HorsforthRam

Remember when you used to practice keepy uppies and you were getting close to your record and then the ball started to drift away and you were reaching for it to try and get the record breaking touch? That’s Derby after three passes

Don’t think any of the subs strengthened us.
Waghorn used to be a good, aggressive player but now he’s just an aggressive player. He commits fouls hoping not to be seen despite the fact they are about as inconspicuous as a tiger in a nunnery.

Yes, Wycombe played much better stuff than I'd expected...some of their passges of plays were quite neat & opened us up easily. Also didnt think they resorted much to dark arts, it was a fair contest throughout. Their lad up top (Kone) looked a handful, add a bit of end product & he'll be playing at a much higher level.
It would have been difficult for a neutral to work out who was the team in 2nd & who was the team in 15th. Particularly galling given the difference in rest since last game & what was on the line for us. Was very disappointed with our approach, the ball seemed to be a hot potato at times, sensed a lack of urgency (Wildsmith taking ages over restarts) & the decision making was poor. Corners for instance...I get their keeper had a howler on Sunday but did every corner taker have to try & score directly!? Washington also seemed very ponderous on the break, the only exception being his ball to CBT who could have taken a touch & should have scored.
The side looked disjointed with Washingtoj & Collins up top..the latter was anonymous throughout and think we'd have been better served putting in Thompson as an extra midfielder to dominate territory & inject some creativity. Credit to Adams & Korey Smith who played well all night & stopped us being overrun.
Onto Orient & now needing favours from others. If I see Sonny Bradley in that starting line up, Im going to go spare. Dont even think about it Warne.

Warne talks of halves of football and not wasting one. Well, we didn’t waste one, we wasted two. Love to know what the emphasis of the halftime team talk was. 

Warne talks of halves of football and not wasting one. Well, we didn’t waste one, we wasted two. Love to know what the emphasis of the halftime team talk was. 

Completely exposed our one dimensional way of playing, if getting it wide and chucking it in the box doesn't work we really have no clue.
NML, CBT, Collins were all poor, Washington looks like he won a competition to be a footballer.
Smith had a good game, as did Sibley and Wildsmith.
Warnes in game management poor as well, too slow to make changes in the second half and even when they did come he didnt do enough. Looked too scared to lose the point to actually go for it.
Its another game in this season thats a missed opportunity, and another game they bored me to tears.

I was one of many who advocated bringing Hourihane on if we were drawing after 70 mins. But a cursory glance at Wycombe’s chances late on shows that his head is now in the departure lounge: he was almost single-handedly responsible for a Wycombe goal on more than one occasion, dawdling around defensively like Tom Lawrence in one of his sulks.

Sorry to say the safest place for him now is Villa Park. Otherwise he might enter the annals of our club’s history of end-of-season near misses 

I don’t think many of us were “stunned” especially with the result. I reckon most people thought it would be an ugly (actually Wycombe played better football than I expected) and difficult game that we’d probably have enough to win but the result wasn’t a shock. We’re (well me anyway) not stunned, just bitterly disappointed at such an inept and disjointed performance. Yes we had some great chances early on but these were largely down to breakaways aided by some poor defending. Once those opportunities had gone I don’t recall many occasions when we really looked liked scoring or putting together any sort of prolonged passage of play. It was all too frantic which I put down to tactics, formation and players individual performances.
I don’t think either Bolton or Posh will win all of their remaining games but the question is, can we? I see Orient being a difficult game that’ll well probably just scrape over the line in. No game is easy but we probably couldn’t have asked for a much easier final game. Based on our performances against Wycombe and Northampton, the Cambridge game worries me a lot. 

NML hasn't scored since Exeter away, 12 games, or assisted since Bristol Rovers away, 6 games.
Looks like he's ran out of steam, the same as last season, but with CBT not getting going there's little alternative tbh. Clearly CBT is a confidence player, and following that miss he was a waste of a shirt, along with Washington and Collins, which surprised me re Collins, very quiet, but have no time for Washington,  he's been poor all season.

He should have stroked it across the box, not fizzed it at 90mph. Washington bottled it, like he did the chance he had against Blackpool the other week. 

I was there last night and my god it was a hard watch. The constant Wildsmith to Nelson, Nelson to Wilson followed by the ball being lumped up the line invariably to a Wycombe player made my eyes bleed. A lot of people on here blaming CBT for the early miss but Washington was clean through and should have buried that himself. On the extremely rare occasions where we kept the ball on the deck we cut through them but of course that’s not the Warne way so it was back to lumping it. Not one player looked on it last night just like at Northampton. 
It is just so dispiriting to see us floundering in a match like that at such a crucial stage of the season. 

I agree the ball should have been better but it was still an absolutely shocking miss.

I half expected that and, I’m glad we didn’t lose.  I was nowhere near as nervous through the game as I was against Pompey because while we didn’t look like winning, we didn’t look like losing either.  That said the performance was not where it needs to be.  Again, too many off days at the same time.  Abject is probably a good description. 
If CBT’s chance goes in, we would probably have gone on to win comfortably but I think that affected not just him but the team too.  And NML at least has to make the keeper make a save.  I have some sympathy with Washington’s chance as the ball was bouncing and difficult to control.
My glass half full position (and helped by sleeping on it) is this happens, even to Liverpool!!  When we slipped up at Northampton, no-one else took advantage.  I had this as a draw and Pompey as a defeat, so 1 point up.  I think Pompey will beat Bolton win both promotion and the league, that’s come at a good time for us.  Posh will slip up in the next 5 and away to Oxford on Saturday isn’t easy.
3 wins, and I believe we can do it 🐏.

Not sure how adding Bradley helps in any logical way.
Our problems are in attack. We have a selection of forwards who either aren’t fully fit or otherwise just aren’t good enough.
Smith and Adams battled manfully in midfield but they desperately need a third player they can rely upon. Ward provided that briefly. Bird’s return would help massively.
We have the version of James Collins who runs around a lot without being creative and Washington who gets behind defences and then….nothing.
NML looks cursed. I have never seen a player kick the ball into touch as often.
We know CBT can be good, but does he?
What surprised me last night was our willingness to pump the ball in the air again, letting Wildsmith take long free kicks when creativity was needed. I hope that they will practice in training the slick first time passing which can produce the three wins we need.
 
 

Up to four games ago that is completely true. Since then he’s effectively been a passenger as an attacking force.
I love Nat as a player but we have to be honest…. True, he can’t be expected to ‘do it’ every game but five games without output at this stage of the season is fatal… and yes, that does show how important he is to us as a team…

Its not so much we don’t know how to play through the middle, it is more that the players are not allowed to.

Once it’s not working for the wide men, we just don’t know how to change the play to go through the middle. We carry on doing the same patterns over and over. I think Warne doesn’t want touches in midfield in case we lose the ball and it’s 2 v 3. The job of Smith and Adams is to scrap for it and move it wide and not much else. The ball rarely got to Collins from midfield if at all. So predictable. Got to about 65 mins and I just thought we were never gonna score. 

Once it’s not working for the wide men, we just don’t know how to change the play to go through the middle. We carry on doing the same patterns over and over. I think Warne doesn’t want touches in midfield in case we lose the ball and it’s 2 v 3. The job of Smith and Adams is to scrap for it and move it wide and not much else. The ball rarely got to Collins from midfield if at all. So predictable. Got to about 65 mins and I just thought we were never gonna score. 

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Urgency and tempo 🤣🤣🤣🤣 

Once it’s not working for the wide men, we just don’t know how to change the play to go through the middle. We carry on doing the same patterns over and over. I think Warne doesn’t want touches in midfield in case we lose the ball and it’s 2 v 3. The job of Smith and Adams is to scrap for it and move it wide and not much else. The ball rarely got to Collins from midfield if at all. So predictable. Got to about 65 mins and I just thought we were never gonna score. 

Hourihane was taking a free kick and Wildsmith ambled towards him like a tortoise and Hourihane ushered him back to goal.  A whole minute nearly.  At that point my eyeballs began to bleed.

Agree with this then by the time we've got it out wide they've doubled up on the winger and we can't do much with it anyway. 433 with a CAM and leave Collins further forward would've been a much better set up.

I think if we win our final 3 then we will get 2nd, even if that’s not guaranteed now.
Peterborough or Bolton are realistically still going to have to win all their remaining games to finish above us, as I think that’s our last points dropped of the season.
Peterborough are two games in to a run of 7 games in 20 days. They’ve won the two so far, but if they go on to win the next 5 in 17 days then fair play to them.
For Bolton I think the key turning point is going to be Saturday, if they beat Pompey then we may be in trouble. They then have Shrewsbury and Port Vale at home which should be nothing less than 6 points.
I personally see it going in to the final day with Derby 89, Bolton 88, Peterborough 86. If we can’t get promoted before the final game, then having both Bolton & Peterborough within reach of us is better than only having one. If one of the two can’t get automatics, then I wouldn’t be surprised if that side rested a few.
It’s strange because despite how poor tonight was, and despite it no longer being in our hands, it still feels like it is.
9 points from 9, we can do it. I still think we’ll go up.

I can’t tell if he’s struggling with that hamstring or if he’s trying too hard. Maybe both.
What was he doing when he just needed to knock it down the right-wing and cross but instead cut inside and shot on his weak foot? 
The attempted diagonal that went behind Wilson and gave them a throw? 
He’s not beating players either. 

What did they do that was 'horrible'. Well their defence looked fairly 'horrible' true. From that first early mess up where they nearly scored an own goal. But what else did they do that was 'horrible'?