DavesaRam

That is the Derby County we knew was in there, and have been waiting for!!! A tremendous away performance! I can't fault anything about today's performance. Yes we should have added to the score, but the rub of the green did play it's part. So Collins didn't miss a sitter in the first half - the ball rebounded to him as he was already falling, and already on the goal line heading over it, yet he managed to get the ball onto the post, and redirect the rebound back into the area. Hourihane's miss in the second half was b because the ball fell for him to prod it home with his left foot just as he was using it to take the next step. Unlucky, not poor finishing, just fine margins! Someone said that they wanted the substitutions earlier in the match because two or three players were "blown", and if it was to freshen those legs up I would agree. But they were typical Paul Warne late substitutions, and as such I wouldn't want them making any sooner than they were, simply because defending a 1 - 0 lead isn't our strong suite. However, Paul Warne demonstrated his mastery of tactics, because he was obviously sure that Wigan wouldn't threaten our goal, no matter how much territory we game them, Did they actually manage a shot on target all match? The second half wasn't quite such a dominating performance, but Wigan were never likely to play the second half like the did in the first half, and they duly obliged. At least their manager dragged them up to being a really poor second best, but at least he got them on the same planet as Derby County! Unlike the ref, who made a balls up in the opening minute, and had clearly got a job on, one which he wasn't up to. Was he trying to outdo Rebecca Welch? If so, he missed a trick because Wigan should have had 6 or 7 yellow cards, instead of the 4 which they did have by half time. But we kept a lid on it - I feared for James Collins because he had a blow at the ref when he was fouled and the free kick went to Wigan, but he too kept his cool in the second half, so well done him! I couldn't be happier - apart from a flirt with insisting on "channels and crosses" last Saturday, he has got the team playing football on the floor, and involving the midfield players in the middle of the pitch, and it works. Some of our player was good on the eye, and our pressing and physicality in the tackle was also good, so Wigan could never get their "play it out from the back" going for most of the match. 6 poinTs of first place with a game in hand? Brilliant! I know its not February yet, but the way Paul has got us playing, February doesn't matter, we'll take it in our stride! COME ON YOU RAMS!

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

Will “everybody back” pay off?

Bradley gets his contractual appearance!

Is Wildsmith being Wildsmith, or is he actually injured?

There goes the regulation penalty denial.

Yes. But he’d just been fouled and the free kick given the other way. The card is almost the only thing the ref has given him.

It might be wise to sub Collins for JJ. Our James is proper barked by the crap reffing.

Will Wigan keep all their players on the pitch?

Well deserved

Two yellow card challenges. One given. Small mercies?

They’ve sussed that Wilson is a threat. He’s been hit 3 times now, after only 10 minutes.

Here we go. Book Derby players only.

Owch. Pros and cons, I suppose! If I didn't actually live in Derby I might have been tempted to give you a lift! Shame!

‘tis but a 2 hour drive or so. Come on, you know you want to!

👍👍👍👍 that’s a cracking “ammendment” to the song.

Sort of more of the same please, as in grinding out results. But add in putting 3 at the back in the bin, and playing proper football involving the middle of the pitch as well. Oh, and the other top teams faltering and dropping points, please.

Happy Christmas to all! "I'm dreaming of a black and white Christmas"! It had to be said! I'll get me sleigh!

You could rephrase the last bit to “when we go to a back three he’ll be subbed”! 🤪

I was in the South Stand and it was really loud a lot of the time, and has been noticeably louder since safe standing was done, not that modifications have changed how many stand - we all do.

I am a retired HGV driver, so i have no aspirations to work in the media, thank you very much. I just like to give my opinion, as does everybody else on this forum. It is what forums are for. All I want to do with this "verbosity" is express my frustration taht we are consistently underperforming while it being obvious that we can do so much better, and have proved it several times, only to go backwards once more. And no, I don't think he sets the team up to play poorly, he sets the team up the way that he wants it to play. Which is what he should be doing. But ..... cast your mind back to last season, when he wanted to play a wing-back system , but didn't have the players to do it. Unfortunately, for whatever reason we didn't manage to recruit the players to enable his particular system. But that didn't stop him trying to impose it on the players he had available. My comments are based on the fact that injuries forced him to change our formation, after which we went on a run of good results. But as injured players returned, he reverted to his preferred system, and the results stopped. We have had the same thing this system, with the team struggling to get results once more. And once again, there was the insistence on the preferred system, with even less fruitfulness. Until the disasters against Crewe and Stevenage in particular, with the consequence that the fans started to turn on the team, and on the manager - noticeably it was the away fans, whose support is tremendous, that made the most noise. It seemed as though Warne threw his hands in the air and let the team play to its strengths, and off we went on this terrific run, which is still in progress. But the worrying signs were there on Saturday, and instead of involving the midfield in addition to using the channels, we went back to bypassing them. You might notice comments about Max Bird, Connor Hourihane and Louie Sibley being ineffective. Well they would be when the ball was being whacked out to the wings at every opportunity. It might have been a one off, but lo and behold last night it was clear in the first half especially that the honeymoon was over, and we were back to Warne's preferred wings and crosses methodology. And we were back to creating very little threat at all, apart from the few flashes of "proper" football which did give us attempt at goal. And it was only after the substitutions that we started to dominate what was actually a very well organised, hard working opposition team, but which actually threatened very little. Yes, credit to him for making the changes, and it might well have been that he planned it that way, knowing that Wilson and Sibley would unlock the Lincoln defence, but given the pattern we have already seen all too often, I am not so sure. Our defensive stats have come from the partnership between Cashin and Nelson, and credit to Warne for settling those two together. We also have a great goals scored figure, but most of that has come since we started to play football. And yes, I will have a go about the incessant crossing, because it has produced so little in return. We were crossing the ball poorly, either to high or too deep, to a lone striker who was battling defenders who are inevitably taller than him, or who was so busy doing all is "off the ball" work that he is late arriving. His "in the box" work has improved, curiously since we changed our style, with our crosses now being to feet as well as in the air. So all this is me showing my frustration that having, for the second time, shown that this team really can do the business we have reverted back to the system which is proven to not be effective. Why? Oh, and by the way ....... you don't have to be "impressed" by what I put on here, it is just an opinion, just like everybody else's. If you don't think much to it, so what, you don't have to. And I don't mind either way. Put me on ignore, if you like, I won't take offence.

Yes I will concede that Warne is a tactical genius by setting is up with crap football to lull the opposition into a false sense of security then change to real football snd blow them away. Credit for the substitutions, but his self-admitted MO of get the ball into the flanks and cross it for the defenders to dutifully clear it, rinse and repeat means that in many matches we are climbing hills and mountains when we could be quickly up there and cruising along the plateau. Last night, apart from the first goal, all of our chances came from playing football. So why not do more of it? Our good run up until Wycombe came from us playing more of a footballing game, which we changed to after the protests from supporters following the Stevenage and Crewe matches. It is clear that the team can do it, and it us clear that Warne can do it, but it is also clear that Warne would rather not do it. When we get promoted if we end up reverting to a preferred system rather than one which we know works, unlike this season we won’t last 5 minutes.

A great result but most of it was one hell of a hard watch! I noticed the new "safe standing" rails are waist height, so should there be a shove from the back, fans are simply going to roll over the bar and drop headfirst into the row below. No crush injuries, just lots of concussion and broken necks" That's progress for you! Apart from there not having been crowd surges since Pride park opened, so in the meantime, can the rails be fitted with cushioning to rest our heads or chins on during displays like the first half? As ever we turned the ball over almost at will, and then had to watch and wait while Lincoln played their neat passing game, before we win it back, go from Nelson to Cashin, then eventually on to Fozzie, or occasionally from Cashin over to Ward, then give it away again. And apart from a couple of flashes, that was it - we had the interplay that resulted in Bird's shot being blocked, and then Fozzie's shot past the post. A lot of the negativity isn't necessarily that we aren't dominating entire matches, it is that we are putting up with a second rate style of play when we can play a lot better. And it is down to how the team is being asked, nay told to play - out wide, cross it, in the hope that the ball will fall nicely for one of our strikers - this is paraphrasing Warne's own words. But it so rarely happens - we only scored last night because Hourihane took a pot shot at a loose ball, which had been cleared by the defender. The only other real opportunities came from two passages of one-touch interplay. Almost as if the player said "Quick lads, Warne's looking away. Lets get a bit of football in!" And no, we aren't being forced wide by the opposition, it is Warne's chosen philosophy. Interesting that at half time the Lincoln subs were all there doing one-touch interplay while our subs were doing running and stretching exercises! Did our subs actually touch a ball during the break? As many have observed, the match changed with the substitutions, Wilson because he is a footballer who can magic the ball away from opponents without a second thought - I love having him in the side! And Sibley, not simply because he runs with the ball at defenders, but last night he was running into space and making himself available, and in so doing he was dragging defenders around, making room for other team mates. And very quickly we were ahead, as a direct result of a bit of creativity. It was a short corner, but not the usual short corner - NML quickly curled the ball in with his right foot and Wilson got himself off the mark. And no, it wasn't a lucky goal, he meant the ball to loop over the keeper like it did. Great goal! From then it was game over. Lincoln had got the point they had come for, and settled down to see the game out, only to have that point taken away from them, and having slowed things down, it is very difficult to up the tempo again, and their heads were gone! Our 3rd goal was genius from Wilson. once more he turned and went back up the field, signalling with his hand for someone to pass to, only to double back and slip a beautiful through ball, and Collins couldn't miss. A superb goal. It was a comfortable win in the end, but only because of the passages when we actually played football, instead of "wide and cross" ad nausea. The ref was pretty good overall, but missed three worrying incidents - Collins got an elbow to the head, which was payback for him clattering a Lincoln player over by the touchline, for which I thought he should have been booked. But JJ also got an elbow to the head a few minutes earlier, without having done anything to get payback for. And the ref did nothing about either. But never mind, his few shortcomings were nothing to worry about compared with Welch's performance last Saturday. And when the fans did sing, it was really loud, with the quiet bits probably coinciding with our imitation of funeral directors playing football. Come on you fans! Overall I am very happy about where we are results wise, but if we played more football we wouldn't be worrying if we could get into the automatics, that would be for other teams to worry about. Here's hoping!

Aahhh North Sea Camp - I remember it well!

Sibbers is.often hooked after playing well!