Dean (hick) Saunders

Seeing as 50% of prem teams are struggling with ffp. Ditching their #2 or 3 keeper on £30-40k pw and hiring a competent replacement on a free offering £15k could be quite attractive?

With Bird injured it’s easy to pick him IMO.

I’m in Lisbon for the Half Marathon race tomorrow so missing the fun. Give them a shout from me everyone.

COYR.

Got a bit of a must not lose feel to Saturdays match for both sides.

Queue a 7 goal thriller 4 - 3 win.

5 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Not sure where this Barnsley winning is coming from.  I wanted Barnsley to get zero points . That's been my stance for a fortnight for reasons already listed.

It will feel like a kick in the Barnsley balls though due to the very late nature. Hopefully it could trip a wobble.. 🤞

My “because it’s the Derby way” gland says we will finish 3rd having spurned more opportunities for top 2.

But I’m sure many Bolton and Barnsley fans think the same though.

Getting Colo and Fozzy back could make a difference.

2 hours ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

I think LWB is the ideal position for him.  Having played at LB for a fair chunk of last season I thought he’d be a good LWB for this.  He already had the attacking side of his game and I think Warne and his team did a good job working on the defensive side last season.

I find him a frustrating player when he’s in midfield.  He’s too inconsistent and doesn’t seem to grab hold of the game.  Also, I think at LWB he has a bit more space as he’s not marked as tightly.  That gives him more time and space to create or, as he did yesterday, drift into the box to shoot.

If he does have to defend though he is not so good. His strengths are in opposition half.

I am hoping fozzy comes in and locks up the LHS to the end of the season.

More often than not, the team with the best GD over the season will be in the top two. Keeping that stat between now and season I think will have us very close).

(last season this wasn’t true as it was Sheff Wed).

Currently on Dead Zone by Stephen King.

Oldie, but quite enjoying it. Read most of his other stuff, I think his best are sometimes the shorter ones.

My SK top 3 are:

1) Duma Key

2) Mr Mercedes (and all  Bill Hodges Trilogy)

3) The Green Mile

That this forum is to be avoided from the point that the team is announced until at least 12h after the match has finished.

Win, Lose or Draw.

Discuss (and see you tomorrow 😘)

6 minutes ago, ram59 said:

The trouble is, that system is also flawed. That great team under SM1 played great football sweeping all before them, or so we'd like to remember. What actually happened, was that we'd come up against a manager who set his team up to play against us and would snuff out our attacking force and SM1 didn't have a plan B. Although we won a majority of our games, it wasn't enough to beat the 2 teams who finished above us.

This is my memory.

And over time, some of the mediocre teams started to work out how to nullify us too.

1 hour ago, Gabby'sThighs said:

FWIW, I think Gayle would be a good signing.

It may be a while back, but he's shown that he can score goals in the Championship, he's played in the Prem, the Conference North and League Two, so he should know how to scrap in League One. As a couple of posters have pointed out already, the success of old b*ggers like Rhodes, Chris Martin, McGoldrick and Collins in L1 shows how valuable that experience is. He probably hung around at Newcastle for too long (but on good money, who wouldn't?) and has had injury problems, but we just need him to be a pro for 13 games and keep opposition defenders thinking. Gayle's game seems to be good positioning and finishing in the box, pouncing on second balls, so as long we can create chances, he should be able to finish.

The only thing that counts against Gayle is he's a tiddler at 5"9', so may struggle with 100 lofted crosses a game. He's certainly not a Collins clone.  However, his WBA highlights reel shows he's actually decent when he has a free/diving header. Plus, he can take a free kick.

Mendez Laing is pretty adept at the low hard crosses that Gayle could thrive on.

14 hours ago, inter politics said:

Bolton have three tricky away games now. I'd take a draw at Barnsley

As a top 6 team, Barnsley will be expected to attack us at home, which better suits our team IMO. (I would also take a draw though)

Was linked to Port Vale. They would not have been paying much wages.

If he did want to play In Championship again his best chance will be to help push us over the line and earn a contract for next season.

2 minutes ago, Animal is a Ram said:

I'm going to merge these with the pre-existing Paul Warne thread. 

Faster than a speeding bullet…

Watch out you Warne In/Out/Shake it all about thread starters.

If people want to be pi$$ed off then let them, likewise if people want to be happy that we won and are 2nd in the league, then they should also be left to their happiness.

Me, I am happy to escape the league any which we we can. Ideally the footy would be a bit more pleasing on the eye but if it gets results I’ll handle it.

(90 minute winners are great and anyone who did not enjoy that bit at least has my sympathy).

17 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

I’ve been told the EFL are trying to block this deal 

The CEO said we had wages/funding for a striker on deadline day so it’s hard to see how it would not be outside of budget.

Grounds to block it would need to be something else. (Wrong pen colour used on the form?)

He’s a 6 yard box poacher needing ball at feet. Could work well with NML, CBT providing the amo ?

10 minutes ago, Scott129 said:

There has to come a point where we fluke so many wins, that it can no longer be called a fluke.

Perhaps we're just an efficient, effective, but not particularly eye-catching side? 🤷‍♂️

I think we have a very solid defence and better than average attack that will tend to score at least once per game even in turd games. That will get plenty of points.

Anyway. What is XB (expected beers 🍺) stats for me after the match today?

Will it be score/result dependent? Does consolation equal more beer than celebration?

I’ll report back later..

22 hours ago, therealhantsram said:

Yes and no. It's true he didn't score much, but you could immediately see his ability to control the ball, his first touch and passing.

Agree. What was he like after two games. Of his loan? (Doubt anyone can remember)

I’m indifferent to the topic and part of me wants to understand it better, but the other part can’t be arsed as I’m 50 and have many better things to do with my time.

Also I have got to a life stage where I only care about the Derby County games and don’t really have any interest in football apart from us. Especially premier fing league. Not watched a PL match (even on tv) since we were relegated in “that season”.

28 minutes ago, Turk Thrust said:

I’ve been around long enough to have seen new players who have been pretty awful in their first few games but have come good later. Skill will always out

Chris Martin was not particularly special during his initial loan spell.

Going to be a tough game, but hoping for a narrow win. COYR