1967Ram

Roy Mac, my old man was mates with a lot of the 70's team and Roy has always been really nice to our family.
Stevie Powell, really decent bloke, again mates with my dad, played with his lad Stevie jr. for the Rams under 16's and he was another top bloke, as was his dad Tommy. Really nice family.
Ken Oxford , bloke was my first ever GK coach, taught me the basics when school and Allestree Juniors couldn't be bothered, took a keen interest in my progression in later years. Worked as a security guard in later life, got attacked once, he fell on the cash box like a GK on the ball and wouldn't let go, top top man.
Roger Davies, when Ken or Eric Steele couldn't play for the ex-Rams team Roger would give me a call as a 17 year old to help out in nets, he was a proper gent and looked after me, always asks if I'm still playing when he sees me. Not so nice to play against with his elbows and stuff mind 😂
Eric Steele, first met him when I was about 12 on one of his coaching courses, then he was the GK Chesterfield brought in when I was there, took an interest in me and took me training with first team keepers at Wolves and Oxford. Broke the news to me very gently and respectfully that I wouldn't get a pro-contract at Chesterfield. After I had a few years doing party drugs and the like and stopped playing football he heard that I was back playing at Mickleover, he invited me round to his house and some harsh words for me and gave me a load of Sondico gloves (same ones Poomy wore) and boots, he had no reason to do that. and shows the mark of the man. as far as I'm concerned. He has got loads of signed gloves for my mums charity, likes of Butland, Allison, Pickford. Still meet up every couple of months for a coffee and a chat, he even has me coaching sometimes! 90% of people in the game have so much time for him, also a Rams legend having been keeper for two promotions and coach for one.

This post is a bit contradictory, isn’t it? 350 senior appearances should be a worry? How?
He’s 29, never played below the Championship and had 3 seasons as a fairly regular PL player, albeit for a poor PL side.
For a side coming up from League One, he would be an excellent signing. Experienced at this level without being too old, versatile to cover at least 2 positions that we need to strengthen. If he’s willing to come, it’s a no-brainer for me.

Plenty of joyous, but that tingle?
Going 3-2 up in the FA Cup at home v Wendies in 93, the Nicholson goal hit hard too, but taking the lead bought that tingle.
Jones freekick v Wendies (again) promotion season, I started to feel it was on.
That Birmingham game, in ground just before the match. Sorrow, pride, far too much emotion to handle. When the Beilik goal went in, it wasn't a tingle it was an emotional release.

I assume you mean the 4th goal in the 5-0?  🤷‍♂️
From my NE corner seat, you just knew for certain it was going in, the moment it left his boot. 
An absolute beauty!  
🐏

1983. 2 nil down to Newcastle at half time. The rams come out fighting in the second half to make it 2-2. Ball goes out of play and lands in my lap. As an 8 year old at the time, I managed to throw it back over the crowd barrier (second attempt!) to Archie Gemmil. He went on to win a penalty from that and slotted it away to make it 3-2. He signed my shirt after the game. 

One of the best Rams goals I have ever seen. Unfortunately match of the day did not even vote it goal of the month (second place to a very average turn and shot from Chelseas Zola).

I’ll throw another one in from recent times. Not a “greatest moment” but a huge unforgettable emotional upwelling.
That first game when we were emerging from Covid. Masks, hesitancy, showing your NHS vac cert, looking around, sitting in my seat, sun shining players coming out of the tunnel. Out of nowhere I had tears of relief, phew !  The world is getting back to normal, darkness recedes. It was a beautiful day.

Derby 4 Ipswich 4, Steve Mac just appointed with a watching brief. We were falling apart so he came down and stuck his oar in.
Turned me from a casual supporter in to a fan. Got that football shiver that I hadn’t had for 25 plus years. …That shiver … I think all of us know it, it doesn’t come every week but when it does, it’s a moment to savour. 
A draw ? A team in the bottom half of the table ? …. Didn’t care, there was something special that night and it made me fall in love with live football all over again. Made me a proper Ram. The best of memories 🐏

Oh, don't worry about that, they're just struggling to remember how many EPL charges they are going to wriggle out of so they thought they'd add a running total to their kit. Apparently it's not permanent marker or anything. Each new city shirt for next year will come with a white pub blackboard marker so fans can update it themselves.

I wanted to watch that but had to turn it off after 10 minutes.
Too many memories of what it did to my father in law a few years ago. In hindsight, he was "lucky" because we were told he might have 2-3 years to live but then this horrible condition robbed him of his ability to walk, move, speak and then finally breathe within 3 months from diagnosis. The family couldn't make adaptations to the house fast enough for them to be of any use.
This must have done some real good in terms of awareness and fund raising for research, though.

Got up at 6.25 this morning and put BBC Breakfast News on and there was a half hour programme about Rob and living with MND it was heart breaking to watch and hard as well, there was one point when one of the doctor's was talking to him about the end and how he felt about it and he just smiled and said he didn't want anyone talking negative like that. You think you have problems in life and feel a bit down then programmes like that show us how lucky we are. I'm not ashamed to say I had tears rolling down my cheeks when his wife/mum/dad were trying to talk about life without him. 

Got to be Curtis Nelson as reigning player of the year he is somebody that leads by example.
Bradley seems too much of a hot-head to be given the captaincy.
We gave it to NML toward the end of the season and in the last 8 games as captain he got 1 goal and 1 assist. Lets allow him the freedom to play and not have those captains responsibilities.

He always comes over as bright decent family man who pedigree shines out when PW mentions his performances. Doubt there is any truth or evidence for these claims. 

Dropped out of the team….following the knee injury he suffered on the pitch against Bristol Rovers on 25/11/2023 and subsequent recovery time of several weeks? Having been involved in all 17 league one matchday squads up to that point including playing 90 mins in 10 of those games? The same Korey Smith who seems to be a well liked and respected member of the squad and has from the outside seemingly always conducted himself as a top pro and played out of position for the cause? 🤔 

There was something so Cloughie about it all to me though, I bet many Forest fans would have been thinking ‘what would his dad have thought of that’ when really you know exactly what he would have thought
’Has the ref blown his whilstle? No? Well son, chuffing well play until he does’

6 goals and 9 assists last season all comps I think he deserves another year if he believes he's got it in him

In my case, I really don't fancy a beer at 10 O'Clock these days, although many do and probably will. So I won't bother and that's a longstanding tradition broken, all because the ever-greedy premier league wouldn't cough up a decent package for the EFL clubs. Yet again, fans are disposable, and the fans of clubs outside of the premier league are the most disposable of all. 
All of the benefits of Sky TV money that you've quoted would still have been available without such wholesale contempt for the traditions of the professional game if only English football had spoken with one voice. But it's been greed, greed, greed, every step of the way.
 

I think my argument about TV subscription is just how many people actually want the service sky offer Vs how many just want the bits they're interested in.
People want their entertainment all la carte and not set menu especially if they're paying for it and these days it's a realistic expectation.
I don't want to watch however many championship, league 1 and league 2 matches, I just want to watch DCFC, and I highly doubt high numbers are subscribing to sky to watch EFL matches anyway. So why do sky pay the EFL for the rights? Stop anyone else having them,steer the ones who do subscribe towards the matches it's profitable for sky to show.
 

There'll probably have everyone 12.30ko on the opening day except for Friday and Sunday for the games they decide to irritate fans with.
As someone snookered by distance and rarely gets to matches these days,I should be all over this extra coverage but I hate what it's doing to the game overall. I certainly won't be paying sky for it where as I didn't mind giving ramstv the occasional tenner.
Hopefully the ramstv international coverage is still available and I may discover a new enthusiasm for flights abroad.
I think this is probably the last big rights deal with sky that the EFL will be able to pull. The subscription sports TV model is not what it was 20 years ago and it strikes me as sky are trying to kill off club streaming to get everyone watching their very expensive premier League games.
I think in a few years the clubs will rebel against this and do their own streaming - which is what Mel Morris was arguing for, but at the time he didn't have enough support (and picking fights with the league whilst also making all the other clubs hate him, wasn't savvy)

Hi new member, all the way up in sunny Fife,  just joined today, never really bothered about forums before but feel exciting times are back around the corner for the Rams so here I am to keep up with the news for the new season etc
looking forward to the new season and hopefully end back where the club belongs. If Ipswich can do it then there’s no reason why the Rams can’t.

Honestly guys, that last 20 mins was horrendous, my poor heart haha
One positive I can take from it is that we got the job done despite never really playing well in either playoff game (partly because barnsley arent great) and also that I think Oxford suits us better than Posh (and tbh as much as I'm desperate to win, if we do lose, I'd rather lose to Oxford than Darren Ferguson).
 
Fingers crossed we turn up and get it done. Our last 2 trips to Wembley are Bolton 4-0 Plymouth last season and Bolton 0-5 Stoke in the FA Cup semis about a decade ago so could literally be anything based on our history.
 
Got some Rams fan mates who were at your QPR Wembley trip that I sympathised with and was gutted for at the time so I hope more than anything we don't experience that kind of pain and we get a good day out, the boys give it their all and make us proud

Is that just reading through this forum 🤣

Read 2 books on holiday.
How they Broke Britain by James O'Brien, with chapters on various politicians and advisors who he sees as getting us to where we are now. Thought and anger provoking. If you interested in politics and centre or leftist especially.
The Satsuma Complex, Bob Mortimer's debut novel. Very Bob, very funny with a quirky cast of characters and a tense-ish plot.
 

Without changing, you are now centre left, comrade!

I wouldn't even say you need to be centre or leftist to enjoy reading it.
I've spent years being called far right yet I still enjoyed the read.
I dont particularly like JOB and don't agree with everything he says, I think it is clear that he has vendettas against certain people that he doesn't really back up with anything substantive, but it's definitely a thought provoking book and one that I'd definitely recommend to people.