Andrew3000

Louie Sibley running all game. What an engine.

How good has Louie Sibley been this afternoon, by the way. 

Make that Two - double well done lad 

Jack Stretton gets a goal for Carlisle - well done lad 

I think we need Smith on in the middle, there’s some big gaps appearing in our midfield!

Really liking the Dobbin, Osula combo up top, really could suit us away from home.
They are so quick and mobile, with decent movement, they’re even doing a decent job of holding the ball up when they can.

We have no chance to sign Osula right?
Probably he will even be recalled in Jan if he continues to play well?

I don’t think his job should just be to turn us into Rotherham 2.0 though. Fine make us more direct than we have been but also keep some of the passing. Make the most out of the players we’ve got 

Better than one of his first thoughts - Teeside workers association theatre 

We could change ours to the Want More Stadium!  
 
 
#never satisfied ? 

If smith is fit would have him in for bird.

Think they'll still play u21. We must want them fitter and harder. 

Think they'll still play u21. We must want them fitter and harder. 

What do you think to Roberts being used more central for his pace. .
Thought that was a good call by PW 

Absolutely this. At 1-0 up, we should’ve adopted a more posession-based game, work the ball, work the opposition. Instead we continued to go route 1 and surrendered possession so cheaply. Ref was clearly a Port Vale fan but we played into their hands & lacked intelligence  & leadership on the pitch. Massive learning points there for the team. 

For Derby's goal Mendez-Laing passed the ball on the ground to Barkhuizen who then strode up the wing and passed the ball on the ground across the penalty area to Collins for him to score.
Note the use of the key words in that paragraph. 
Was that not good enough for you?

It's amazing how differently people see things at a football match! It seems most people think the Rams were pretty poor, even awful for mot of the match. I saw it that we could have been 2 or 3 up at half time, and all match long Port Vale only threatened our goal 3 times - and one of those wasn't the first penalty, which wasn't even on target. And yes, justice was done by that miss.
And yes as was apoplectic about the ref for most of the match. He was appallingly bad in the first half, but was screwing both side, because he had absolutely no idea what an agenda was. Clearly the EFL put him right on that one at half time. Having said that, Vale should have been down to ten men long before half time. Their number 22 spent virtually the entire match diving to the floor, and should have been carded for it, so his actual yellow card for the foul should have been his second. 
So when he committed that yellow card foul in front of the dug-outs in the second half, he should have been walking off. The ref dodged the issue by playing the advantage, but then failing to go back and deal with the foul afterwards. The first penalty should have been a yellow card for simulation - a very harsh decision, given by the linesman, the second one the ref gave from 30 yards behind the play, as he was for most of his poor decisions. He gave offside following a Derby free-kick from 30 yards behind the play (again) when the lino hadn't seen anything, and had no idea what was going on, until the ref indicated offside, and had to tell him to put his flag up - which he did, pointing straight up into the sky because he still didn't know what was going on.. Again, how I don't know because there were defenders between the Derby players and the goal.
And the Collins incident - Collins was wrestled to the floor, the defender pulling Collins down on top of himself, so regardless of the "afters", it should have been a penalty. 
A penalty to Derby County? Are you being serious, Dave? But he was able to instantaneously give the red card from  - yes, you've guessed it - 30 yards behind the play. No way could he see what had happened, and seemed determined to wade in with his card regardless. But when Collins was then thrown to the floor, what did he do? Nowt. AS he did when Max Birds was tripped running into the area. Come on - that is two very good penalty shouts come to nothing. And when Sibley was wrestled to the ground right near the end, it was somehow a free- kick to Port Vale. Someone reckoned at wasn't yet another penalty denied, but that must come from having aspirations of becoming an EFL match official. What made it worse was the Vale player giving Sibley a playful double slap to the cheek as he got up, rubbing things in - the Vale man knew what had gone on, no doubt. 
The turning point was the decision ignoring the trip on Max Bird in the area - that made it blatantly clear that the match was never going to go our way, as were the vast majority of decisions, and sadly our heads went down from that point onwards. So it was only a matter of time before that 2nd goal went in. And to their credit Vale did take advantage of the extra man.
And about whether the police should get involved for Collins assaulting the Port Vale player - they certainly should get involved with their keep after the match had ended, because he was winding the Derby fans up, and actually told the South Standers to meet him outside - and yes there were some stood near the Vale team coach afterwards to have "words" with him. That is inciting the crowd to violence, which I believe is an arrestable offence.
It is the first match in ages where the officials were escorted off the pitch before any of the players - they normally wait until the Derby players come across to the South Stand so it sounds like were are applauding them off the pitch. Not today - they were running away as soon as they possibly could.
There is a tweet going round showing how the opposition manager met with this ref after a previous match where he had made some awful decisions against Port Vale. Not that we can read anything into this, of course, but it is funny how things turned out today.
I left the ground today disappointed and very angry, but also pleased with how Derby were trying to get things moving forwards every time they got the ball, and were the only team really threatening the goal. If that chance which Knight put wide had gone in, we would have been two up after only 7 minutes, and game over. There were several clearances on or near the goal line. IF their number 22 (and no, I have no intention of bothering to look his name up) had been properly dealt with for his misdemeanours, or if we had been given just on of the three good penalty shouts, we would have won that. And if we hadn't let our heads go down at the appalling decisions going against us, we may well have won. When we are moving forwards, it is not so silky smooth and easy on the eye as it was under Rosenior, but it is one heck of a lot faster and with a whole load of purpose, which to me is much more exciting. There is much to be hopeful about with this team. Stick around guys and stay wit us. I believe we are going somewhere!

The midfield balance and personnel are not right and it is difficult to play a system with wing backs when we haven’t really got any.

Midfield still an issue. This isn’t a Warne issue, it’s been a problem all season. Bird dangling legs in and too tentative for far too much of games. Hourihane largely anonymous most weeks.
Then when you play 3 at the back and 2 of them are so unbelievably slow, you’re asking them to cover out to the touchline which they can’t do.
Most of our downfall, beyond the referee, was the inability to win headers today. Was 30mins in before Cashin headed the ball in the right direction. Caused so much pressure it was silly. They weren’t a big side, we just lacked any kinder of muscle about us. 
All that said, we win that game with a referee that wasn’t that guy. 

Rooney, Smith and Osula all back in training. I expect Osula to be in the squad on Sat, but it'll be too soon for the other two

Regarding the 'lack of depth'. We still have to remember we have a few players out injured/ill. Just for a moment, let's pretend the 11 vs Cambridge was our first 11.
Wildsmith
Chester   Davies   Cashin
Mendez-Laing   Knight   Bird   Hourihane   Barkhuizen
Dobbin   Collins
The next 11 with everyone fit would be something like:
Anang
Rooney   Stearman   Forsyth
Oduroh   Sibley   Smith   Tommo   Roberts
Osula   McGoldrick
Five of those players (bold) were unavailable last night. Between them, they would have added:
a) fresh legs after a tiring game at the weekend
b) experience to a youthful midfield and forward line
c) greater ability upfront

After due consideration I think that we didn't do too badly given the strength both numerically and literally of the team last night.
In the first half Birdy looked excellent and the ball through to Dobbin was what the forwards have been crying out for for ages, unfortunately Dobbin missed. He was a bit of a curates egg, offside a couple of time and trying to be too clever but a good finish for his goal.
Thought Sibley didn't get a lot of joy from being with Barks who was limited in his endeavours on the right.
Cash looked good again.
Bart had a better second half, much more involved, missed a glorious headed chance and hit the post. 
Roberts looked a decent player, not sure where his best position will be though, he put in some great balls and hit the bar with one - a long range shot?
Thomson needs to be back in the U21s.
Fozzy needs to retire!
Robinson and Oduroh both had good second half cameos.

Hobgoblin player of the match lolol
Loach
Should have been birdy with those ears surely