DavesaRam

You can read me like a book!

The comment was about Port Vale’s request for applause on the 18th minute as a recognition of what Reading are going through. I was hinting that Reading’s plight is not exactly a major sadness for Derby fans.

What would be forgotten about?

The problem is is terns if him picking the ball up un central areas - the ball never gies there unless its at the feet of an opposition player!

We can’t drop Elder after one average game, but we can do it to Sibley. In fact we can do it to Sibley after he’s scored twice in one match. And what would happen if we played Elder out of position?

I have to point out to Derby County that their beer is getting lukewarm, we've been holding it for so long!

Your slippers are near the fireplace, below the mantlepiece where the tick tok resides.

Having watched the highlights the pass for their second goal was a peach. If it had been made by Gorgeous George we would gave been purring all night. It is possible that even without the slip Elder would have struggled to deal with it.

He did it regularly, getting tipper lorries full of sand dumping their load on what should have been a pitch, and even getting the Fire Brigade down gushing oceans of water onto the pitch! I remember one defender doing a sky-high hoofball clearance which landed in the centre circle and simply stuck there without a hint of a bounce!

So now the emotion has subsided - it was a great game of football for the neutrals, but I'm not a neutral! The opening exchanges got me thinking that we've got too much for Burton, and we SHOULD be comfortable! And we had yet another chance to make a statement by going second. So Derby County said "Hold my beer", so now we are third! It's the Derby way. Fact is we are joint second, one point behind top with a game in hand. So its good! First half all that Burton had to offer was lots of running around, and a lot of thug football. The ref was like a woman's blouse on washday - all wet and floppy, and many in the South Stand could see right through him, which is another feature of wet shirts, even though that is not what they are supposed to do. By half time there should have been 5 or 6 yellow cards to Burton, and possibly a red. Ironically the first goal was scored by a player who shouldn't have been on the pitch. But the ref's thighs swish together when he runs because he hasn't got any balls to keep them apart. Seddon should also have been yellow carded for diving into the box to try and fake a penalty, but although the ref played the advantage, he didn't then go back and do what ref's are supposed to do. Neither did he card Seddon for running away with the ball, which apparently isn't as bad as kicking the ball away. Things changed in the second half because Patterson noticed that our players had turned midfield into a no-man's land, switched his formation and then spent the next 20 minutes or so charging through the gaping holes we so thoughtfully provided for them, and the two bits of poor play were heavily punished. How Burton could punish us when so many other teams haven't been capable I don't know, because the Brewers are not a good team. I find it strange that NML is getting rave reviews for his pace and threat, yet he has only put away a single one-on-one, and fluffed the rest, yet two Burton players put theirs away as though that's all they do for a living. But in part it is because of how we play at times. Although we like to get the ball forwards as fast as possible, at times we will take our time, especially when the opposition park the bus, in order to draw them out of their own half and leave gaps to exploit. But last night we twice got drawn into Burton's half and we got hit on the break for both goals, because we had hardly anyone back. Also, re the vacant midfield spaces: Bird's perceived poor performances are aften because he has two or three players buzzing round him at all times, and when he does get the ball in space, there is no-one to pass to because everyone is scurrying out wide as though the middle of the pitch is riddled with land mines. He actually played well last night, and as well as blocks and interceptions, he made a number of runs through the middle - I hope Warne wasn't watching! The eventual bolstering of midfield did the trick, but rather than Thompson being the key - and I really rate him and what he brings to the team - the real difference was Sibley who saw loads of the ball, took men on and put loads of crosses on, and our taking back control revolved around him being brought on to the pitch. Ironically if he had made the mistake which Elder did, there would be a second thread all to himself demand he be flogged or be given a flogging! The kid did really well last night! But man of the match has to be Wilson, who to me is the best footballer we've had at the club for years and years. I don't think he put a foot wrong defensively, although I could be wrong, skinned his defenders for fun, and I think only put one poor cross in all night. A great player! So we are sitting very well in the league right now, with the main threat being Bolton, if they can use the potential of their games in hand. If so, top spot is theirs. But one of the top spots is ours. All we've got to do is fill it! COME ON YOU RAMS!

Hit the nail right on the head there, young Dunc! 👏

Full Half Hour? When I was a lad we had to have a minimum of 10 minutes doubting what someone said, followed by at least 20 minutes disputing their statement before you could even think about calling it an argument.

Err no. He actually was seeing if what was “the norm” for Rotherham under Warne had become “the norm” at Derby yet. So has it?

A few months ago a Rotherham fan came onto this forum to see how we were doing under their ex-boss. He asked, amongst other things, whether we were getting loads of injuries, especially during training and especially soft-tissue injuries. How did he know?

‘Cos there’s lots of running around on it? I’ll get me coat!!!!

You never know. He might be given the ball to feet against Burton. He was a bystander on Tuesday because most if the first half the ball was hurtling through the air at cloud level on its way to Bradford defenders’ heads. 🙄

COME ON WARNE - DO THE RIGHT THING. 😡

Yes I do, and he could do a job there. But I’m loving him as mote of an out and out winger!

I used to be very pro-Sibley, I admit, because he got shafted by Rooney. Something happened between him and Wayne that held Louie back, almost as though his development ran into a wall. I have supported the kid because he has never been given a fair crack of the whip. Yes, he's had chances, but they have been spasmodic, and out of position, and even after playing well he has ended up dumped on the bench or out of the squad, while other players got chance after chance after chance, regardless of how they had performed - Tom Lawrence and Connor Hourihane for example, the latter ambling through a load of matches early this season, achieving nothing but still picked. Sibley still hasn't had a load of matches either at left wing, or preferably in the middle to stake claim, so even before he's found his feet, he is on his backside again. My comments about last night is that him and Thommo were the only ones with any urgency to get the ball forwards, but got binned off at half time when there were more deserving cases. And last night was a mix of both players and coaches at fault. The players shouldn't need motivating, and you could say they don't need to be sent out onto the pitch armed to the teeth with tactics either. But we were completely without any idea of a plan bar the big boot to the front, and that isn't all down to the players. It was after Warne's MO when he first arrived. Yes, maybe Sibley should be above all this, and be capable of dropping onto the pitch wherever Warned wants to place him and make an impact, but he never knows which part of the pitch he is going to be in, and often that position has changed, sometimes several times in a match. But each of the positions he has to cover is a different discipline to the others, and he isn't a "jack of all trades", so perhaps it would be better to not treat him as one. My attitude towards Sibley is that he is probably better off getting a move where he could be played to his strengths, instead of being squeezed into somebody else's mould. As I have said many a time, it is not as though Derby haven't got history. In his latter years we wasted Will Hughes, and Chris Martin in his last stay at Pride Park, Weimmann, who was accused of never cutting it, despite being played as a winger when he is a central striker, and when he went to Bristol and got played as a central striker, started banging the goals in. There are countless others we have done this to. I was also in the "Warned Out" brigade at around 90% or so until things suddenly changed after Stevenage. Warne may not have bowed to fan pressure, but the big change happened just after the fans had kicked off, and Warne was definitely hacked off by how he was treated by the fans, and refused to acknowledge them for several matches afterwards. It was too much of a coincidence. And it wasn't just case of players coming back fit after injury. The last time we were a number of players down he was forced to go 4 at the back, and we went on that run last season, but as players came back, he reverted to his 3 at the back obsession. And apart from last Saturday when he was forced to change because of Nyambe's international duties, he has pretty much stuck with 4 at the back, despite having players back from injury. I am now firmly in the "Warne In" camp, despite last night's shambles.

Well after a night’s recovery time I have managed to haul myself back up the steep slope of disappointment to the level where I am merely absolutely hacked off with last night’s offering. Firstly, there are a lot criticisms of Collin’s first half performance, but in reality he was hardly given the ball. We had reverted to the early season’s “lump it in the air either to defenders who are all taller than Collins, or out to the far touchline”. I thought we’d grown up since then, but apparently not. Secondly there are criticisms that our youngsters in midfield didn’t stake their claim for a starting place. But how could they? - see the previous paragraph. I said it earlier, but about the only time we got the ball down and played football with it we got that peach of a cross from Sibley and Thommo’s shot that was blocked. At least those two tried to do something positive with the ball, when nobody else did in the first half. Their reward was to be subbed, probably because they weren’t running around aimlessly enough. And the goal - Ward didn’t make any attempt at all to head the ball. He merely tried to stick his backside into his opponent to hinder him, which is either a coward’s way of defending, or simply lazy. Waghorn used to do it when he was our target man. He virtually never won headers for our crosses because he was too busy bumping into his opponent. The players regularly not turning up is dien to the coaching staff. The players should be willing to bleed or even die for the shirt, but they don’t. And if Warne doesn’t like the term “Warneball”, then he should stop the players resorting to it.

An absolutely belting match report, Lazlow. Many thanks. One day I may come up with a report of my own to that high standard, if I have that many years to live, that is!

I've got the report right here. It says "Bradford were good, Derby weren't".

I agree entirely. The defeat was of our own making. The only discernible play was lumping it long up to Collins who was a foot shorter than their entire defence. It didn't work. Which is curious, because every time we've tried it has been unsuccessful. It is bound to work one day, though isn't it? Oh, and I do tend to see refs differently to many on here, although not last Saturday! Woo Hoo!

Bradford had only got to think about falling down and it was a free kick. But rugby tackles and two-handed shoves in the back on Derby players went unpunished. But it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference because Derby were so, so poor. Warne ought to make the players watch the match over and over so that they can learn from Bradford how to pass to a team mate.

The ref was w***, but Derby County were w*****. And that’s all you are gonna get.