europia

or perhaps 'that's what I can do .....on a good day'  
It was a good 2 goal performance from SB, no question. But that nonsense at Northampton was unnecessary and unprofessional. 

or perhaps 'that's what I can do .....on a good day'  
It was a good 2 goal performance from SB, no question. But that nonsense at Northampton was unnecessary and unprofessional. 

Great servant to the club, didn't he cost us 70 grand or something ridiculous like that 

A great team performance which resulted with a win and three important points, compounded by the results elsewhere. 
A number of posters have stated Orient were poor. But how much was down to our own performance?
If we had come out with the wrong mindset, yesterday's result could have easily gone the same way as the Northampton or Wycombe game.
Just hope, for the sake of my sanity, it will be yesterday's team that turns up for the games against Cambridge and Carlisle and not the one that came out of the tunnels at Northampton and Wycombe.

Thommo is a brilliant footballer and a good asset to the team. His ability to keep the ball and his naturally attacking mentality is so important to us. 

Some brilliant stuff yesterday. Midfield 3 of adams , thommo and smith was brill. Plenty of energy , tenacity and controlled the game well. 

I guess it depends how and when they finish third.  I wonder if there's stats out there to show how the third place team do after dropping there at the final hurdle!
I'm tempted to side with @europia on this.  If we end up third now, it won't just be the players who will need a psychological lift! 
 
 
... *Although last day failure might be good for the forum, what with a 100 page matchday thread, and lots of lovely "told you so" threads! 👀 

The main problem finishing 3rd, is the team going into the play offs with a negative mindset. Would Warney be able to lift them, having been so close, but ultimately failing to clinch an auto spot? Perhaps, the teams finishing 4th 5th or even 6th better placed, psychologically. 

Yes I agree with that. Very few neutral supporters even want to watch PL games outside the 'elite' clubs (Man$hity, Manure, Ar$enal, Liverpool, Spurs, Newca$tle) never mind Ch'ship or below. It's just a case of Sky hoovering up the left overs. 

Well I am not inconsiderably incandescent with rage.
Turns out my electronically reclining wonder wing-back runs off a rechargeable battery and the fecker has run out........

Been a few.  Asanovic and Osman come to mind.

Gypsies were kicked off the land that became the Baseball Ground, A Gypsies curse was put on Derby County that they would never win the FA Cup...3 attempts later 2 in the 1890s and one in 1903 being a 0-6 defeat to Bury and things were looking grim.
Move on to 1946 and those at DCFC seek out a Gypsy, They ask for the curse to be lifted, The resulting curse evaporated with a 4-1 win aet against Charlton Athletic.
Nope I don't believe in curses either  😁
 

Sky TV is f****** s***.
It’s ruined the game as we know it. The benefit goes to parasitic agents, for reasons I have never understood (why don’t the players pay them - why the clubs?) and players exorbitant wages whilst those of us who actually go to the matches are merely ignored and inconvenienced at the whim of a TV schedule. 
Football is nothing without the fans they all said during Covid. What a load of s*** that was. Sky TV can f*** right off as far as I am concerned. 

Sky becomes your football “dealer”.

Sky, the destroyers of REAL football.

I notice Warne has been blathering on about some of the players being off par, and seems oblivious to the effect of how he sets the team to play.
Last season it was dire until injuries forced him to go 4 at the back and we went on a good run. But as soon as he could he went to a back 3 again - - - and the run ended. This season it took the fans kicking off before he let us start playing somewhere near ground level, and using midfield a bit, and we went on another good run. But gradually he slipped us back to going wide and cross it, going full on at Northampton, who demonstrated that teams had  rumbled us. All they had to do was double up on our wide men and we are stuffed, which is all Wycombe had to do to us last night.
The latest rash of injuries should have hurt us big time, but forced us to play 3 in the middle and we did ok. So why the hell did he go 2 in the middle plus “Wang it wide and punt the crosses in” last night? Wycombe doubled up on the wide boys and yes, we were stuffed - - - again! 🙄
Yes the players have a lot to answer for, but  when you are asked to do your job in a way that you know is no good, but you have a gun at your head that says “that way or the highway” it is demoralising - I know from personal experience.
For the remaining matches can we have a giant flag made to wave at Warne that says. “4 AT THE BACK AND 3 IN MIDFIELD PLEASE, PAUL”?

Here we go again

Bravo Mrs Bat 👏
In the match thread there's a few posts where posters watched the WW tv broadcast and they said that the 2 commentators were very complimentary about DCFCs performance.
That's the difference between us and others in this division, I believe this division is poor, I believe the players we have have underperformed, But other teams fans believe we are very good...all down to what you've been watching and what you're expecting I guess.
 

Pride Park Stadium – KO: 15.00
After a chastening visit to Wycombe Wanderers, next up, the Rams play host to Leyton Orient. I know the whole, ‘must win game’ is horribly overused cliche in sport, but sadly, it actually applies on this occasion, as it will do for all of our remaining games. On the basis of ability and potential, you’d fancy our chances strongly, but as has been the case through a good deal of the season, the team remains somewhat Jekyll and Hyde and it’s anyone’s guess which Derby will turn up on Saturday. Having been concerned about the Wycombe game being a potential banana skin, I’m less so for this match, but it’d taker a braver man than I to be dogmatic about the outcome.
Leyton Orient:
Founded in 1881 as the Glyn Cricket Club, they began playing football as Orient in 1888 and joined the London League in 1896 after success in the Clapton & District League. The club adopted the name Clapton Orient two years later and were elected into the Football League in 1905. Most recently and under current manager Richie Wellens, the club was crowned champions of League Two in the 2022–23 campaign and sit mid-table in this current season.
Form Guide:
In the corresponding away fixture, we rode our luck a little early on, but having scored 1st, the game turned on a somewhat controversial sending off, with Brandon Cooper dismissed for a foul on Max Bird. Derby ultimately ran out comfortable 3-0 winners and this with Collo spurning a brace of golden opportunities, but even then, I felt the scoreline flattered us a little - Please see the match highlights link below. FWIW, my view is that Orient are a tidy enough side for the grade and should not be taken lightly. Much like Wycombe, they will be able to relax a little more than our lads and we need to be controlled and alert throughout the 90 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zPSKzMlFGE&ab_channel=DerbyCountyFootballClub
 
Most recently, Orient’s form has been decent enough, with a 1-0 victory away to Stevenage followed by two losses by the odd goal only to Lincoln and Peterborough. Their last two matches, both at home, yielded a 3-1 victory against Cheltenham, followed by a 2-2 draw against Exeter.
The most obvious dangerman would seem to be the ever-present Ruel Sotiriou with 11 goals and 5 assists across 42 games played. Shaquai Forde is next best with 9 goals and 5 assists, with Oliver O'Neil chipping in with 5 goals and 4 assists. Their preferred formation is seemingly a 4-2-3-1, but perhaps someone who has actually watched them regularly can confirm, as my research yielded conflicting data.
Head 2 Head:
Historically, Derby have the edge and perhaps more significantly, we have not lost at home to Leyton since 1981, with 5 home losses in total since the clubs first met way back in 1907 in what was then the 2nd division.
Games won: 23
Games drawn: 8
Games lost: 18
Team News:
Warne again has some worries to address. Our own @Caerphilly Ram has battled manfully to keep us all informed against an ever-changing background and his latest summary suggests the something akin to the following scenario for Saturday:
Joe Ward – was said to be out for 2 weeks at time of injury – 50:50 for this match is perhaps mildly optimistic
Max Bird – was mooted as a possible for the Wycombe game – may well figure from the bench
Dwight Gayle – not expected to play this weekend, but may be available for the last 2 games
Craig Forsyth - not expected to play this weekend, but may be available before season end
Callum Elder – groin injury, status unknown
Ryan Nyambe – out for the season
Tyreece John-Jules – most likely out for the season
Jake Rooney -  most likely out for the season, but has been ‘back on the grass’ we’re told. No jokes please!
I do have some sympathy for Warne as it seems every time he has the lads playing well, injuries to key players undermine any momentum, but that said, we’re not alone in that regard and we’ll need to make do as best we can.
Line-Up:
I think PW will start with a very similar line up to the last game. I’m going to suggest a slightly controversial tweak (assuming Ward is s recovered) and a change from the MF 2 we seem to favour, to variant of an undeniably old fashioned 4-4-2 – yeah, I know, straws...clutching...much… If Ward is indeed fit, he comes in for Nate, who looks like a man in need of freshening up – perhaps he and Max might be best deployed as ‘finishers’ off the bench when legs tire and the game is more stretched, assuming we’re not winning comfortably. Likewise Barks, who could also play on the right if Ward remains out. That said, if Max is healthy enough to start, I'd be sorely tempted to switch to a 4-3-3 with he and Corey either side of Ebou and Washington dropping to the bench. Irrespective, we must control the game better than we did in the 2nd half at Wycombe, where we repeatedly left a yawning chasm in front of our back 4, for their midfielders to play into.
The front two and CM remain unchanged for me; despite both Wash and Collo looking understandably short of match sharpness, IMO, they remain our best current options. Once again, the back 4 pick themselves, as do Corey and Ebou in at CM. Joe keeps his slot, having done well enough since his return to the fold.


The Match:
Honestly, I’ve no idea which Derby will turn up. After Wycombe, some will want wholesale changes, but my take on what was an admittedly hugely disappointing result, is that Wycombe should have been dead and buried inside 40 minutes. I’m not sure that the subsequent slaughtering of Warne for what was to my eye, the profligacy of his forward line, is entirely fair, but each to their own. He remains the incumbent, for better or worse and whatever might happen next year, it seems a long way off right now. As such, the focus for yours truly remains the next 3 games and nothing else.
A last word, as I’ve avoided reading all bar the last couple of pages of the last thread, would be that despite the stuttering effort against Wycombe, the travelling Rams faithful were magnificent in their support for the team. It’d be grand if we could mirror that at home and all try to channel our inner B4 and help carry the lads over the line. At least remember that Warne and his players are trying their best and are just people, like all of us and hurtful appraisals will only serve to undermine their confidence further.
Enjoy the game one and all.
COYR
BE MORE B4
  

I don't think you can blame the pass.  Yes there was an opportunity to pass it along the floor rather than take an extra touch but it was a harder pass to make and the keeper was less out of their goal and would have been able to cover some of it.  It's not like he could have put CBT in exactly the same position but with the ball rolling nicely.
The more I watch it the easier it looks to finish - just needs cushioning into the net I'd fancy myself to score it more often than not. 

Thanks for that, mate! Actually Wycombe were better than you have just described, although our defence was fairly solid. And yes, you have moved away from the dark arts, although you were time wasting from the very start - but then so were we!  Ut you started committing a lot of quite cynical fouls once the substitutions happened, and your ball boys were very naughty when it came to giving the ball to one of our players.
Unfortunately our manager’s tactics are so one dimensional that even a sheet of paper looks like rough terrain, and you quickly worked out how to stifle us. If because of last night we end up in the play-offs, we won’t get promoted. 
 
I actually enjoyed the football you played once you had woken up, so once you get rid of your ambulance-chasing chairman you should start to go places.

Why would you need a bribe to stop us scoring?

I've had passes like that on a Sunday Morning/Afternoon all over Derby parks, On pitches that potatoes would feel at home at and still scored.
Sending one at knee height to a player that's in open field makes no difference, Why, Because you said in a previous post
"All said and done you’d expect CBT to score" 

Would it have been better if the ball was on a plate and delivered by a waiter.
CBT is a pro footballer, Most likely since a child he's learned how to control a ball, Whether at pace or coming out of the sky with snow on it, The ball fell to CBT it was an open goal he fluffed it, Scuffed it call it what you like.
I find it extraordinary that posters are saying Washingtons ball was the fault, Then saying he should have scored 🙄
 

We need to be ruthless and put the crooks to the sword to restore the gd we lost to Bolton at the weekend