BaaLocks

You had to go say George Thorne didn't you?

Saw him play a couple of times for QPR and he was beyond poor. But his record at this level (Posh, Charlton, Rotherham) is decent so let's hope he can get a run of form going. His goal on Tue was very good, though I'm still not sure if the drag back / dummy was intentional or just him getting the ball trapped under this foot. Either way, back of the onion sack and all that.

I agree with all but the last sentence, we really weren't. And we made so much of our bad luck as well which did, as you say, manifest a perfect storm of ineptitude. But, in many ways, it was one of the more memorable seasons of my football supporting life.

Hoped him to be the Dave Mackay / Robbie Van Der Laan / John Gregory (icon not position) of our resurgence, well I was wrong on that one. Been bang average for the most part, with occassional moments of skill (the third goal last night) but all too far and between to make me think of shedding any tears if this were true.

Good performance and some very encouraging input from Bird, Hourihan, Washington and Bradley. Begs the question where (with the exception of Bird) they've been for the rest of the season but if they kick on like that we've got the signings we thought we got (and I say that for Conor as well who has been, pretty much without exception, extremely disappointing). Pushed from the off and it was a good performance but there were still worried in there. Northampton were the most inept team at Pride Park since first half Shrewsbury last season. Yet in the first half they cut through us a couple of times like nobody was there, a couple of more precise passes and it could easily have been 1-1. After the second and third they lost heart but there were moments in there were we showed once again completely lack of desire to close players down. End of the day we won 4-0 but there is still much to be concerned about.

It's a difficult one - I am not asking him to spend money, I totally get the point that we can't just jump straight back where we were. But I also think I can recognise that our manager is not able to get the best from him players, does not have the tactical nouse to win games he should be winning and does not have the credibility (including now among larger sections of the fanbase) to be leading a club like Derby County. Ipswich showed last season, as did Plymouth, you don't need bottomless pockets to get out of this league and if it true that we will be moving a lot of our better players on (either to sell for likes of Cashin or just because their contracts are up) in January I personally don't trust Warne to get it right when rebuilding the side he has, because he didn't get it right last time and isn't getting it right today. But not one word of what I have said above dilutes my appreciation for Clowes or my complete understanding that 'throw money at it' ownership is a one way ticket to eventual heartache. And yes, btw, it is the system - you are right. There are only two models in football today, either balance the books and settle for (in our case) something aspiring to mid-table Championship or find an egotistical millionaire to bankroll a few years of chaos and maybe a few days in the sun. It didn't work for us but if Morris had got us up, and maybe we'd hung on there like Palace, Fulham or Brentford, nobody would be complaining today.

Not completely true, particularly for clubs like us that have large policing costs and large stadium costs

This. We have no clue what is going on behind the scenes and this ridiculous view that unless the owner pumps in another £200m he's not worthy is ridiculous. So I won't even start to question how the club is run financially. What I will say, and I am sure that Clowes shares this view, is that we should not be a League One club and, more than that, we should not be a middling League One club. For two reasons, one being that we have such an impressive infrastructure, fanbase and set up that makes it very challenging to see how we can't use that to our advantage in this league in the same way that the likes of Man City and Liverpool do in the top flight. But, maybe more importantly, because we have such an impressive infrastructure we can't survive in this league for ever and a day. It's like expecting to ask your postie to do their rounds in a Range Rover - the maths of it just don't add up. If we don't get outta this place in the next few years we will be back exactly where we were 15 months ago.

You can get help for that

I'd agree and this is the key point for me with Warne - I can cut him some slack in the first few months, we were a club coming out of crisis and had embargos on us. But we are getting three / four / five times the gates of many other teams, we have a ground and an infrastructure that not only makes us attractive to players in this division but also a strong temptation to give players from a division above to maybe drop down (Nyambe, Bradley, Hourihane all examples of that). I'm not saying we should be walking this division, I don't think we are quite that arrogant, but there is no reason on Earth why a manager of a club like Derby should be that far down this table. Quite simply, it shows an inability to make the best of the 'unfair' resource and advantage we have in this league.

David Lowe managed one game against Man Utd didn't he? 😉

It is so sad that you can watch the video of this so easily on line. This is someone dying and it's shared and reposted in a click. What a sad indictment of the human species this (the video sharing) is. I agree with @RadioactiveWaste - not watched it and have no intention to, out of respect for all involved.

No David Lowe here?

Me be here. If the club don't want to change then they will get the reduced gates that will result. Football is a form of entertainment and we pay to go to the games. If it's not appealing to do that people will stop going - sorry, but this 'follow your club through hell and high water' I don't really buy into. Happy to clap on a bad performance, happy to give applause if the team have given their best but come up short. But here and now, today, we are less than is acceptable for a club of our stature - that's not being aloof or snobby but in League One that is a fact. I'd love for Derby to be delivering but at the moment they simply aren't - the team are spineless and the management team appears completely out of their depth. And, sorry, but I'm not paying (inc. trains, beers and pies) to watch a spineless team flounder around under instruction from leaders who clearly are lost.

Seoncd half of the first half at Posh we did - that's 20 mins in a whole season and I don't think anyone knows why or how even that happened.

I was amazed how well Ngannou took it, I'd be screaming the halls down. If he got a 10-8 round (which is the only thing we know for certain) how did one judge have Fury three rounds ahead on the cards? Fury looked completely sluggish and almost uninterested. Ngannou started well but looked gassed after about seven - but Fury was unable to press him. Farce of a decision. Farce of a display from Fury.

I watched in on RamsTV and I couldn't believe how much Barker kept going on about the Exeter game as this miracle performance, that we had somehow fallen from a heavenly state in just four days. As I recall, we beat a tragically poor Exeter team - but not exactly with ease. When were we last actually good? I'll give you the second half of the first half of the Posh game but besides that I cannot think of a time. This has been a steady descent into abject mediocrity.

Just to get us back on track, dear Lord above that was garbage today. Utterly clueless, spineless and useless. Warne out, now!

As a friend said to me over the weekend "Norwich are going to take your record this year" I wanted to suggest the initiation of St Claude's Day, the date on which no club can undertake (or equal) our points tally of eleven points. Named in honour of a player more symbolic of our lack of preparedness, ability, and commitment than any other (a statement of recognition in itself) in that 07/08 season the race is now on to predict on what day it will fall this season. In previous years St Claude's Day has fallen on the following weekends, last season's Covid affected schedule aside it has only three times made it past New Years Day. 2020/21: 4th March (Sheffield United) 2019/20: 22nd December (Watford) 2018/19: 27th February (Huddersfield) 2017/18: 13th December (Swansea) 2016/17: 19th December (Sunderland) 2015/16: 18th January (Aston Villa) 2014/15: 29th December (Leicester) 2013/14: 26th December (Sunderland) 2012/13: 2nd January (QPR) 2011/12: 31st December (Blackburn) 2010/11: 27th November (Wolves and West Ham) 2009/10: 19th December (Portsmouth) 2008/9: 8th November (Spurs) So, on what day will St Claude's Day fall on this year? I predict it will be the fourth time it has made it past New Years Day but I still think last week in February our record will be safe for one more season.