Dordogne-Ram

Don't think Shinnie was poor by any stretch tonight. But you can see his limitations as a footballer when Bird/Morrison are playing so well and dictating around him. He is what he is and he was an absolute warrior when we needed him last season.
I think what will be brilliant is when another classy player, Bielik, comes back in, it allows Morrison and Bird to have even more freedom. Then Shinnie would be a great sub towards the end of the games like tonight. 

I don’t get it. Their keeper spilled the ball and we had a player stood near him ready to kick it in the net. Are you even allowed to do that? Why haven’t we tried this amazing new tactic before? ?

Hull 1 - 1 Rams
RGS Sibley

I don't get all this Shinnie was poor etc, he does what's expected of him, always chasing and hounding the opposition and got in some great tackles to break their play up.

Shinnie awesome

A longtime since my last post...So here's my 2 peneth worth.
Since lockdown from March 2020 until the begining of this season, I've found that i've not missed going to Pride Park, The poster "B4" I know how he feels when talking DCFC and going to watch them, I was the same back in the day, Eat, Sleep, Drink and nothing else where DCFC was concerned, Sacrifices over decades, I've even pinched a few bob to get into the BBG, It was a "Drug" I couldn't get out of the habit, Seen lots of bad stuff, Been involved in a lot aswell, After a defeat i'd feel pretty low for a couple of days and "sulk", Come Tues/Wed i'd snap out of it as Saturday was just a few days away, A win WOW! it's one great high, A Buzz that is hard to explain but makes you feel absolutely great.
I've shed tears of joy and tears of woe this last 50 years of DCFC, They've made me proud to be a DCFC fan, They've made me sad too, So altho I could re-new at a far lesser price as i'm now one of the older folk i've decided against it, No trudging those dark and cold winter nights to PP or having to change my plans through Sky TVs awfull schedule, I still jumped to my feet as I did on Saturday when we scored, But I never felt down when we lost, Just a shrug of my shoulders and a wry smile on my face...after all this is Derby County ?
 

I do think tweets like this are a bit of an insult to the history of Derby County, who played at the very highest level of English football for decades before "The Premier League" was even thought of! 
Football wasn't invented in 1992.

"Build it and they will come"
A chaotic club, seemingly creeping to administration or relegation or both, poor results over a long period of time. Change that and the fans who have made the decision to stay away may change their minds.
Following covid many people, not just football fans, will have had to cut their financial cloth accordingly. Dropping a wedge of income on football will no doubt have slipped down the list of priorities.

Sadly got to assume there’s no Kaz for this one. So I’d imagine Stretton gets the nod even if we’re able to bring someone in.
If Stretton is leading the line then we’ll have to do something very different tactically and Sibley will have to start as Stretton will need support. No more complicated, utterly nonsensical tactics. 
 

For me, today was a story of three substitutions - one enforced, one good, one bad.
The first one was significant because although Kazim-Richards wasn't having his most successful game, he would have been an important pivot for a late assault on the Peterborough goal from our young substitutes. As it was, it left us one tactical substitute short.
Stretton did well when he came on early and I am so delighted that he has got his first senior goal. We needed other players to play to his strengths, though, which they didn't always do.
Sibley's introduction once Stretton was on, was a must, as he does play well with Stretton and his forceful play driving forward, changed the game in our favour. Good substitution.
Having got the lead and knowing we would have to see out a considerable amount of injury time then the third substitution was a poor one. I thought Morrison had been running the game, so to replace him with Jozwiak left our midfield exposed and invited the counter attack. Maybe Brown in defensive midfield would have been better? 
I thought at the game the foul against Sibley should have gone in his favour and the Peterborough player clearly kicked him when he was on the floor, but I haven't seen a replay having only just got home so I could be completely wrong there. Regardless of that, the way we defended it was amateurish. This isn't the kids letting us down, it is the established players.
Then to do it all again a few minutes later turned a good afternoon completely on it's head. How deflating for the supporters who were magnificent all afternoon (idiots notwithstanding.)
Just a couple of other observations, Ebosele for me is an excellent fullback/wingback so play him there. If Byrne's shaky start to the season continues that will happen sooner rather than later.
Lawrence needs to step up. I like his workrate but I don't think he is affecting the game enough. Others have observed it is because he has to keep dropping deep to fetch the ball. But even allowing for that,  he is not driving play as Sibley, or even Watson, does. 
Another frustrating afternoon because I felt that game was there for the taking. We need to be braver, managerially, individually and collectively.

8 points from the last 51 available. 
1 win in 18. 
Surely it’s time for him to accept this job is, understandably, too much for him and do the right thing and walk away. Install Mac until the end of the season and try to regain some kind of positive and understandable style of play. 

This is pretty much a first from me after all these years on the site. Its a very rare venture into commenting on the matchday thread. 
I dont usually comment because im too emotionally involved in the outcome and get far too knee jerk in my post match reactions with either a win or a loss. 
Huge hug to all my fellow Rams fans right now. A pandemic to deal with, total lock down for most so the excitement of finally getting out and about and for some even going to a stadium to watch a game. 
And what do we get? Dross.. utter dross. Today was a bit of a final straw for me and I feel a need to comment. 
Its actually truly shambolic. Us older ones have seen sustainable shambolic performances before so we know it when we see it. 
For example... the goal kicks that now Curtis takes sideways to Roos. A cunning plan of extraordinary measures.. or just admitting our goal keeper is a better kicker than our defenders.
Why.... WHY have we got 4 holding midfielders?!!! Ravel, Billy Backwards, Graham ” The Trap ” Shinnie and Capt Tom all played there today. Its feckin retarded. I dont even understand where this particular ” plan” comes from. You would assume that Rooney remembers how they set up at United in his playing career. Cant remember Scholes, Butt, Beckham and Cantona all playing holding mid...at the same time...in the same game. You would also assume Rooney and side kick watch other games both live and on telly. I cant recall one team in the history of modern football playing 4 holding mids! This plan we have must be genius huh?
Lawrence being made captain!! Again... I assume they reckon giving him leadership responsibility will up his game.
Tell you what a leader does. When we get a penalty in a pre season friendly, the leader figures out its a good idea to give the chance to score to young Stretton. Try to up the lads confidence and get his goal scoring for first team up and running. But no... our leader decides its a good time to show off and take a fancy peno. 
I could go on for hours. Its just too painful in relative terms. They are even laughing at us! 
Again.huge hug to you all. Try to enjoy the rest of the weekend. 
Us older ones also remember a team being put together of players you didnt know or had hardly ever heard of in the late 60s who went on to conquer the land. We can dream. 
 
 
 

Bring Steve Mac and Wassall in for the rest of the season….

9 August 1975, Derby 2 West Ham 0, Hector, McFarland.
Charity Shield, Wembley.

I cant wait for peterboro game first away game of the season I am going rest up tomorrow try get my pain under control for a bit yes i will help my mum around the house for a bit but rest of the afternoon i am going to watch a film and just chill out.

Indeed, I couldn't have put it better myself. 
I suspect that I'm not the only one who feels a debt of gratitude to @David . He's created this wonderful place which is the defacto home of Derby County on the internet. Even though it's somewhat bitter sweet at present, my life is enhanced by his efforts.

Okay, so what sort of 'supporters' feel it necessary to start talking about relegation in a thread dedicated to the noise in our South Stand immediately after an inspiring win by our youngsters? Just weird.
I thought the South Stand were brilliant again last night. I don't know who you are, but you are going to literally be our twelfth man this season if you keep it up. ???⚽️

Did he walk in and say, if you don’t know me by now before demanding his refund?

Oh he is so cute .... now off to find the pets thread 
I'm new on here too and also just want to add my voice to the rest to say you have nothing to apologise for and appreciate you trying to add our voices to the meeting.  I have really enjoyed this forum since joining as well so thanks for running it and to all the moderators you do a cracking job! 

I think some people envisage Mel sitting in a darkened room, white furry cat on his lap, twizzling the ends of a long moustache and letting out little sinister chuckles randomly as he finds new ways to upset people. 
 


I’m sure none of this is the case. For all of Mel’s mistakes or errors of judgement (and for all the annoyances of the ticketing system and parking and everything else) I still refuse to believe that he or the club are doing anything to deliberately upset or inconvenience fans. There are probably good reasons for everything (or at least ‘reasons’) and anybody using things like this to find another stick to hit the club with is being a bit unfair imho.

Festy starts Saturday is my only takeaway

Plenty to pick through about that performance, but I'm really enjoying the us against them mentality that's being born out of adversity. I think Rooney has used it to his advantage. 
The performance was no classic, but the young players seemed to develop an entire year within 90 minutes. Watson, in particular, started with a few miss passes but then was pulling the strings towards the end of the game. Ebosele is far from a polished footballer, but my word - he has a go. All I see is the Michail Antonio that was at Reading all those years ago. If he can follow a similar trajectory that would be great. 
Hutchinson has a lot of technical ability. Similar to Bird in a lot of ways. I thought Brown showed a bit of promise, although I'd like to see him with Davies rather than Forsyth. Sibley is just unbelievably talented, but I wish we got him on the ball a bit more. The ability as soon as he touches the ball just jumps off the screen. The first touch, the way he quickly changes the direction of the ball. We need to develop him because he's got a special talent in a role that we need a special talent. 
Ravel showing a lot of maturity and that's probably down to the team mentality. He has a real chance here and what a start. It's the best possible start for him and he will no doubt start again on Saturday. 
The first 30 minutes were a rough watch, but after that we blossomed and a lot of the younger players deserve a lot of credit. It was on their shoulders and they showed a lot tonight. I'm really looking forward to Saturday now - I want to see what we can do this season! 

He's a general purpose traditional british midfielder.
He's not a defesnive midfielder, a creative midfielder, a wide midfielder or a transitional midfielder, he's just that general purpose box to box man who does a lot of stuff without being great at anything, but he's dogged and determined and we're going to need that this season. Anyone who doesn't see that is kidding themselves.
Is he going to be a key part of the next grat promotion chasng side? probably not. Is he vital to this rams side? yes.

but we were losing most games last season and he consistently looked one of, if not our best player. 

Actually disagree there, Buxton was a pretty good distributor of the ball.