploding their colostomy bags in incandescent rage .

Are you implying that the posters who are most critical are older/disabled in some way? 

I see no evidence of that, either on here, or at matches.

In fact at Reading, it was the younger fans giving out all the hand gestures at Warne and the team at full time. Luckily, I didn't hear any booing there. 

2 hours ago, Foreveram said:

22,000 fans booed, really.

No booing at all around us in West Stand. It didn't sound very loud at all, maybe the pitchside microphones emphasised it? 

8 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Maybe knows we’re not currently at our best as a team so is trying to force things where he can? 
Also the offsides can partly be attributed to the timing of the pass can’t it? So with the team not in the best moment is the “wavelength” off between them all. 

This for me, yesterday. 

That hesitancy in playing the forward pass is what is catching him (and others) offside.

Ironic, really, when earlier passes to get the ball out wide are played too soon , that the final killer pass isn't coming naturally.