DavesaRam

Possibly the best bit about today was Ebou Adams getting the Gorgeous George treatment: "Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up"!!!

Well we got the points, and Blackpool went away happy with a record medals haul for their second sport of Olympic Diving! Actually, with Blackpool coming to play it was quite a good match of football in the most part, and our whole squad played their part. I don't think anyone played badly, with Hourihane perhaps with the worst bit near the end when he made a typical Hourihane clearance which was a hoof over his shoulder vaguely in the direction of the Blackpool half, with height attained seemingly more important than the fact that it went straight to a group of 3 opposition players. But he did ok during his cameo appearance, so no bother! I thought Ward and Wilson worked together really well today, and the back 4 did a great job. And although people on here have talked about the Blackpool chances on the first half, I never felt that they threatened hardly at all. Apart from the Wildsmith save from free kick, they didn't actually threaten from open play until the 86th minute. ell done you Rams! They were handy with the ball, and maybe had mor possession, but actually did very little with it, while Derby did look threatening on a number of occasions. The holding off and not pressing was a tactical decision by Warne who told them to hold station because when they did press, Blackpool were able to "pick them off (Warne's words), and the tactics worked well. Good on you, coaches! Re the ref - some people say that he was quit good. I think it would be more accurate to acknowledge that he wasn't the worst we have had, and didn't make any match-changing gaffes, although it seemed that the linos were doing their best to balls things up. But the truth is that he gave an enormous number of soft decisions in Blackpool's favour, hence my opening hint at their falling to the floor so easily, with the ref falling for it most times, yet not punishing Blackpool players for a series of bad challenges. And we were all shouting for a penalty when Ebou hammered the ball home, because it was a blatant handball. He clearly didn't intend to give it, so well done Mr Adams! I was expecting the ref to rule the goal out and give the penalty after all, but thankfully he didn't. Which would have been a shame, because the goal was a cracker! And at last, it was satisfying to be at a match where we were trying to do football, and where we were relatively comfortable, and where I didn't feel worried or scared for the whole match long.

Only if you are old enough!

I am somewhat cynical at times, but we had seen Fatepu and Weston perform well in the cup matches and there were calls for them to be given more chances, and since Browne’s appearance we haven’t seen any kids being given a chance, despite our desperate position with injuries. The process is a standard management tool when people bring a challenge to “head them off at the pass”. He is known for being stubborn and determined, and for kids to come in and transform the team would show him up for his tactical naivety.

“Wasn't mentally ready for first team football” - the only sight we got of that was his only first team appearance where he was played in completely the wrong position effectively sharing the same role and space as Collins, who gave him nothing to feed off, and no opportunities, so the poor lad looked clueless. If he had been played alongside or off Collins it almost certainly would have been a different story. The cynic in me thinks that Warne set it up that way to prove his theory that Browne wasn’t ready and justify his refusal to use the youngsters. At the time fans were clamouring for the youngsters to be given a chance, and followed the promising debuts of Fatepu and Weston, so Browne’s engineered “flop” was a way of shutting us up - “I gave him his chance and he wasn’t up to it. I did tell you”! Warne hasn’t gone near the kids since then.

Maybe because Coors is all about lager, which thinks it is a beer but isn’t. I suspect that we donate the next match’s lager when we point Percy at the steel wall prior to the match and at half-time! 🤪

Is that a rumour?

I presume you have children, because that is a proper dad-joke!

Smith, please. IIRC he played there during our good run last season when Warne was forced to go to a back 4.

Yes but its apparently against the rules.

No?

IT can only last for 90 - 100 minutes max.

Actually I've calmed down a bit, and the players did let themselves down, and the let the club down, and more than that they let the fans down. So apologies, your point accepted. But it was underpinned by the tactics used today, which were woeful. When it has taken this far into the season to find that we need a third man in midfield, especially if Hourihane has to be in there (I don't remember Richi Sunack passing a law that he must always play unless injured, but it would seem to be the case), only to go with a two today. It crippled us, especially when he took Adams off, not Hourrihane. And I don't know if you noticed or not, but we were back to the "whack it ide and lob it into the box" methodology that has never worked, and that didn't work today. When as players you know there is a much better way to play, and that you are capable of winning if only we would do it, but are forced into this sort of crapology, is it any wonder they were a bit half-arsed? Yes the players were poor, but they'd had their hamstrings snipped as they walked onto the pitch today.

Ooohh Chester!!! You shouldn't have done that!!! How dare you criticise the match officials - this is a football forum. If it helps, I have a range of tin hats you could borrow, if you think one would help!

The reaction is sheer frustration from knowing that there is no need for us to play with those tactics. Hoofing the ball long at every opportunity does not work. It has never worked for us, and it didn't today. Going back to "whack it wide and lob it into the box, in the hope that Northampton will score an own goal" didn't work. All Northampton had to do was crowd our two wing backs out and the threat is gone. Our only threat was Wilson, because they hadn't figured out with us using the wing-back system our left back would actually try and attack them. And playing two in midfield doesn't work, and hasn't all season, so making it one and a half men in midfield by putting Hourihane there is even worse. it is Warne's tactics. Who was it that said "The definition of stupidity is repeating the same thing that doesn't work in the hope that next time it will"? I hope to goodness we haven't totalled our chances of automatics, because we sure as hell won't make it through the play-offs. We probably wouldn't even get to Wembley.

At this stage of the season Warne should know how to get the best of the team. That doesn't rule out an off-day, but it should rule out off-days of this magnitude, and of this frequency. The biggest issue is that he got us reverting to hoofball, which hasn't worked whenever we've tried it, and strangely enough it didn't work this time, either. So we got him pre-match blathering on about the threat Northampton offered, and that we would have to defend with our lives, and clearly set up in fear of them, when with our comparative league positions and current form they should have been scares witless of us. Hourihane has told us that if they don't play the way Warne tells them then they get dropped. So today's tactics have to be on him. And when, as a bunch of players you know you can do better, and are being forced against what you know will work, is it any wonder that they looked, to be frank, hacked off at times? And I brought the ref into it because he really was poor. If he had given the free kick for the blatant foul on Wilson, and the card that should have followed, Northampton wouldn't have broken away and scored, then our terrible defending would have mattered, or actually even taken place. So effectively he did cost us the game, but I would never make that claim, because it was our shocking defending that cost us the game. But the ref did nothing about the timewasting even before the goal, or Northampton stealing 5 - 10 yards and more for every throw and free kick, but was actually quite hot on Derby players for their throw-ins. And although Sibley deserved his yellow, maybe if the ref had given the free kick and yellow for the foul on Sibley immediately before he got his revenge, then that yellow card for Sibley wouldn't have happened. Or an offside on CBT after he had run through from the middle of a group of players before the ball was played. But my main reason for pointing out the ref's abject performance, and why I didn't include the detail i have just given, was to highlight the fact that Derby County' performance was even worse.

Warnism?

The only problem with your comments is that this result was actually expected. Its what we do. We are quite likely to hold the door open for you, and even buy you some really expensive running shoes just to make sure you can storm past us. This is the umpteenth time we have had a chance to go clear of the teams behind away and thrown it away with a shocking performance, terrible team selection and terrible tactics. All the best for the run in, mate. It was automatic or bust for us, and we put all our money on a horse called "Bust". We won't survive the play-offs.

CLOSE THE FORUM BOARD IMMEDIATELY. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE/LAPTOP AND DO NOT DARE TO READ ANY OF THE COMMENTS. Enjoy your holiday mate, and come back on next week, some time. Better still, don't come back on till the season is over.

I love your optimism, mate. I have a bridge in London for sale that you can buy.

You must be new to this Derby County thing, then. This isn't a one off. This happens every single time. Every time we have a chance to move forwards and leave our opponents trailing in our dust, we get the brush and dustpan out, sweep up the dust and give the clubs behind us a tow. As many of us have said, we should be sitting in first place with 5, 6 or more points clear, because the players we have, used properly, are well capable of that. But Warne has contrived to make us set up to be scared of a team that has lost loads of matches and conceded loads of goals. In his pre-match presser he was talking about having to defend for our live for goodness sake. This is talking about a team that loses for fun, and lets goals in like they are on piece-rate for goals conceded. And no, we didn't even look like bundling the ball over the line. We were summed up by Hourihane, right near the ned of the match, when he intercepted the ball in the centre circle, with everyone back for Northampton. H sent his pass towards Nelson, who was 5 yards away, but he put the ball 10 yards behind Nelson! What was Hourihane even doing on the pitch at the kick off, let alone right near the end?

What do you mean, "sometimes"? That's the way it goes "every time" we've got a chance to put the after burners on.

If they've got any sense, miles away from this club. It is hopeless.

To be in pole position means that YOU HAVE TO BE IN FIRST PLACE. We could be, and should be, given what our players are capable of, but we aren't because of how they are being forced to play. And after nearly looking like we were playing football, and getting the resultant good run, we revert to HOOF IT, And it still doesn't work.

Yes it is. I know we have got injuries, but there again, don't all of Warne's sides? The reality is that from kick off all he got us doing was hoofing the ball long. If we put 2 or 3 passes together, it was to generate enough room for the player getting that 3rd pass to boot it long from deep within his own half. Every time. Every time. Every single time. How strange - after the fans gave Warne a right bollocking form that run of matches ending with Stevenage and Crewe he got us playing what almost looked like football, and guess what? We went on a good run. Today, when we could, and should have won emphatically, he reverted to hoofball. Absolutely diabolical. Yes, the ref was poor, really poor, and cost us the goal. Actually, no he didn't, but Northampton should have been defending a free-kick instead of scoring the winner. But our defending was shocking for the goal. But for virtually the entire match we were worse than the ref, and with EFL League One refs, that takes one hell of a lot of doing.