Will Hughes Hair

I’m assuming BR stands for Blinking Reading? 😂

Saturday 16th March
vs Bolton Wanderers
Pride Park   KO 1500
 
This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others
Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.
Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 
Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.
Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.
They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.
Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.
Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.
Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:
Bolton have never won at Pride Park.
There, I've said it. 
Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.
Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.
My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.
Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.
Peterborough vs Portsmouth
Barnsley vs Cheltenham
 
COYR
 

Derby County vs Reading
Tuesday 12th March
Pride Park   KO 1945
 
Opposition Bio: Reading have made more headlines off the field than on it in recent times as they find themselves in financial strife as a result of incompetency by their owner. Sound familiar? 
The EFL have seemingly cut them more slack than they did with ourselves but their patience must be wearing thin as deadlines to deposit sufficient funds regularly pass. The latest failure to pony up saw them docked further points and their season deduction now stands at six points in total. 
There was a further deduction of three points doled out, albeit suspended, after their understandably fed up supporters invaded the pitch and caused the early abandonment of their home match with Port Vale, the latters best result in recent months.
Where we had Mel Morris, Reading have Dai Yongge. This proves the old adage of being wary of baldies or fake Welshmen baring gifts.
Any sympathy we have for them should be tempered though by the thought that they are probably still laughing at us paying £3m for Nick Blackman.
Reading FC are known as the Royals, a distinctly naff nickname acquired after a young Prince Albert played a dozen games for the club before marrying Queen Victoria. Plus they hail from the royal county of Berkshire. They are also known as the Biscuitmen due to the town's association with the biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers. 
They are managed by Spaniard Ruben Selles and, having been relegated last season, will be looking to secure League 1 survival this season and kick on in 2024/25 under different ownership and without points deductions.
Reading are the proud holders of two notable records. In the 1985/86 season they recorded 13 straight victories at the start of the season in what is now this division and they also hold the record for the highest points total for their whopping 106 points in their 2005/06 Championship campaign. 
Opposition Form: Not too shabby in fairness. In the ten matches played since they beat us 1-0 at their place they have won a further four games with three draws and three defeats.
They arrive at Pride Park on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Wycombe and in 18th place with a record of W12-D9-L16. It should be noted, however, that without their points deduction they would be in 14th position. 
Their away record is perhaps misleading as the bare stats of W3-D5-L10 needs to be looked at in the knowledge that they contrived to lose their first eight matches on the road. They all count obviously but their more recent form away since then reads W3-D5-L2. 
Their away wins have been at Wycombe (2-1), Stevenage (1-0) and Carlisle (3-1). They have also managed decent draws at Oxford and Peterborough.
In those 18 away games they have only failed to score on four occasions. Promisingly from a Rams perspective, they have only kept the one clean sheet on their travels.
Opposition Players: Going purely off the stats it would appear their chief dangermen are top marksman Harvey Knibbs (10 goals, 6 assists), Sam Smith (9 goals, 10 assists) and possibly Femi Azeez and Lewis Wing. They also have Robbie's son Charlie Savage, the experienced Harlee Dean and the wonderfully named youngster Jacob Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis who I hope gets a runout as I'd love to see if they put his triple-barrelled name on his shirt.
Rams vs Reading History: This will be the 48th league clash between Derby and Reading and the 54th in all competitions. The clubs' first meeting was a League Cup clash in October 1965 (1-1) but it wasn't until 22nd September 1984 that the Rams and the Royals met in a league fixture for the first time and the long wait proved barely worthwhile as we played out a goalless draw at their previous home, Elm Park. The return fixture would prove to be more memorable, for us at least, as Reading's first ever league visit to Derby in April 1985 saw the Rams win 4-1 with goals from Bobby Davison, Steve Buckley, Trevor Christie and Gary Micklewhite in front of a bumper crowd of 7,945 (really?).
That was not a taste of things to come in this fixture though as Reading have had by far the better of it. Our record on their turf is especially poor with just four wins in 24 visits. On Derby soil, though better as you'd expect, it is still deeply unimpressive. Our last victory at home to them was a 1-0 success in September 2021 but our overall home league record against Reading is W10-D3-L10. 
Expected Team: Same again one might think. Possibly a change in the middle to give more legs with Smith or Thompson in for Hourihane. 
Other Fixtures of Note: Something similar to Saturday would be nice. A Derby win and at least one of our rivals for automatic dropping points please. Their games midweek are:
Portsmouth vs Burton
Bolton vs Oxford
Carlisle vs Barnsley
Peterborough vs Stevenage (Weds)
COYR
 

Bristol Rovers vs Derby County
Saturday 9th March KO 3pm
Memorial Stadium (BS7 0BF)
 
Opponents Form: Decent recently with three wins in their last four matches including their last two. They currently sit 11th in the table albeit with no realistic playoff aspirations or relegation concerns. Whilst their home record in L1 this season is a reasonable W7-D5-L5 it should be noted that they have lost four of their most recent six matches on their own patch with wins over Carlisle (2-1) and Oxford (3-1) dampened by defeats to Blackpool (1-2), Exeter (0-1), Fleetwood (0-2) and Burton (1-2).
Opponents Bio: Rovers are managed by Matt Taylor who is in his third managerial role. After an impressive four years at Exeter he was the man chosen by Rotherham to take over the reins after the departure of our own Paul Warne to Pride Park. Taylor's spell there lasted 13 months before he parted company with the Yorkshire club in November 2023 as the Millers were struggling in 22nd place. Within three weeks, however, he found himself in the Bristol Rovers hotseat replacing the ever-delightful Joseph Barton. 
The club have played their home matches at the 11,000 capacity (3,000 seated) Memorial Stadium since 1996 after leaving their previous home in Eastville. They are officially known as the 'Pirates', reflecting Bristol's maritime history. Or because they just arrrr. Or maybe because their form is historically patchy. They are of course also known as the 'Gas', a nickname which was given them by opposition fans originally but was cheerfully adopted by the Rovers' followers who refer to themselves as 'Gasheads'. The name came about apparently due to their former stadium being sited next to a gasworks which produced a distinct aroma which would waft over the ground. Anybody who sits near a few of our more dedicated drinkers at Pride Park will no doubt relate to that.
Opponents Player Watch: Only one place to start here as the Rams go up against our former beau, Christopher Hugh Martin. The Wardrobe has scored 15 goals this season and is joint fifth in the top scorers chart for the division. Second top scorer after CM9 is Anthony Evans with half a dozen goals. Other notable players are ex-Rams youngster Luke Thomas, experienced former Swansea, Celtic and Preston man Scott Sinclair and Chelsea loanee Harvey Vale who I think we were linked with during the summer. I'm not sure if he's their number one or not but they also have a goalkeeper called Jed Ward who you can only sympathise with.
Rams Record vs Opponents: There have been three FA Cup ties between the two clubs but we'll focus on the 27 league matches there have been between Bristol Rovers and Derby County. The first meeting was on 29th August 1953 at Bristol so hats off to any Ram or Rover who remembers that match over 70 years ago. During the early years of the fixture it was Bristol Rovers who held sway with the Pirates winning the first three encounters, four of the first five and six of the first nine overall. Since then though it is the Rams who have had much the better of it. The overall league record for Derby against Saturday's opponents is as follows:
P27: W12-D7-L8
Away at Bristol Rovers our record  is: P13: W3-D4-L6   Whilst that isn't impressive it should be pointed out that we lost on our first five visits and since then we've gone W3-D3-L1 on their turf and are unbeaten in our last four visits.
Since our relegation to L1 for the 2022/23 season the Rams have recorded home wins against Rovers in both fixtures at Pride Park (4-2 and 2-1) whilst last season we conceded a debateable late penalty in a 1-1 draw at their place.
Other Saturday Fixtures Of Note: We will either be second or third going into the match depending on the outcome of Barnsley vs Bolton on Tuesday night. Peterborough are at home to Northampton on the same evening. On Saturday our priority is of course to earn three points in the south-west but we will be hoping for favourable results in at least one of the following games:
Blackpool vs Portsmouth
Exeter vs Bolton
Barnsley vs Lincoln
Burton vs Peterborough
Expected Team: My guess is that Derby will be unchanged from the 3-0 win against a desperately struggling Port Vale. With fit full-back options rarer than a salad in the City Ground boardroom I suspect it'll be a back three plus the two wing-backs who played well yesterday. 
 
Safe journey to those who make the trip and COYR.

What an odd way to phrase a question, essentially loading the question….if I can be so bold as to rephrase it to “how did Gayle do on his first start?” then my answer would be….
Gayle showed his movement and know how from playing at a higher level, I was surprised by some of his link up play in the first 20 mins or so as he occasionally dropped deep and played back to goal, popping one touch passes around with the likes of Bird and NML, he also then played a bit more on the shoulder of the defence and kept moving between their cbs. My thoughts during the game were that with more time alongside his teammates we could have a very potent attacking option. Ultimately the teams inability to find the killer final ball meant a lot of the positives Gayle showed weren’t utilised and there was a couple of times when he seemed to lose flight of the ball and it bounced off him as he was making his run.
In summary, some good, some bad, and it’s early days. 

The ball control and passing are woeful at times. Do they just do set pieces in training?
And throw ins? Lost count of the times we threw to an unopposed Charlton player. Ludicrous.
I’m telling you, Sonny Bradley messes that team up. Take him out, let Cashin and Nelson do what they did so well. Play two proper full backs and have six players ahead of them who can create goals. It’s not rocket science.

Apart from Exeter our form in 2024 has been so so. Stevenage result was good in context. But most of our other wins have been by the skin of our teethe.
Home form is average at best. We have 27,000 most weeks, Pride Park should be a fortress. Instead away matches look our better source of results.
Feel almost embarrassed to tell family members that we’re second but not enjoying the football. Being second shouldn’t feel like this.

Warne always refers to Liverpool or Man City in interviews when talking about tactics/good teams and I know he would love us to be this multidimensional team that can effortlessly switch systems but we are in the 3rd tier of English football, We are Derby County, NOT Liverpool or Man City, that is the reality.
Drastically changing to 3 at the back with absolutely zero proof that we play better that way to see games out, we don't. Every time we go 3 at the back we completely lose any edge and become this unorganised, disjointed team on the back foot. It seems we alway revert to that because for some reason Warne loves yanking his chain over it. 
The reality is, we (imo) need to go to a 4123, stick with it for the rest of the season. 1 system, 1 lot of instructions, simplify it. Players should be then picked on form to play in that system, not shoe horning everyone in with a complete change of system because you see Man City, a billion pound team, do it on Match Of The Day.
We have more than enough to get out this league, but we need to play to our strengths and admit defeat when something isn't working, because right now reverting back to type is not it.
Still alot of games to play and no doubt there will be more drama, but we need to stomp this bottling out now.
🙏

To be guilty of tactical cowardice surely he’d need to either use tactics or at least demonstrate he was relying on more than one?

To be guilty of tactical cowardice surely he’d need to either use tactics or at least demonstrate he was relying on more than one?

To be guilty of tactical cowardice surely he’d need to either use tactics or at least demonstrate he was relying on more than one?

To be guilty of tactical cowardice surely he’d need to either use tactics or at least demonstrate he was relying on more than one?

At half time, both teams had had three shots, with the Cash goal being the only effort on target.
We were home to fifth bottom who were winless in 18, and we’d had three shots.
By the 98th minute we hadn’t fashioned any half decent open play opportunity.

Unfortunately, I am beginning to believe that on genuine evidence PW and his team are woefully inadequate. Tactically naive, they allow other managers and their coaching teams to take total advantage of any and every strategic tactical decision. I was never expecting Pep, but this is bettered on local playing fields by many a under 8's coach.
Basically it lets us down. Even if by fluke we get promoted, I am sorry that we cannot sustain this. I have never been anti Warne and Co but did note my reservations and concerns quite a while ago (these were quite obvious, so everyone else noted them) but no-one in the coaching team appears to learn.
I'm not a spring chicken having watched Derby For around 63 years and I 'm not saying I remember that much in my early years (but I have seen a lot of football, in my time)  but an older guy said to me tonight, after the match; that the manager is just a PE teacher and his only answer is to get quicker, unfortunately, the technicians have caught up. This is 2024, this I am afraid is a cul-de-sac.

When was the last time we could say a midfielder ran the show?
I’m not talking playing well, I mean conducting the orchestra. 

Rubbish football, no gameplan..

I didn’t get where I am today, believing rumours like this.

This will be a huge signing in my opinion, I just feel it in my bones. 
 
had a bad stint at Stoke but is miles above this league in my opinion, cashing in the kids premium bonds as I speak to bet on him scoring Saturday 🐏 

I remember the excitement when Dave Mackay added two “have beens” to the Rams line up!
Lee and George brought a whole new perspective to the team and helped us win our second League Championship.
Come to that, Dave Mackay played a massive part in taking us into the top tier despite injuries and being ‘older than the manager, Brian Clough!” at 35.
All the best Dwight. Enjoy your promotion bonus as a Ram!
 

I would imagine that it’s no surprise but I am feeling very positive about this.
There are going to be a lot of tight, tense games over the next 3 months and someone like Gayle with his movement and instinct in the box could be the difference between 1 point and 3 points in many games.
Let’s hope we get him fully fit and firing and he can lead us to promotion one way or another.

Interestingly, I just watched his YouTube highlights reel from 4 years ago and not a single goal was from pure speed, instead all about quickness of thought. I’m not sure what’s happened to him to reflect the recent dreadful goal scoring stats but it isn’t down to loss of pace. Hopefully the he why wall can sort it out pretty quickly. 

Happy with this ... Hope he stays fit 🤔🤔🤔

I like this a lot even if Collo hadn’t got injured I would have been pleased with this signing 
A goalscorer and more importantly a different type of striker …I really wanted us to sign him when he left Newcastle as I’ve always thought he’s a threat 
well done DCFC getting this done 👍🏻 

I see this as similar to the McGoldrick signing. He hasn’t been prolific in recent times but was getting Premier League minutes just 3 years ago. He will have lost the pace but should still have the footballing intelligence to out think league one defenders. 

He may well not do, but we can only speculate on the evidence available to us - and the fact he’s openly admitted to not even knowing who some of the youth players are, suggests he doesn’t hold much interest.