Kinder

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
 

I read all the posts regards people not wanting to go to games , not wanting to renew in this god awful league , under warne , poor football ect ect ect and to a degree I get it but as I’ve said I’m really enjoying my time going to watch derby at present and since the meltdown and rise from the ashes and I can honestly say the excitement/ butterflies I feel for this comming weeks two games and for the run in is right up there with the good times I’ve had watching derby over 55 plus years , I do feel for any fans who have lost that spark in the situation we are in 

I don’t want to get ahead of myself or allow myself to be excited, but.. I feel like something has finally clicked.
Best performance we’ve ever had under Warne, in my opinion. We’ve fell on to a workable system, the main reason was the recruitment staff doing their job and finding a gem in Ebou Adams and very recently I think it’s not in any small part to having to change the dynamic with Gayle upfront. I believe these two signings in particular have changed our fortunes, similarly to how Nyambe did earlier in the season.
Sibley and Ward are excelling. The defence are well balanced, the cohesion between the midfield and defence is significantly better, gaps aren’t as freely available for the other team and we are now working well going forward. I think we actually look like a team now, which for the majority of the season has definitely been missing something. The last two performances, the dynamic of the team, I’m finally hopeful. 

Love it, well done Derby. Massive win.

Good job I’m sitting on my sofa eating biscuits rather than managing this team! 🤣

Cracking day out today! Thought the second half especially was some of the best football we've played. I found it difficult to pick out a man of the match today because it was a great team performance, including the subs. Who did they pick on Rams tv? Oh and the toilets were marginally better than last year!

Attendance 9,937.
Rams Fans 1348.
Rovers biggest league crowd of the season………well done to all that travelled. 👍🐏

Pretty much what I did after leaving the ground this afternoon and hearing the other results COYR

Biggest pleasing thing for me today compared to the Barnsley and Charlton game and one or two others is when we got the second goal we didn't do the usual sit back and try and defend it. This performance if we take into the last 9 games i think we go up. Win on Tuesday and Portsmouth mess up suddenly they get dragged in it with them playing Peterborough at the weekend. 

What a huge result, but it’s probably wise to take it one game at a time bearing in mind how tight things are. There could be two points separating four teams all things being equal.
Reading will be another tough game in midweek where we’ll have to be professional and switched on to get the job done. They’ll be looking and thinking they could do a number on us like Charlton did.
It’s hard not to be positive at the moment though. We are in such a good place. Those back to back defeats could have been terminal but we have bounced back in style. Warne and the players are showing great character.
Adams and Gayle have given us some post January oomph that we missed last year. The whole squad are playing their part - see Bradley, Ward, Smith, Barkhuizen and Sibley all making important contributions to the cause over recent weeks.
Losing to Bird to injury will be a blow but it gives others in the squad a chance to shine. Hourihane and Thompson will be raring to go.
All we need is CBT to arrive at the party and it could be a really really fun end to the season!

Well I had us down for a narrow defeat so a convincing away win deserves great credit. Sounds like the performance was a step up as well.
Up the Rams (twirls rattle and tosses flat cap into air)

Fox’s millionaire’s cookies. Dunked in tea. It’s a risky dunk as they’re not particularly sturdy, but it’s worth it.

Time for Smith in midfield?

Pretty perfect afternoon. Take that all day.
Let’s hope Bird is ok. 

3 goals, some nice passages of play, a clean sheet, two wins on the bounce, equalled our away record(?), results going our way elsewhere, what’s not to love?! 
 

Our goal difference is now quite superior to the teams around us. With such a tight race for second, this could make all the difference. It's been a great day for us, we've played some really nice football in stretches. 

Love it, well done Derby. Massive win.

Love it, well done Derby. Massive win.

No because we've given it them straight back for the kickoff.

Add Korey Smith to the list of players I really appreciate in this squad, he’s made a difference since coming on. 

All is forgiven Waggy.

Yes!
3-0, Waggy makes up for his miss a few mins ago by tapping in a cross about 6 yards out after excellent work from Korey Smith (one of our most underrated)

That's his job.