kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong

The job Warne has done, since Stevenage away, has been exemplary.
You cannot play one touch 50 pass moves with league 1 players. Not feasible. If we blow it, and have to face up to another season down here, Warne is definitely the man to rebuild us and go again.
If we go up, he will have earnt the right to build a Championship squad and have a go at keeping us up, as per his original brief.
I know he's marmite, with his off-beat personality profile, but he's clearly an honest and genuine man and it's hard to see a nice guy cop for abuse.

It’s more to do with the level these athletes are playing at these days and the toll it takes on the body. To get to the peak of physical fitness can often put you at a breaking point where you push your body beyond its comfort zone too often, leading to more muscle strain/tear injuries.
Plus with modern physios and doctors checking in on players regularly, these problems are identified much more regularly than they used to be.
Im not saying players from back in the day weren’t skilful, but the game was different physically and training wasn’t as intense as it is these days. This meant there were more rest and recovery periods for players compared to todays daily schedule for professional squads.

@RoyMac5 can use whatever pronouns he/she wants! I frequently go by LLW or sometimes ILW, or if I'm sad, VLLW.

I have such mixed feelings. I can see the view of those who just don’t like our current style, yet what is fundamentally wrong with using wingers and getting the ball in the box ? It’s simplistic but it’s not kick and rush and I would challenge anyone who suggests it is. We have some intelligent players. Then dial in that this is L1 with the level touch, consistency and quality defined by that league  - which when lacking (which it is sometimes) makes silky tick tac midfield interchanges a bit of a lottery. Warne has adopted a style that best suits the skill set and consistency of the squad we have. The optimist in me thinks with a step up in quality there is nothing to say PW won’t change his preferences. We won’t know until A .. we’ve seen what’s available in new players, B if we can afford them and C if they want to come. For me he must have at least half a season to prove himself. And … can we honestly criticise him if the funds / players / opportunities are not there for him to adjust his current working model. ? 
 
The football hasn’t been electric but it has been entertaining, puzzling, awkward, frustrating and occasionally exciting…in equal measure. The clicheed suggestions from certain quarters that it’s crude or “Warne ball” are limp, inaccurate and unfair. 
 
We need some youth, we need improved touch and skill quality and a striker that scares people. The rest is fate but it’s 50 years since we could puff our chests out and really justify it on the field of play against all comers. That isn’t PW’s fault. 

Good point. No plan B! 
Whereas Warne has a Plan A, B and C. We sometimes see all three in the same match. 😂
Just an aside, Warne wasn't at the Supporters Club event last night because he'd gone to watch Cambridge at Bristol Rovers. Even at this late stage of the season, he's leaving no stone unturned in his quest to get us up. He works as hard as he expects from the players. 

I think we've seen enough Championship football to know that largely the teams that linger near the bottom has some form of football or financial instability. Just take this season for example, the bottom 13 teams have had a change in manager during this season, some with multiple changes. This idea of sacking Warne as soon as he's promoted the club just screams Chansiri.
The only goal should hopefully we get promoted will be to stay up and Warne more than deserves his shot and dare I say more than achievable when there's plenty of basketcase clubs in that league who will spend most of the summer in a manager recruitment rat race.

Was there all this negativity when Arthur Cox's team scraped into third place in this league courtesy of a dodgy penalty in 1985/86?
Fortunately, that was the last season before the play offs were introduced, who knows what would have happened had we have to have gone through that process?

I think they like the novelty - and the fact it churns things up to have discussions about.  We could have Klopp, lose a game, and the same remarks would be made.  Or:
 
"he's only here for the money"
"he might understand Premier League tactics but he doesn't get the Championship"
"his standards are too high - and they don't want to play for him"
"he is a high budget manager that got 'lucky' with the players".  Without Salah he is a busted flush"
"I don't like his sense of humour".
"he is signing players the top top clubs don't want.  He should go after world class players, pay them peanuts and offer no transfer fee because we are Derby - don't they realise how lucky they are?"
 

I’m still of the opinion that if we appointed a different manager we’d have been promoted last season.

When we go up in two games time  , we will suprise many including most of the fanbase next season  by flirting with the top six , eventually finishing a credible 9th , ready for a prem promotion push in 2025/2026 ..
COYR 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

Cledara Abbey Stadium: KO- 15.00
We’re on a mini-run, aren’t we, but despite having our fate firmly back in our hands, the pressure to perform remains; two wins from our last two and we’re back in the sunlit uplands of the Championship; a loss, or even a draw and potentially the pendulum swings again.
It’ll be interesting to see whether we might see one or two back in full training this week, but it’s hard to view the win against Orient as anything other than one of our most complete performances this season and this despite being far from clinical in front of goal. Will the confidence garnered see us approach the game with the same positive approach? One hopes so! Another slip up when seemingly set to turn the screw and inevitably, PW’s management will be under fire. A win and we head back to Pride Park with only Carlisle standing between us and our first promotion since 2007.
Our Opponents:
The club was founded in 1912 as Abbey United, and took the name Cambridge United in 1951. They played in local amateur leagues before joining the Southern League after finishing as runners-up of the Eastern Counties League in 1957–58. Under Bill Leivers's stewardship they were crowned Southern League Premier Division champions in 1968–69 and 1969–70, which helped to secure their election into the Football League in 1970. 

Recent Form & Key Players:
Off the back off two absolute kickings from Reading, 4-0, then a 6-0 hammering from Lincoln, Cambridge were held 1-1 by Northampton before closing out March with a 2-0 loss away to Bolton. April has seen them draw at home to Charlton and lose by the odd goal to Blackpool, before showing better form in defeating Wigan 3-1 at home.
Top of the scoring charts sits Gassan Ahadme with 11, with Fejiri Okenabirhie next best with 9. Ellis Kachunga is next best having netted 6 times in 34 starts. Sully Kalkai tops the assists list with from Jack Lankester and George Thomas with 4 and 3 assists respectively.
Rams Match Squad:
Hard to get away from the 11 that started against Orient, given the resounding nature of the win and the style in which it was achieved. A buoyant Paul Warne confirmed in the post-match presser that everyone came through unscathed and it was interesting to hear him saying that we had more energy coming off a shorter break than was the case at Wycombe, where he felt we lacked energy, despite the 8 day break.
The injury picture remains murky and it’ll be interesting to see whether Gayle and Bird might be fit enough to make the matchday squad. I’ll not bother with my selected 11, as I always get it horribly wrong and the gaffer seems to be doing a decent job matching squads to opponents without our guidance. Instead, here’s the top of the table as it stands:

Don't forget to keep an eye on @Caerphilly Ram's injury updates thread across the week, for any snippets on player's likely return dates. I'll append anything I see to this htread as best I can in any case.
The Promotion Picture:
Some key fixtures tomorrow night, none more so than Bolton’s home game against Shrewsbury, whom we know to be a strong and obdurate side, though one lacking the Trotter’s class edge. I’d expect Bolton to take the points, but should Shrews grab an early lead, it could make for rather tougher game.
Oxford, fresh off the back of their 5 goal hammering of Posh play hosts to Lincoln City, whose charge towards the play-offs has faltered a little in most recently. It ought to be a tightly contested affair and to be honest, I’d not be surprised by any result.
The aforementioned Posh have what appears to be a routine task against lowly Fleetwood, but what will be the aftermath of their humbling at the hands of Oxford on Saturday. Might they have a hangover?
Perhaps the best tie of the round features champions-elect Portsmouth hosting Barnsley. A point will surely suffice for Pompey, but I expect them to win and win well en route to a thoroughly well-deserved title win. They’ve been excellent this season and this despite being one of the few clubs with comparable injury concerns to our beloved Rams. It'll be good to see them back where they belong after some very difficult years of their own.
Of the weekend ties, the most interesting involve Peterborough, who have a tricky away game at Bristol and Bolton host Port Vale. It seems odds on we will be going into the final week needing to beat Carlisle to be absolutely certain of promotion and I doubt too many Rams fans will be counting their chickens early! 
Final Thoughts:
A brief digression is in order to congratulate Eiran Cashin and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, both of whom made the EFL League 1 Team of the Year. Bit miffed that Curtis Nelson was overlooked to partner Cash at CB, as for me, he’s been top of the pops for us, but I doubt he’ll mind too much if we win come Saturday.
A last word as always to all Derby fans travelling to the game, safe journey to and fro, Rams and Ramettes and hopefully plenty of good stuff to chatter about on your way home. Honestly, I think our away support has been as good as any in the entire EFL this season and they’ll hopefully be rewarded with another complete and controlled performance as we ourselves edge closer to that vital 2nd place finish.
COYR
BE MORE B4
 

🙄

Considering he's talking to me, that's not the case at all.  Long story short, me, my lad, and a few of his mates waited for the players after the Bolton game for pics, and I waited a bit longer than most for a pic with the gaffer, but I guess he was either still basking in the post victory glow at the bar, or he'd popped off early.  Fast forward to Saturday and my lad's mates were again waiting outside and one of them told him I was a Derby fan of 40 years & I was gutted I'd missed him a couple of weeks ago.  Warney politely asked him for his phone, asked what my name was, and hit Record.  Top bloke...

Another tactical masterclass from warne today with the prefect set up to tear orient a new one.
You don't get manager of the month twice in a season without having some knowhow.
Nice one gaffer.
.

Another tactical masterclass from warne today with the prefect set up to tear orient a new one.
You don't get manager of the month twice in a season without having some knowhow.
Nice one gaffer.
.

Another tactical masterclass from warne today with the prefect set up to tear orient a new one.
You don't get manager of the month twice in a season without having some knowhow.
Nice one gaffer.
.

For those who want to see the whole table since that Stevenage match. 
 
Comfortably the best side in the division based on points won since that match. 

Another tactical masterclass from warne today with the prefect set up to tear orient a new one.
You don't get manager of the month twice in a season without having some knowhow.
Nice one gaffer.
.