Donnyram

At last, some data to back up comments 👍. Anyone who is up there with NML and EMC must be worth a go for a League 1 outfit looking to get out of the league

At last, some data to back up comments 👍. Anyone who is up there with NML and EMC must be worth a go for a League 1 outfit looking to get out of the league

Couple of things here, last season was our first in League 1, not only would incoming players be sold the bounce straight back up dream, Rooney was still around whilst deals were being lined up.
18 months later, are we to believe Warne hasn’t signed any quality players, players which have us 2 points off the automatics? Nelson, Wilson, Ward, are they crap?
To top it off and suggest Warne isn’t respected at this level, come on, his CV will earn him respect, let’s not needlessly slander the guy because we’re not signing players that we want and he may have no interest in.

For me, what Warne says he wants has always appealed to me. He talks about high press, pace, athleticism, moving the ball fast, intensity etc. All of that sounds amazing. However, we don’t always see a lot of it… now, is that down to the players he has or him himself? More the former, it seems. As we see it here and there, but still not consistently enough.
I feel we will kick on further if he gets some of the forward players he truly wants instead of the sticking plasters he’s managed to get in the summer. 

I think this idea that Warne doesn’t like technical players is a myth, to be honest.
Over his time here, he has shown he will play players who earn his trust and the more technical players have usually been the ones to do that.
He plays Bird and Hourihane in midfield at every opportunity for starters and neither player could ever be considered a ‘runner’. Players like Mendez Laing and Wilson are favoured over less technical players like Ward and Barkhuizen. Forsyth and Nelson are preferred to Elder and Bradley because they are better technically.
McGoldrick was our best player last season and played at every opportunity under Warne too.
Warne values pressing, running and the fitness of his players, absolutely. But clearly he also appreciates that you need good, technical footballers to reap the rewards of that.

I personally don't think that the team were playing how Warne wanted them to earlier in the season. He was making the same critical comments as we were, in post match interviews. Even now, after this good run, I still believe that he's not completely happy with the way they're playing. 
I believe that we're yet to see true 'Warne ball', how he  wishes it to be played.

How many ex Rotherham players do we have?  Out of the 12 senior players Paul Warne has brought to the club we have the grand total of………. 2 (Vickers & Washington)
Not even enough to make a Rotherham B 5 a-side team.
I think you’re getting confused with lazy journalists linking us with ex Rotherham players and who we are actually interested in.  

How many ex Rotherham players do we have?  Out of the 12 senior players Paul Warne has brought to the club we have the grand total of………. 2 (Vickers & Washington)
Not even enough to make a Rotherham B 5 a-side team.
I think you’re getting confused with lazy journalists linking us with ex Rotherham players and who we are actually interested in.  

How many ex Rotherham players do we have?  Out of the 12 senior players Paul Warne has brought to the club we have the grand total of………. 2 (Vickers & Washington)
Not even enough to make a Rotherham B 5 a-side team.
I think you’re getting confused with lazy journalists linking us with ex Rotherham players and who we are actually interested in.  

Loach was there for 14/15 but was also loaned out during the season - making it 3 for Rotherham.
Cardiff, Hull, Lincoln, Sheff Utd, Sheff Weds, Shrewsbury, Sunderland, Swansea and Wigan are also represented by having 3 former players in our squad.
However, there are 5 clubs represented by more players: Ipswich and Peterborough (both 5), Barnsley, Blackpool and Plymouth (all 4).

How many ex Rotherham players do we have?  Out of the 12 senior players Paul Warne has brought to the club we have the grand total of………. 2 (Vickers & Washington)
Not even enough to make a Rotherham B 5 a-side team.
I think you’re getting confused with lazy journalists linking us with ex Rotherham players and who we are actually interested in.  

TJJ is a talented young player who is rebuilding his career. Yes, he gets bundled over. Yes, he’s had a poor injury record. But so has Waghorn, Washington etc and they’re not going to get any better as players whereas this guy will.
He fashions chances with his touch and awareness. We haven’t seen him start, yet he’s already scored a couple and had other efforts well saved like on Saturday (he looked devastated not to score).
In a squad devoid of good finishers, he is a valuable asset. He’s exactly the type of ‘gamble’ we should take.

How many ex Rotherham players do we have?  Out of the 12 senior players Paul Warne has brought to the club we have the grand total of………. 2 (Vickers & Washington)
Not even enough to make a Rotherham B 5 a-side team.
I think you’re getting confused with lazy journalists linking us with ex Rotherham players and who we are actually interested in.  

I have to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the football the last 10 games. We had to act quickly in the summer last season and bombarded the team with higher aged players on 2 year deals. Always going to be a problem getting rid of them after 1 season. This summer lots of them are out of contract and this gives us the opportunity to bring the age range right down. You could see yesterday the players were knackered and they had more in the engine the difference between the teams. I wouldn’t say they play great football and how they set up is what warne eventually wants here. Pace on the wings and engines in the middle. Give it time 

We haven't been bad, a penalty and a free kick. Ref is having a laugh. We'll win 

With promotion a genuine possibility his value to us increases significantly.  The new Sky TV deal will be worth a decent amount if we reach the Championship.  With the 1 year contract option protecting his value then I hope it will need a much higher offer for us to even consider letting him go.  Same with Max Bird if they are seen as key players in the run in……. adding one or two top players to the existing squad is much more palatable than ripping the heart out of the team. 🐏

Well it’s the morning after and just sitting with a coffee and a fag ,,,, still buzzing , said it earlier somewhere on here , warne is still a young inexperienced manager despite his 3 promotions, he really has got something about him and if we go up this season he gets a fair crack at the championship for me , I really hope the small no matter what anti warne mob drop this warneball is not good enough to compete in the championship, he’s not good enough ect stuff and we all get behind him , he has fostered a real togetherness at the club and in the squad apart from a few noisy determined to be right fans though respect to those who are comming round and big enough to say so on here👍,
as for league 1 downer ,, well I’m really invested and enjoying this season , football is football no matter what level , it’s the competition and the emotion that takes you on the roller coaster

Quite frankly, if we win 90% of our games with a scrappy goal off Collins arse or NML shin then defend for 90 minutes I’ll still be happy. We are not in the league to enjoy it, the club have one aim this year and that’s to get out this league. 

If you want to complain about style of football, possession stats, xG, humour or bobble hats, go for it, however in the results business, our form since the Stevenage game is stupendous.
Played 8
Won 7
Drawn 1
Lost 0
Scored 18
Conceded 3

Totally agree that anything B4 related should be about positivity.  Rather than using it in a negative way (I.e. as a message to be more B4) it would be better for it to be a response in recognition of a positive post

Not really if I'm honest with you, this forum without the members is an empty shell of code, it's the members that make the forum a community.
It's really on you all to shape the community with how you communicate with each other.
We can set guidelines, moderate content, even disable polls to avoid the in out after every result, however unless we go all North Korea it really is on you all.
The forum has topic summaries now below the first post, maybe check that and try to voice your opinion without being in the top 4 posters for a prolonged period?
I haven't been on nowhere near as much myself,  life offline is pretty hectic, then the spare time I get, do I want to spend that filling my head with the constant streams of negativity over matters that seem so minor compared to last year.
Thought we would have had more of grace period of just being happy to have a club to support, wasn't expecting the bile to be spewed so quickly but here we are, and that's the frontline where the fight is being fought. 

Bored shitless of reading criticisms of Collins. Bloke puts absolutely everything into every game and he’s top goalscorer for the 5th best side in the division over the last 19 games so he obviously knows where the net is. 
 
Because he doesn’t have the technical ability of McG or Martin his efforts seem somewhat less impressive. 
 
Im telling you now McG missed plenty of chances last season - some a lot easier than those Collins missed yesterday. This isn’t a criticism of McG either - just an acknowledgment that our best player last year was also only human and plying his trade in league 1 for a reason. Same as Collins.

Doncaster away would be nice 😊

A comparison of the League Tables as at 29 November 2022 & 2023 makes interesting reading:
2022                  PLD   W    D   L      F       A         GD        P
Plymouth           19      13   4   2      39    22        17         43
Ipswich              19      12   5   2      38     19        19         41
Sheff W              19      12   4  3       35    16        19         40
Peterb                19      10   1   8       34    23       11          31
Bolton                 18       9   4   5       21    15         6          31
Barnsley             18       9    3   6       23   15         8          30
Portsmouth        17       7    8   2       26   18         8          29
Derby                 18       8    5   5       23   16         7          29
 
2023                  PLD   W    D   L      F       A         GD        P
Bolton               18      12   3    3     37     18        19         39
Portsmouth      18      11   6    1      29     16        13         39
Oxford              18      11   3    4     31      18        13         36
Stevenage        20     10  6    4     29      19        10         36
Peterb               19     10  5    4     37      20        17         35
Derby                18     10  3    5     31       16        15         33 
Barnsley            18      9  4    5     34      20        14         31
Blackpool          20     8   6    6    33       25         5         30
 
Admittedly, you can read anything into stats to back up your own position but with a fairly positive (but realistic) outlook, I can see some positives. At this stage last year we were 11 and 13 points behind the top two, this year currently only 6 points. Last year, I think everyone would agree, Ipswich and Plymouth were the outstanding teams throughout the year, rightly gaining automatic promotion.
The consensus of opinion is that Derby haven't played as well as they might at present but are still 4 points better off than last year. Surprising, having lost our talisman McGoldrick, we have scored 8 more goals than at this stage last year, conceding the same as last year (16). Both Bolton & Barnsley have also scored a lot more goals too, helped by two huge wins.
My conclusions: things are no where near as bad as is being made out. Hopefully there will be a lot more goals to come together with an uplift in "exciting" performances. Hopefully we can keep hold of the players we want to retain in January and bring in a couple who can really improve the team, to the next level.
My positive spin - I know the doubters will use the stats to put a different view on things. 

I was at Port Vale last night and the last word I'd use to describe it is boring! 
There was a great atmosphere among the Derby fans from kick off. We were brought together by the shared endurance of traffic jams, crap facilities (again), lack of organisation and over-officious stewarding pre-match.
I thought we played well and always felt confident of the win. Yes, they had some possession in midfield with neat and tidy play that contributed to a good game but they created very little,  whereas we looked dangerous every time we attacked - direct and strong. Their goalkeeper was clearly man of the match (didn't he have a stormer against us at our place last season, too?) Another night, one of those early chances goes in and the scoreline would have looked more comfortable. As it was, I felt sure we would score eventually as they tired. 
Wilson is rapidly becoming one of my favourite footballers. You can tell he's revelling in being fit and playing in front of the biggest set of fans of his career. But everyone played their part; I don't get the hate for Collins as he worked his socks off again and could have had two on another night.
What a dollop that Ikpeazu is! Referee should have booked him early for his wrestling/diving, would have cut it out. Instead it just gave Cashin an opportunity to make him look clumsy, which he did with aplomb. 
Hourihane needs to let someone else onto set pieces occasionally as the lack of delivery is noticeable.  He worked hard across the rest of the pitch though against their busy midfield and closed down well.
What a classy goal to decide the game. Barkhuizen's harrying won the ball back, a peach of a low cross from Mendez-Laing and JJ finished with aplomb. Anyone else would have took a touch and the defender  cleared it. But that young man has quality and he showed it just when needed. In his celebration right in front of us he looked quite emotional,  another player hoping to put his injury demons behind him. I hope he does, because if he can keep fit he could help fire us to promotion this season.
Come on you Rams! ⚽️