Kinder

Dexter has been home 1 week now. He's awesome little character. 

I wouldn’t have complete confidence in what he says. He definitely introduced Kane Wilson as Kane Williams earlier this season…

He was superb. Won every header, crunched a superb tackle first half, kept the defence together. Top bloke. Derby legend.

One thing's for certain... it wasn't full.
My seat was empty, due to me being on a hospital bedside vigil from 3pm yesterday until we said goodbye to my almost-93 year old F-I-L at 17:15 today, at which stage I was still none the wiser as to the fantastic news emanating from the other side of town!
I'm gonna leave the matchday thread catch up for now, as I'm shattered, suffice to say, I hope each and every one of you who did turn up have had a bloody fantastic day.
What. A. Result!
Up The Effin' Rams!  🐏

Always been a fan of Fozzy a great servant a great guy who deserves goods stuff 
but my does he deserve it, 5/6 weeks out just slots it like he’s not been anywhere, 
Hope we’ll see him see promotion with us he deserves it

Its not fair to post actual footage of @David

That was massive today. Wildsmith, Nelson and Cashin all immense but special mention to Foz. What a guy.
Also huge credit to Warne. I think all his subs, whether forced or not, made a difference. It would have been easy to replace Gayle with Waggy but it was crucial to get the extra body in midfield and stop Bolton from dominating. The changes at half time all worked. Wilson was a threat all half, Tommo brought loads of energy and possession, Waggy is still getting back to fitness but good to be able to bring on a striker and he played his part. And how about Elder’s first touch?
I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Hourihane and today wasn’t his best game - and he wasn’t suited to playing in a midfield 2 against Bolton’s midfield. He will make contributions over the rest of the season though, the whole squad will. I really hope CBT gets a chance soon and shows what he’s made of.
I would say I enjoyed it today but I really didn’t! I was tense as hell but I really enjoyed the result and the table looks very healthy indeed. Also, the atmosphere was amazing - both sets of fans did their clubs proud. Was very satisfying to shut them up though, didn’t hear a peep out of them after we scored. 
 

Pinched from The Oatcake………..(that’s Stoke for you young uns)
So what happened at Stoke where we were saying he'd lost it? It's not as if Derby have been tearing up the goal scoring records  and the Derby fans I know bemoan the dour football played by Warne. Yet Gayle seems to have found his confidence there and is a folk hero already. Surprising what confidence can do for a player. 
 
…….seems fair comment to me! 👍😁

Remember Derby fans moaning about the last window's transfers saying how poor it was. To be honest Dwight and Ebou now look like very good business.

Gayle has that turn of pace that Collins lacks and it makes a massive difference in being able to position yourself to capitalise on through balls. 
I've got a hell of a lot of time for Collins and his goals and workrate are a major reason that we are where we are, but I'd love to know the difference in the offside count since Gayle had been in.

Funny how situations can develop for the greater good. Losing Collins away at Exeter felt like a real body blow to our promotion chances at the time but picking up Dwight Gayle could well be the catalyst this side needs to secure promotion.
There's so much I like about Gayle - he is still very quick & mobile, he's always competing for balls with centre halves & as others have mentioned, seems happy to play with his back to goal and bring others into play. I didn't really expect the latter but it's enabling him to be a complete number 9. His finishing is still top drawer - 3 very different goals so far & shows his variety - one fantastic leap & header, a scruffy scramble inside the 6 yard box & last night's sublime touch & finish from a whipped in ball 25 yards away.
His mentality looks to be spot on too. He looks furious when he scores, like a man with a lot to prove & celebrates wildly when others score & when we won the penalty last night. Have also seen him berating team mates (Mendez-Laing against Port Vale I recall) which highlights his winning mentality.
Just goes to show the fallacy of quality players only being those who cost massive fees or wages. As Rooney's ragbag bunch of free transfers in 21-22 proved, there are a lot of quality pros out there who can be extremely effective as part of a unit. The way Gayle has already combined with Barkhuizen & Mendez-Laing is fantastic & bodes really well for a strong end to the season. Brilliant bit of business by the club & love that he's enjoying being here.
 

Enjoyed Rampant's bio especially the artistic licence re the laxatives. Being a Wanderers fan is a life sentence so we need a laugh every now and then. After our recent performances one thing we don't need is laxatives though.
I think it's fair to say that a draw would favour you and prior to our Oxford game I'd have snatched your hand off for it. Saturday will be our 22nd game in 75 days and the punishing schedule had taken it's toll with injuries to key players throughout, a couple of suspensions and the constant disruption of the starting eleven. Our form went through the floor and in the 10 games before Oxford we'd slipped to 16th in the form table, blown our games in hand and picked up even more injuries in the process. So going into the Oxford game I was bricking it. Perhaps out of desperation as much as having his hand forced, Evatt made changes to the way we've played for a couple of seasons now. Way I see it, he actually dropped some of the instructions/processes instead of adding to them - and backed the players to do what comes naturally to them rather than having to conform to a rigid - and therefore predictable - system. The term "letting them off the leash" was bandied about. Teams had been setting up to nullify us and let us have possession in pointless areas beforehand, but on Tuesday we confused the s*** out of Oxford and messed up their game plan in the first five minutes. And nobody was more surprised than us Wanderers fans as Evatt has a reputation for being dogmatic about our playing style.
What we can expect is high-risk attacking and entertaining football. OK we'll leave gaps to exploit, but if the lads can replicate the pace, effort, quality, discipline and creativity they showed on Tuesday it will be close game. Slightly concerned they're too knackered but it's the last game in our congested fixture schedule so I hope they give their all.
For the first time, I actually welcome the international break and hope the lads who go on international duty don't get picked to play so they can have a long overdue break - plus we should start to get injured players back by the time it's over, notably our goalie and strikers. So from our perspective, it's one last effort before they can take time to recover and reset.
Absolutely no idea how it will go on Saturday - two different styles - and we'll be playing with a back 3 (occasionally a back 1) against your excellent strikers so big Rico is going to have his work cut out, especially on the counter.
Looking forward to it and hope that we're blessed with a decent ref for once. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we got a card-happy loony and a bad-tempered game given what's at stake. Hope not.

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
 

That could have been a real banana skin game, but Derby navigated that brilliantly. Two great halves of football, lots of chances created and on another day that could have been comfortable. Still we did enough and deserved to win.
Props to Barkhuizen, I have criticised him in the past but he worked himself into the ground. My man of the match.
Gayle is such a clever striker. Great addition. 
Finally, Adams' calm in midfield was huge for us at key moments, another top performance from him. 

Only one team tried to play any football tonight. Reading had just the one shot on goal which tells its own story really. I think we need to consider how different that game was to the fixture at the Madjeski. Night and day for me and while we could have been more clinical, the best side won. Reading came to spoil and disrupt and in the past that has worked. Tonight, we stayed calm, played our game not theirs and got our just deserts. There's an air of confidence about this side and I like it. A lot.
COYR

Well, I'm sure reading are furious.
Perhaps they should hire Mark Clattenberg to write an angry letter?

Removing my "mum" tattoo. Getting Gayle tattooed there instead.

Dirty Cash?

Don't forget to flush.

As we're not just constantly recycling the ball out wide to cross it over and over and over and over, it means we can use his passing too. Him and Bird have been much, much improved with Adams in the side haven't they. The football through the middle has been night and day better these last two games.
 

I know he is not everyone’s cup of tea but I really like him and I like him being manager of derby 🤷🏻‍♂️

The Gentlemen - spin off series from Guy Ritchie's film of the same title. Shan't say too much to avoid giving anything away, but with a strong cast and a sharp and often funny script, this rattles along with the occasional nod to early outings from the director. Ritchie fans will be pleased to know that Ritchie revisits all of his favourite schticks: drug dealers, the aristocracy, pikeys and arrogant Americans, so if Ritchie is your bag, then you'll probably love this. Great fun without taking itself too seriously.

Whatever 🤣

Derby County vs Reading
Tuesday 12th March
Pride Park   KO 1945
 
Opposition Bio: Reading have made more headlines off the field than on it in recent times as they find themselves in financial strife as a result of incompetency by their owner. Sound familiar? 
The EFL have seemingly cut them more slack than they did with ourselves but their patience must be wearing thin as deadlines to deposit sufficient funds regularly pass. The latest failure to pony up saw them docked further points and their season deduction now stands at six points in total. 
There was a further deduction of three points doled out, albeit suspended, after their understandably fed up supporters invaded the pitch and caused the early abandonment of their home match with Port Vale, the latters best result in recent months.
Where we had Mel Morris, Reading have Dai Yongge. This proves the old adage of being wary of baldies or fake Welshmen baring gifts.
Any sympathy we have for them should be tempered though by the thought that they are probably still laughing at us paying £3m for Nick Blackman.
Reading FC are known as the Royals, a distinctly naff nickname acquired after a young Prince Albert played a dozen games for the club before marrying Queen Victoria. Plus they hail from the royal county of Berkshire. They are also known as the Biscuitmen due to the town's association with the biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers. 
They are managed by Spaniard Ruben Selles and, having been relegated last season, will be looking to secure League 1 survival this season and kick on in 2024/25 under different ownership and without points deductions.
Reading are the proud holders of two notable records. In the 1985/86 season they recorded 13 straight victories at the start of the season in what is now this division and they also hold the record for the highest points total for their whopping 106 points in their 2005/06 Championship campaign. 
Opposition Form: Not too shabby in fairness. In the ten matches played since they beat us 1-0 at their place they have won a further four games with three draws and three defeats.
They arrive at Pride Park on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Wycombe and in 18th place with a record of W12-D9-L16. It should be noted, however, that without their points deduction they would be in 14th position. 
Their away record is perhaps misleading as the bare stats of W3-D5-L10 needs to be looked at in the knowledge that they contrived to lose their first eight matches on the road. They all count obviously but their more recent form away since then reads W3-D5-L2. 
Their away wins have been at Wycombe (2-1), Stevenage (1-0) and Carlisle (3-1). They have also managed decent draws at Oxford and Peterborough.
In those 18 away games they have only failed to score on four occasions. Promisingly from a Rams perspective, they have only kept the one clean sheet on their travels.
Opposition Players: Going purely off the stats it would appear their chief dangermen are top marksman Harvey Knibbs (10 goals, 6 assists), Sam Smith (9 goals, 10 assists) and possibly Femi Azeez and Lewis Wing. They also have Robbie's son Charlie Savage, the experienced Harlee Dean and the wonderfully named youngster Jacob Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis who I hope gets a runout as I'd love to see if they put his triple-barrelled name on his shirt.
Rams vs Reading History: This will be the 48th league clash between Derby and Reading and the 54th in all competitions. The clubs' first meeting was a League Cup clash in October 1965 (1-1) but it wasn't until 22nd September 1984 that the Rams and the Royals met in a league fixture for the first time and the long wait proved barely worthwhile as we played out a goalless draw at their previous home, Elm Park. The return fixture would prove to be more memorable, for us at least, as Reading's first ever league visit to Derby in April 1985 saw the Rams win 4-1 with goals from Bobby Davison, Steve Buckley, Trevor Christie and Gary Micklewhite in front of a bumper crowd of 7,945 (really?).
That was not a taste of things to come in this fixture though as Reading have had by far the better of it. Our record on their turf is especially poor with just four wins in 24 visits. On Derby soil, though better as you'd expect, it is still deeply unimpressive. Our last victory at home to them was a 1-0 success in September 2021 but our overall home league record against Reading is W10-D3-L10. 
Expected Team: Same again one might think. Possibly a change in the middle to give more legs with Smith or Thompson in for Hourihane. 
Other Fixtures of Note: Something similar to Saturday would be nice. A Derby win and at least one of our rivals for automatic dropping points please. Their games midweek are:
Portsmouth vs Burton
Bolton vs Oxford
Carlisle vs Barnsley
Peterborough vs Stevenage (Weds)
COYR