Andrew3000

1 minute ago, DCFC1388 said:

Would be a very good signing at this level

A Derby Div ! Excellent 

4 hours ago, NickPFC said:

Any Smiths fans in Derby ranks? I always find myself singing: 'He was a sweet and tender Hourihane.'

 

Yes, definitely although i grew up and Morrissey didn't and may have even regressed.  Still one of the best bands for me.  For Warnes interviews Bigmouth Strikes Again, for tonight's game Please, Please, Please let me get what I want.  For a lot of our players, still Ill.  Hopefully, the season won't be a case of 'you just haven't earned it yet baby'. 

Vickers in a tutu ? 

1Wildsmith 7

2Wilson 7 Buffalo girls go round the outside!

35Nelson 8 

6Cashin 8

17Sibley 6.5 Great effort, great crossing, great shot. Unsurprisingly, doesn't have the positional sense needed.

23Ward 7

10Waghorn 6

32Adams  8 .5 Foot like a traction engine. Thriker!

12Smith 6.5 Tidy.

4Hourihane 6

27Blackett-Taylor 6.5 slow,slow, quick, quick slow.

16Thompson Quick feet, kept ball well.

11Méndez-Laing 7

22Fornah 6 

14Washington 6 I was upset at his lack of pressing, but it was clearly an instruction from the manager/coaches.

Collins 6.5  Tenacious,  wardrobey.

8 minutes ago, eddielewis said:

Dembele seems to have found his feet there since being coined a wonderkid at Celtic. His position is on the right wing cutting inside so our LB must be on their game defensively today and as the usual case with Warne wanting to commit our wing backs forward quickly Ebou and Hourihane/Smith must know when to fill the spaces left behind in case we lose the ball easily. 

Hopefully for ourselves we see a more calmer more coherent display in terms of our general build up play. Looking back at last week Northampton really had us sussed by crowding the width that we were trying to create from our wing backs meanwhile our back 3 spent far too long with the ball it meant the opposition were ready for any channel ball that was incoming.

We need more presence inside so we are totally not a one trick pony so I would be moving Sibley in the 10 behind Waghorn/Washington. I'm not quite sure what Warne was trying to achieve with Thompson in that position last week.

Yes calmer and more coherent would be welcome. I'm hoping Smith starts in place of Hourihane because I think his passing helps.

Dembele will be dangerous but I'd rather him up against Elder than running past Sibley and Cashin. 4 at the back should help. 

1 hour ago, Archied said:

Ok , having my usual pre match travel coffee in the garden , got real worries about this one , injuries are biting , very poor result last game and away at leaders next , they are no mugs and the pressure is on ,,,, what could go wrong 🫣,

in truth I always go to these kind of games with the gut feeling we will lose then everything else is a bonus , it is derby after all ,

that said I’m hoping we bounce back and a few below us have a bit of a slip , big crowd and we need to get behind the team 

coyr💪

All true, but reading and listening to Blackpool fans has massively encouraged me. They fanny about at the back and if pressed lump it long to no one. Goalie is a good shot stopper but struggles to command on crosses. Their attack has relied on Rhodes and they have one creative threat in Dembele.  Midfield tends towards sideways and backwards possession. Wingbacks not great.  So, of course they have had some good results against top sides and are good enough to capitalise on our mistakes, but I think these are encouraging signs that we can impose ourselves on them. Collo will feature, possibly even NML. 

What have I done by airing this publicly?

On 17/03/2024 at 18:16, Ghost of Clough said:

Leave him out on loan.

Waghorn will do the job for now, with Mendez-Laing and Barkhuizen chipping in. Washington will return to the squad soon. Collins only a couple of weeks off too, hopefully around the time Gayle is back too.

Now with Barkhuizen and NML out and Waggy being poor, does this cause a rethink?. Yes Collins is coming back but hes our only true focal point.  Washington and Waggy are not that. Brown could be useful from the bench.

2 minutes ago, oodledoodle said:

Absolutely effing toss. Not a single one of them comes out of that with any credit. Absolute disasterclass from the manager down.

If we make it up this season, it's in spite of our best attempts to stay down.

This teams needs a full reset, regardless of which league we're in next year.

Toss. Yes. But cmon, Wilson, Ward, Nelson and CBT all did OK. Pretty much everyone else were poor.  Warne got the team wrong for sure and was too slow to react. 

Just make changes. It could hardly be worse.

4 minutes ago, rammieib said:

I’d argue he’s not even been given a proper chance yet. 
 

If the argument is he doesn’t track back, I question why we even bought him in the first place and what’s the point of putting him on the bench?

 

This line up doesn’t shout goals - and goals win games. At least with CBT and NML you in essence give them a free pass to create.

 

Now our attacking centre mids appears to be Thompson. Jesus.

I'd hope hourihane is the attacking one, great finisher. But yes, he claimed CBT could come straight in and have an impact.  So it's odd. Charlton fans said he didn't track back so we surely saw this.

Bring him back. We've only Waggy that can start and he hasn't done 90 mins yet. Washy only just back will take weeks to be up to speed.

Daj is fit and firing and full of confidence, he could really help us from the bench.

21 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

Stuff like this is very encouraging 

 

Totally agree, I'm very happy that footballers of his generation watch anime.

9 hours ago, Rampant said:

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

 

You are a class act. Bravo! And thankyou.

2 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

His energy off the ball in recent weeks has been excellent but doesnt always get noticed. 

For our 3rd goal vs Port Vale it came from him chasing a hopeless ball down & winning us a throw which led to our goal.

Knows CBT is waiting to pinch his place too. 

2 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

I think him or Robinson would be a good choice to replace Hourihane, younger and more mobile. Also wondering if Wilson or CBT could be used now as we’re playing on the counter 

I'm all for this.

Just now, oodledoodle said:

Guys anyone got the time?

If you've got the energy? Sorry, I'm childish when nervous.

Just now, Caerphilly Ram said:

Gayle and Adams off for Smith and Waghorn 

Do we need Thompsons energy in place of Hourihane?

He's transferring his form to mens footie.  Sounds like he's got that scoring instinct, not just pace and power. Really promising, couldn't be more pleased.

1 minute ago, CBRammette said:

Yep 

 

 

This is excellent news, confidence will be soaring.  

1 hour ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

As others have said, quite sobering, he’s effectively paid more for a league 1 club in disarray than Mel paid for a really well run club on the brink of the premier league - that with better management from Mel should have got to the premier league. To say he’s gone above and beyond is an understatement and any other owner wouldn’t have gone to these lengths, it’s why Mike Ashley wouldn’t buy the club for example. Without Clowes we’d have either gone out of existence or faced further points deductions and potentially further relegation to League 2. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude forever. It’s not his style but Pride Park should be named after him, he at least deserves a stand. He’s probably made the biggest contribution in the history of the club, bigger than any league title wins. 

It’s also eye watering how much money we’re losing, the category 1 academy is clearly a huge drain. However a wage bill of £7.3m for playing staff while competitive in this league is by no means at a level to guarantee promotion considering the lack of money we’ve spent on transfers. For context Ipswich playing budget last year was £16m and they spent c.£7m in transfers, dwarfing the rest of the division - although doing what they’re doing this season in the championship with that sort of budget is incredible. 
 

It’s clear we have to be smart about how we do things if we want to return to the premier league, we don’t have a fat Greek who will bankroll us for £300m from Ill gotten gains. Hopefully the academy will bear fruit but we need to be identifying the right talent in the lower leagues and abroad. Then the quality of the coaching will be the difference between being in a position to compete for the premier league in the next 3 years (Luton, Ipswich) or the next 5-7 years (a return to the Nigel years).

Bit first things first get this squad promoted then rebuild. Either way I think this summer will be a major rebuild. 

Some great points.  Clowes has secured his place as one of the most important people in our history and will eventually be immortalised in some form.

The academy status is a dilemma. They have an obvious emotional appeal, but are they actually worth the investment over the long term? Anyone got any evidence either way? 

3 hours ago, MadAmster said:

Obviously deliberately chosen to replace "Like I/you said" which he uses much less these days. Whoever does the media training needs replacing. As a retired English teacher, I'd take the job on.

This leads me to another pet hate... I hear more and more people unable to pronounce the "th" letter combination correctly. Think becomes "fink". Bother becomes "bovver". This becomes "dis" or "vis". Do they not teach articulation these days at school?

You must uv loved Gary Rowett ven.

12 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

From what I’m told, Clowes absolutely loves Warne and wouldn’t sack him within the term of his contract, no matter what happens. HOWEVER… he’s about the only one at the club who feels that way. Many other senior figures lost faith in him long ago. In fact, I was told the other day that Warne is likely to resign at the end of this season irrespective of promotion, such is the strain of those other relationships.

If true, this would reflect very badly on those senior figures. Its one thing to have an opinion, quite another to let that damage working relationships.

Brown that is.

He's scored again!

4 hours ago, Abu Derby said:

Made of glass mate

Have we had any updates on Elder. Didn't seem to get a mention in pre- match interviews.