StantonRam

It seems to me that over his tenure many players emerged who made an impact in the 1st team &/or were sold on &/or played at the top level.  To name but a few - Hughes, Hendrick, Bogle, Lowe, Knight, Bird, Sibley.  It also seems to me that we owe him a big debt of gratitude for unearthing so much talent over the years, and for providing young players with a stable environment during the years of turbulence.  I for one would be sorry if the steady flow of Academy players into the 1st team were to end, and I hope that it doesn't.  Thank you Darren for everything and good luck in the future.

Nearly went under 

Nearly ceased to exist

Nearly didn't have a squad at the start of the season

Nearly lost the chance to sign any decent players due to restrictions

Nearly had some kind of a pre season but didn't

Nearly drew several games that we lost

Nearly won several games that we drew

Nearly finished 6th

SO

Thank you to The Nearly Men for at least playing like they cared and for giving us a season where we had some hope for a while

Now the next rebuild begins

And now PW knows that this time Nearly won't be good enough

See you in August folks

Be of good cheer gentlemen and ladies!

For yaaaaay, I bring you good tidings of great joy...erm...maybe...???

If we win, we're 5th or 6th whatever Posh do.

If we win and Bolton lose, we finish 5th and avoid the Owls in the playoff semis.

Since the Owls are 3rd whatever happens, I suspect they will rest some first choice players ready for the playoffs.  That might give us an opening.

If we draw, Posh still need to beat Baaaaarnsley away by 3 clear goals.  Yeah, right.  The odds are in our favour.  Let's just hope that Baaaarnsley don't rest too many first choice players for that one.

If we lose, Posh still need to win to overtake us.

In the first 3 scenarios we finish 5th or 6th.  In the last 2 we finish 7th.

Any probability experts or Actuaries out there want to have a go at calculating the odds on the above?  Or maybe the bookies already have...

It's another end of season squeaky bum nail biter.  Ears will be glued to phones, goals scored against Posh will provoke louder cheers than if we score ourselves, substitutions will be crucial, teams will go from rushing to take throw ins to out and out time wasting in a matter of seconds depending on how the scores change.

Watch out for the substitution of Collins for McGoldrick at half time if all the results are going our way.  McGoldrick will then be placed in a crate packed with cotton wool, put into storage away from anything even remotely hazardous, and fed and toileted via tubes like a spaceman.  At a secret location.  Guarded by men in dark suits with earpieces and Kalashnikovs.

Assuming that the final places are:

3rd - one of Plymouth/Ipswich/Owls

4th - Baaaaarnsley

5th Bolton or us

6th Bolton or us

Whoever finishes 3rd will be irate at having missed out on automatic and therefore even more dangerous.

SO - I still think we should go all out for 2 wins, on the basis that finishing 5th would enable us to avoid whoever finishes 3rd in the semis.

I do fancy us to overcome Barnsley in that event, and if Bolton finish 6th and manage to beat the 3rd place finishers then I also fancy us against them in a final.  If the 3rd place finishers beat Bolton, then if we end up playing them at Wemberleeee it could go either way.

hi all

Dino M publicly accused Max Bird of diving yesterday on Radio Derby.

If I were Max Bird I would sue for defamation.

Would you?

hi all

Posh getting thumped yesterday gave us a real lifeline.

We now have a better GD than they do and we are 2 points clear of them as well.

Bolton can therefore do what they like, they have a game in hand and a better GD than us, they are not the problem now.

It's a straight shoot out for 6th between us and Posh.

We are now unbeaten in 5.

The significance of the GD is this - even if Posh win both their remaining games (unless they score a lot of goals in doing so) we would need a win and a draw to finish in 6th.

Therefore, we have to go all out for a win against Pompey.  If we did win, then unless Posh pulled off a miracle on the last day we would need just a point against the Owls on the last day to finish 6th.

Trouble is though that the Owls might end up needing to beat us on the last day to secure 2nd place, which would set things up nicely for a very feisty encounter methinks!

We can do this!!!

Yesterday summed it all up really - superior play, bags of chances not taken in the 1st half, sucker punched in the 2nd half.  That script could apply to half the games this season - wins becoming draws or draws becoming losses.

The need for wins just became even more urgent.  Unless we can win the next 4 and get a point against the Owls then we are dependent on Bolton or Posh slipping up, and the form suggests that they might drop a few points but not many.

Unfortunately we are now behind both the other teams in terms of GD and GS too, so we really do need the points to be sure.

It is still possible though.

Seems to me that it's pretty much a 3 way shoot out for 5th and 6th between us, Bolton and Posh.

At the top, clearly one of the current top 3 will miss out on automatic but TBH no idea which one.  Would prefer it to be Plymouth as I think they would be the easier playoff opponents out of the 3.

Below us, I don't think Wycombe or Pompey have enough to threaten for 5th or 6th, although either of them could end up 7th if they go on a run.

I think 13 points from 18 will be enough - 80 points.  4 wins and a draw from the next 5 will do it I think.  That would leave us not having to get anything against the Owls on the last day.

As I said before, it's time to go for it, win or bust, draws are no good to us now.

COYR!

Will 16 points from the remaining games and a grand total of 80 be enough to secure 6th place?

If so, given our present form, where will those points come from?

April's fixture list is strewn with potential banana skins BUT...

Wins against FGR, MKD, the Gas, Exeter & Brewers would put us on 79 points even if we lost to Ipswich & Pompey.  That would leave us needing just 1 point against the (probable) league champions Sheff Wed.

If we do need 80 points then draws are now not an option, 8 points from 8 games won't be enough, so it's time to throw caution to the wind and go all out attack in every game, nothing to lose!

Do we still dare to dream?

COYR!

I can only judge from the radio commentary but my takeaways from yesterday are these:

PW was a late appointment after the squad had already been assembled

Many of this squad are either 30+ or under 25, almost no one in our squad is both in their prime physically and with lots of match experience, we are mostly either one thing or the other

There was not much of a pre season

Which means that at this stage of the season we are likely to lack stamina and therefore need to either be comfortably ahead at half time or making changes early in the 2nd half in order not to fade away as we usually do

Why make 3 substitutions of 1 player each leaving 2 fresh pairs of legs unused when we are losing and being played off the pitch?

Many of the top half sides in this league have been trying for years to get out

Which means that they have experienced and cunning players and managers at this level - dark arts, time wasting, physicality, cunning substitutions etc

Which means that despite our superior skills they often outwit us as they did yesterday and on other occasions

Which means that unless we change the approach for the final run in we will drop out of the top 6

But I hope I'm wrong because if we can make the playoffs I really fancy us to go up whoever the other teams are

COYR!

I took my non footie fan partner to PP last season and booked for the 2 of us in Igor's Lounge.  Coffee on tap, lunch before the game with dessert at half time, civilised bathrooms, freely able to move between the warmth of the lounge and the seats just outside so she didn't feel trapped or cold.  She loved the experience and was very impressed by the whole setup, size of the ground, number of people, enthusiasm etc.  I had to explain/translate the chants, which she found highly amusing.

As a one off treat I thought it was very good value.  Had I been on my own or with a fellow footie fan I wouldn't have gone there, but with a female non footie fan who really doesn't like the cold and is quite picky about dirt, crowds of people etc it was the perfect solution, and only cost maybe twice as much as having lunch elsewhere and then going to the match with an ordinary ticket.

Well worth doing IMO if only as an occasional treat.

Footnote - during the match we ended up sitting next to some very loud cockney sounding females who showed almost no interest in the match.  Turned out to be members of Liam Rosenior's family, who then proceeded to totter slowly and unsteadily around the pitch on unfeasibly high heels after the game during the lap of honour, you couldn't make it up LOL.

It doesn't stack up NOW because we only took 1 point from a possible 6 LOL.

Playoffs seem far more likely now TBH, and the new mission should be to avoid 6th place if possible, although obviously it's still infinitely preferable to 7th!

I still think Plymouth and Tractors will slip up, but probably not enough to change the overall picture much now.

We have games in hand over Bolton, but so do Baaaaaaaaarnsley.

3 wins will give us 66, enough for 3rd/4th/5th but not for 2nd of course.

Sheff W to win it, Bolton or Tractors 2nd after a late surge, we drop off a bit but still manage 4th, playoffs will be Plymouth/Rams/Tractors/Baaaarnsley.

We narrowly beat Tractors (0-0 and 1-0) and Baaaarnsley overcome Plymouth 1-0 in the 94th minute in the 2nd leg.

The final is a dour, dull affair in which Baaaaarnsley park the bus in a 11-0-0 formation, but one moment of McGoldrick magic, either a goal or a converted penalty, see us through.  Barnsley have a man sent off, and they time waste so much that 10 extra minutes are played at the end, but - we are up!

I used to sell crystal balls for a living, but I couldn't see any future in it.

I agree that actually any result from Sheff W v Tractors is good for us simply because of the look of the table right now.

If we win today and Plymouth also win, then the points from the top will be as follows:

If Sheff W win - SW 64, Plym 64, Rams 56, Tractors 53 - still an 8 point gap to 2nd but we have a game in hand over Plym and Tractors and better form than both and will have overtaken the Tractors, important psychologically at this stage as it'd now be them doing the chasing rather than us

If Tractors win - Plym 64, SW 61, Tractors 57, Rams 56 - only a 5 point gap to 2nd and only 1 point behind the Tractors with a game in hand

If a draw - Plym 64, SW 62, Rams 56, Tractors 56 - we would go ahead on GD, a 6 point gap to 2nd

If Plymouth draw or lose it will look even better for us.  As long as we win today, which (sticks neck out) I think we will.

hi Lwebbo

Thanks for reaching out.

Notwithstanding the events of the end of the season before last, there's a lot of respect for SW here - we had Barry Bannon here on loan many years ago, Big Dave (Darren M) played for us many years ago before he went into management, Lee Grant played for both teams etc etc.  Plus, unlike our "friends" at Bramall Lane, you were never managed by the Cheating Beaver LOL.

The trajectory of recent results suggests that, if trends continue, it will be you and us 1 and 2.  I think that would be the fairest outcome because (i) both are big clubs playing below their natural level (ii) both only in L1 due to bad management not footballing reasons (iii) yes Ipswich are really up themselves so we would love to finish above them LOL (iv) Plymouth don't have the fanbase/resources to stay in the Champ even if they go up.

See you in the Champ next season we hope!  Oh and yes please turn the Tractor Boys over for us, and in return we'll go easy on you on the last day -  IF we are already up by then! LOL

All the best to you Owls.

LR2

Hugely proud of last night's display.  McGoldrick would have made it a bit more of a contest, but IMO everyone can hold their heads up.  No disgrace in losing to an almost full strength PL team that probably cost 100x or more than ours.  Full credit to PW for coming out and playing football rather than playing an 11-0-0 formation, and credit also for giving the younger guys some playing time once it was obvious that the tie was lost.  And I do still believe that we can get maximum points from the 6 games in Feb and be right up there competing.  Time to "focus on the League".

hi all

1 down, 6 to go!

I know that the word 'journeyman' isn't entirely fair to some of the current squad, but the fact that they were available to us under the severe restrictions we were under at the time suggests that for whatever reason they were actively looking for clubs rather than being fought over.  That is not to diminish in any way the mostly excellent performances of late by all concerned.

Agree with the comments regarding LR, who should indeed be praised for the recruitment aspect.  I'm sure he could have got us up given time, but I also agree that in the circumstances the appointment of PW was the correct one.

I think that what has happened is that PW has applied the methods he used with less talented players (aka the Rotherham lot) but has also adapted to the fact that we do have some players here with a skill set a level or two higher.  So we now have a squad that is probably fitter and probably runs more than most L1 teams and is also more skilful than most of them.

LR2

...if we were able to get maximum points from the 7 league matches in Jan/Feb?

21 points would give us 68 at the end of Feb.  Ipswich would then have to pick up at least 2 points per game from their 6 games during the same period in order to avoid being overtaken by us.  Even Sheff Wed would have to start watching their backs.

All these 7 games are winnable IMO.  The team are on such an amazing run right now, and confidence is so high, that I don't think this is just wishful thinking but definitely achievable.  

Warne knows this league inside out, the other teams, managers, players etc.  This is exactly why he was hired.  The tactics and setup v Bolton were a masterstroke, and I really believe that he has what it takes to secure those 21 points.  The final score flattered Bolton a lot IMO.

By then it will probably be clear whether we really are in with a chance of displacing Sheff Wed in 2nd or whether it will probably be playoffs.

Even then, I think we would go into the playoffs as the favourites no matter where we finished.

I truly believe that had PW been in charge from this time last year and in charge of pre season then we would be 1st or 2nd right now, because far fewer of those points would have been dropped before Xmas.

As it is, the gap is probably too large now, but I would like to see us give it a real go anyway.

There is not much to lose by being bold at this point.  Even a couple of defeats would see us still in the top 6, and 3 points from 2 games taking risks and winning 1 and losing 1 is better than 2 points from 2 draws and playing it safe - if that were the choice.

This hastily assembled squad of journeymen and academy products is in fact proving to be greater than the sum of its parts, and long may that continue.

LR2

hi all

Please do get behind this, it's very important for all kinds of reasons.

Please also give your support to MEMRAP who are campaigning to get the railway restored between Matlock and Buxton, something which would have huge benefits for everyone, both locals and visitors alike.  Oh and BTW under the MEMRAP plan the Monsal Trail would be retained, improved and rerouted so there would be no loss for walkers, cyclists etc, quite the opposite in fact as the plan is for the trains to include bicycle carriages.  The trains would be integrated with local buses, and the stations would provide easy access to the new Trail.

Thanks for reading.

COYR!!!

Forest in the Premier League, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!

Sorry, that's it, just venting...

OK, I know I'm opening a can of worms, but here goes anyway.

I wonder if there's any correlation between economic wealth as a whole and the geographical distribution of football clubs?

For example, is it the case that the richest clubs are concentrated in big cites &/or the most affluent places?

If one lives in a small town it must follow that the club's fanbase might be smaller and also that rich local owners might be in very short supply.

If it is the case then it makes the achievements of (for example) Burnley all the more remarkable, whereas (for example) Bournemouth might be expected to produce something that's at least reasonable given the demographics and overall level of effluence, sorry affluence, of the area.

There are cultural and historical factors of course, for example the south west historically had comparatively little heavy industry, and thus fewer football clubs and more interest in rugby.

If some kind of index were compiled showing the over- or under- performance of clubs relative to their geographical base, that might give a truer picture of their actual achievements, rather like those 'value added' statistics they put out about schools.

In Derbyshire there are a number of successful non league clubs in the 5th-8th tiers plus the arguably underperforming Chesterfield plus the temporarily demoted Rams.  Manchester has 10x the population of Derby and much more economic power and 2 clubs in the top 10 of the PL.  And as for London...

Finally, if it were ever felt necessary to 'level up' football and make it more evenly competitive by giving financial help to struggling clubs, perhaps if this were done partly on the basis of distance from a big city (say 1 million+), that might be a start.  I'm sure that Plymouth fans would agree...

Very interesting stuff here.

A few thoughts.

New grounds and places, always interesting for travelling fans.

Apparently Plymouth fans refer to all away fans, even those from Torquay, as "northern b******s" LOL.

It is very interesting how many League 1 teams are south of us.  I wonder if there are more northern teams in League 2, and if so then why?  Another example of the north/south divide?  

I seem to have a feeling that way back (first half of the last century) what is now League 1 and League 2 were at the same level but North and South, with one or two teams (not sure which) promoted to the 2nd tier from each.  If that did used to be the case, then with fuel costs as they are, reinstating that model would save teams (and fans!) a lot of dosh in transport costs...

18 hours ago, Boycie said:

To be honest, wasn’t it just one black and white picture?  I’m 51 and I’ve seen enough old footage of Clough’s era to last me a lifetime, I’d never seen the picture before.

Fair point, it's not the best known photo from that era, but I did get the impression that most of the staff simply weren't aware of the significance of the day itself, the 50th anniversary aspect, rather than the hat thing.

12 hours ago, Boycie said:

Well, maybe we’re all not the sheep like to think we are?

LOL

I thought it was a good idea, and the day was great fun, and I never cared before about being in a minority so no change there.  Quite a few people asked me why I was wearing it and I explained, and it made me realise that there's a general need to educate younger fans about the history.  We sometimes assume that they know stuff when actually they don't.  I was also struck by the fact that only one member of DCFC staff that I spoke to (a gentleman around my age) understood the reference without an explanation.  Memo to DCFC - make sure all your staff get a brief overview of the history, names etc during Induction Training!

My partner was attending her first ever game.  She is from eastern Europe and previously had a view of English people as shy, reserved etc.  Not any more.  She loved the passion that was on display, the solidarity in the face of adversity, and the sense of community that was evident.  She even laughed when I explained the chants, including the swearing!  

Sometimes stuff works and sometimes not, that's life.  Still a great day, great to see the members of the 72 team in the flesh and on the pitch, great to be reminded of what binds us together.  Loved the pre match poem as well, sums it all up really.

Finally, if as a fanbase we keep up this level of support this coming season, then surely Wazza will be able, post takeover, to assemble a very competitive squad and aim for a quick comeback.

I wore mine, but it seems that 29,990 other people didn't LOL

hi all

What do we think is a realistic target for next season?

Optimistic - 100 points (30 wins, 10 draws, 6 defeats), win the league, back where we should be

Realistic - 80 points (20 wins, 20 draws, 6 defeats), playoffs, pretty good chance of going straight back up

Pessimistic - 60 points (15 wins, 15 draws, 16 defeats), mid table, struggling with the physicality of the league (injuries?) and proving too lightweight despite being more skilful than most teams

Aaaaaaaargh - 40 points (10 wins, 10 draws, 26 defeats), relegation dogfight, internal acrimony followed by the inevitable departures in both squad and management once we realise just how demanding this league actually is (1st & 2nd round of both cups, up to 60 games in the season with possible cup runs & replays, crap away grounds on cold rainy Tuesday nights, lower gates at home, morale spiralling downwards, CK refusing to invest more until results improve, Roo unable to stop the slide, higher teams hoovering up all our talent, doomed to an eternity in the Twilight Zone...

Personally I'm hoping for somewhere between the first two but fearing that the reality might be more like somewhere between the second and third. 

Also, I hope I'm not alone in believing that #4 is very unlikely!