WestKentRam

Todays game was one I thought beforehand would be very difficult and I thought we may get a draw. Stevenage are a typical hard tackling, aggressive side which Derby sides have struggled to play against for many a long year - N Clough, McClaren etc etc etc. we struggled at their place and were well defeated, having been bullied off the park.
News that Collins was not fit also made team selection extremely difficult, as he is the one who normally takes the brunt of aggression from the opposition defence. I can totally understand the team selection today, which I think was initially to standup to the bullying, aggressive tactics. Having 4 particularly strong defenders in Nyambe, Bradley, Nelson and Cashin set the tone, with Adams and Elder also being strong too. I think this initial part of the game, although not exciting, was necessary. Although not entertaining, I admired our courage and grit.
We did try to attack where possible in the first half, but it didn’t happen. Our passing, fluidity up front just wasn’t there. MNL wasn’t at the races in the first half and I don’t think Barkhaizen is particular effective when the opposition is aggressive. We had a couple of near squeaks 1st half but we played them very well - they were probably surprised by our performance.
The 2nd half continued in the same vein but we then became a little more adventurous and the Smith substitution improved matters, freeing Wilson to start attacking more. Not much in the game but I thought we deserved to win in the end due to our courage to stand up to them early on in the game.
Not sure Hourahane was totally fit to start but we seemed to be more mobile in midfield as a result. Everyone got stuck in today, so very pleased with the effort. Sure we will have more productive games going forward soon. We just had to get through today - it was so important that our confidence levels did not drop. Some of our opponents in the promotion race would have loved the 3 points we won today.
Warne has taken a lot of stick on here for his tactics and team selection - not sure what else he could have done under the circumstances he found himself in.
Also a shout out for the referee today, who was not intimidated by the pre-match comments, and Ibthought refereed he game vey sensibly and well on the whole.
we now have a week to work on a formation and tactics for another difficult game on Saturday.
I for one, was pleased with todays showing.
 
 

Or a separate thread debating the various Paul Warne threads?
I'm sure you're right but it also depends on the style of football. I find nothing more tedious than possession based side to side crab football without any attacking threat, that had been our modus operandi in the recent past.
It sticks in my throat to use FFP cheats (don't get me started) Leicester as an example, but they won the PL in 15/16 with 42.4% average possession, although with a particular counter attacking style that we don't possess to the same degree.
What I like to see is positive attacking football. In the past while watching our games under different managers, drifting off into boredom and struggling to work out which way we were kicking, I did think that if an alien was suddenly dropped into our stadium they'd have no idea the aim of the game was to get the ball into the opposition's net.
When PW took over it seemed that for the first couple of games a switch was flicked as if no backwards or sidewards passes were allowed, pressing was everything with forward attacking football. That didn't last long and there now seems to be a lot more hopeful balls forward up in the air, with bouts of head tennis and lack of coordinated passing between players.
Overall it seems obvious PW knows 'how to get out of this league' and hopefully we'll do so this season, but I share others' views that it often isn't an easy watch.
 

We were top of the league after the first game of 18/19 season.
We played on the Friday night.

Steve Evans pumping his fist? In front of 30,000 fans? Filthy beggar!
Can't the fat ***k find a less noncey way to celebrate?
@hintonsboots can we get a, 'ooh, matron' please, to express our collective disdain? Ta.

No sooner said...
 

I would like to formally retract this statement.
Until reading this thread and then looking it up further, I didn't realise Evans had a conviction for fraud in 2006 related to his getting Boston United promoted to the Football League and hiding payments from tax for five years to enable them to spend more on players. Not only that, he was incredibly smug over his rivals when gaining promotion, knowing all along he did it by cheating. 
A journalist in an article in the Independent in 2012 was of the view 'Having interviewed Evans before his misdeeds at Boston were exposed, it is remarkable how little he seems to have changed.'
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-league-cups/steve-evans-i-apologised-now-i-m-just-judged-on-my-results-6295854.html
Am looking forward to tomorrow even less so now, especially as Evans has put pre match pressure on the ref yet again in a game involving us, even though he says he doesn't know who is officiating the game, with the coincidence being he had a post match rant about the same ref two month's ago in the press. The sight of him fist pumping the away end if they win will be too much.

I sincerely hope Collins is ok and it's a tactic by PW to keep Steve Evans guessing prior to our game on Saturday.
It can't help but bring back the trauma of the 14/15 season when Chris Martin picked up an injury at the same time of the season when we were in a similar position in the table, and was out for 10 games. Darren Bent got injured as well, and, hey presto, no striker.
Johnny Russell was played up top but didn't score a single goal in this period. Wolves away was particularly painful and sticks in my memory.
We slipped down the league and the season fizzled out with us finishing 8th.
Of note, the first game we played after Martin got injured was Rotherham away, managed by a certain Steve Evans. 3-3. His post match comments were along his usual themes:
"What an advert for Rotherham United being (in) the Championship.
"There's tinges of great disappointment being 3-1 up. We got a point but we have come across the best team and manager in the division."
 

I looked it up as having the same ref as for the away game there in October would finish me off. Looks like it's not Kirk but Tom Reeves with Michael Webb and Danny Jarvis and Fourth Official Marvyn Amphlett.
However Evans has a huge beef Reeves with had a pop at him only a couple of months ago. Very poor preparation on Evans' part not knowing who the ref for the game is on Saturday, and what a coincidence he's recently had a run in with him.
https://www.thecomet.net/sport/23963735.steve-evans-blasts-horrendous-penalty-decision-cup-tie/

Yes sorry WKR and @Ghost of Clough Google sent me to the Stevenage fixture from last October.
Lets hope Mr Reeves has a good memory aye ☺️

We've only had him once - the Bristol Rovers game earlier this season which CM9 scored in, followed by a NML last minute winner assisted by Fornah.
I think he's been one of the better refs we've had in League 1. However, he has given 3 red cards and 4 penalties in his 11 L1 games this season.

I sincerely hope Collins is ok and it's a tactic by PW to keep Steve Evans guessing prior to our game on Saturday.
It can't help but bring back the trauma of the 14/15 season when Chris Martin picked up an injury at the same time of the season when we were in a similar position in the table, and was out for 10 games. Darren Bent got injured as well, and, hey presto, no striker.
Johnny Russell was played up top but didn't score a single goal in this period. Wolves away was particularly painful and sticks in my memory.
We slipped down the league and the season fizzled out with us finishing 8th.
Of note, the first game we played after Martin got injured was Rotherham away, managed by a certain Steve Evans. 3-3. His post match comments were along his usual themes:
"What an advert for Rotherham United being (in) the Championship.
"There's tinges of great disappointment being 3-1 up. We got a point but we have come across the best team and manager in the division."
 

I looked it up as having the same ref as for the away game there in October would finish me off. Looks like it's not Kirk but Tom Reeves with Michael Webb and Danny Jarvis and Fourth Official Marvyn Amphlett.
However Evans has a huge beef Reeves with had a pop at him only a couple of months ago. Very poor preparation on Evans' part not knowing who the ref for the game is on Saturday, and what a coincidence he's recently had a run in with him.
https://www.thecomet.net/sport/23963735.steve-evans-blasts-horrendous-penalty-decision-cup-tie/

Wolves away was f****** b*******, Bent gets clattered by Batth, clean through on goal but Ince scores from the resultant loose ball.
It’s either advantage and a goal or a red and a free-kick.
Free-kick and a yellow.
 
Not sure Collins missing would have the same impact as Martin, mind. Martin wasn’t just our goal scorer, he was our creator as well.

Or a separate thread debating the various Paul Warne threads?
I'm sure you're right but it also depends on the style of football. I find nothing more tedious than possession based side to side crab football without any attacking threat, that had been our modus operandi in the recent past.
It sticks in my throat to use FFP cheats (don't get me started) Leicester as an example, but they won the PL in 15/16 with 42.4% average possession, although with a particular counter attacking style that we don't possess to the same degree.
What I like to see is positive attacking football. In the past while watching our games under different managers, drifting off into boredom and struggling to work out which way we were kicking, I did think that if an alien was suddenly dropped into our stadium they'd have no idea the aim of the game was to get the ball into the opposition's net.
When PW took over it seemed that for the first couple of games a switch was flicked as if no backwards or sidewards passes were allowed, pressing was everything with forward attacking football. That didn't last long and there now seems to be a lot more hopeful balls forward up in the air, with bouts of head tennis and lack of coordinated passing between players.
Overall it seems obvious PW knows 'how to get out of this league' and hopefully we'll do so this season, but I share others' views that it often isn't an easy watch.
 

Other threads were dog anyway.

Don't they say if you win your away games and draw your home games you've got a great chance of going up? 🤔

Don't they say if you win your away games and draw your home games you've got a great chance of going up? 🤔

Don't they say if you win your away games and draw your home games you've got a great chance of going up? 🤔

Don't they say if you win your away games and draw your home games you've got a great chance of going up? 🤔

It doesn’t stop 98% of the posters on here x

Just call everything crap, you'll be fine 😉

What would Daniel be making of our recent form.
 
He didn't criticize often, but I do recall a couple of pearlers.
 
Didn't he create a thread titled "what the hell was that?"

Well a terrible start. Or was it? Wildsmith made  silly mistake when the striker was already diving, and an excellent free-kick from a soft free-kick. Get used to them, they'll be a feature of the match. But in reality we were still at least equal to them in those opening minutes. I noticed there was much talk form Oxford about our pressing and closing down, but it was they who were buzzing around anything in a white shirt at the start, but evidently it couldn't last. But the picture soon emerged of who was controlling the game, with Derby only coming short on end product. But so on top it was unreal. I noticed the ref clamped down on Nyambe for stealing about 4 yards for a throw, but let Oxford steal ten every time, until late on in the match. He gave them free kicks for next to nothing, but let lots go the other way. NML was hurled ot the floor just before half time but nothing was given, and he let them kick the ball away loads of times without reprimand. How many yellow cards have we had recently for that offence? The only surprise is that his surname isn't Simpson.
But actually none of that matters because of the relentlessness of the team, who found just a bit extra zip in the second half. I had a few moments when I thought this was going to be one of those nights when the ball just won't go in, around Wilson's miss, but apart from that momentary blip it felt inevitable that we would score again, so yet another rival, posing quite a threat on paper, have been made to look quite ordinary, although Oxford were a better "ordinary" than many others. But doing it is something we are getting rather good at.
I admit I was one foot into the Warne out camp a while ago, justifiably, but credit to Paul Warne for sticking with 4 at the back, because it works. Credit to him for being prepared to go that way, instead of insisting on reverting to his preferred 3 at the back. It takes courage to do that, but it is paying off. I worried when Bradley made his customary appearance - I often do, and for a few minutes while we made the adjustment we were wide open to the counter attack, but it did push us further up the pitch and the onslaught increased. Great substitutions, typified by Cashin being involved in our attacking moves from the substitutions onwards. He was virtually a midfield player. 
Highlight for me was the impact JJ had - suddenly we have a striker who knows the right place to be, and has the ability when the ball arrives slightly in the wrong place to make something of it. I really hope he can get a load of game time in, especially if he goes back to Arsenal early. I also hope we can hold on to him, because he could be the huge difference we are looking for in the next window. And it would budgetarily favourable as well (if such a word actually exists).
We have now entered a period where we don't need to worry bout who we have got to play. We can let them worry because they have got to play us, so the only difference between the teams we face will be the colour of the shirts.
And this feeling is reeeeaaaaallllyyyy good!
COME ON YOU RAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm home and just cracked open a nice bottle of German Christmas beer in celebration.  Guess it has all been said, but nights like tonight make the life of ram all worthwhile, this was better than Port Vale last season. I hope I get my voice back tomorrow, maybe the beer will help.

I really think the club is missing a trick here. Every time I've gone into the club shop pre match it's obvious there are a lot of people looking for the hats PW sports in press footage but do not seem to be on sale.
A couple of home games ago there was one supporter in the shop wearing a not dissimilar bobble hat and he said a desperate punter had offered to buy the hat from his head as it looked close enough! He declined as it was freezing outside and he needed it to keep his bonce warm.