ck-

8 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

Offside is offside.

It doesn’t matter how you draw it up, whether daylight between attacker and defender or not, it is simply on or off.

It’s incredibly harsh but get rid of VAR and you end up with Coventry in the final via an offside goal.

We either accept humans (officials) make errors (something that managers, pundits, fans etc. can’t seem to do) or we use technology.

Many prefer the days of none VAR. but I also remember in the days of no VAR teams like Man Utd would bully referees and you’d never get a decision at Old Trafford.

That’s true. And I accept that wherever you draw the line, there will be millimetre decisions. 
My point was that this isn’t what the offside rule was for. It was to prevent persistent goal hanging with a defending team just hoofing the ball up to a player who was dawdling near the goal. 
This seems to be against the spirit of that. 

Coventry goal against Manchester United. Attacker’s left little toe nail was 1/2cm closer to the goal.

Surely that isn’t what the offside rule is for? 

Just now, strawhillram said:

If we lose 2-0 and they win 2-0 we are level

And they go up on goals scored

For all we were “under the cosh” Cambridge didn’t really have any chances. 
I hate the retreat into defend a lead mode, but we are very good at it. 

Something weird with Wildsmith today. 

Why is Collins playing defensive midfield?????

2 minutes ago, YouRams said:

Don't know if it's been mentioned but looks like they've shortened the pitch massively 

I believe that’s not allowed - pitch has to  stay same size all season. 

3 minutes ago, Kernow said:

Shrews always have been my favourite small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. 

I always preferred hedgehogs, but am prepared to revisit that in another hour’s time, depending on results. 
Come on you Shrews

I groaned when I saw he was starting. But all the frustrations I’ve had with him were absent today.

He was an absolute rock.

He actually jumped to win headers rather than that weird thing he does where he’ ducks under the ball.

He passed the ball to or in front of our players.

He seemed to do less of the wrestling in the penalty area at corners and looked so much more effective as a result.

He looked a leader out there today, and I’m ashamed I doubted him. 

16 minutes ago, jono said:

Sibs looked like Sibs Mark 1  from 2 years ago and hungry as anything. And he CAN tackle !

Interesting. First few minutes he got caught in possession, couldn’t seem to get past his man, and couldn’t shield the ball. 
I found myself sadly reflecting on how our once most promising junior player has seemed increasingly lost as the season has gone by. I was ready to give up on him. 
And then “something” happened. I’m not totally sure what the “something” was, but something seemed to click. I think it was when he received the ball deep after about 20 minutes and instead of trying to muscle his way past, he shimmied, cut inside and was suddenly in acres of space. From then on I thought he looked dangerous every time he had the ball, and was definitely in the top three players on the pitch. 
Let’s hope he can build on this. 

I’m looking forward to all the  tactical geniuses who called this a sackable formation and no chance of any goals, coming on here and admitting that they got it wrong. 

18 minutes ago, SKRam said:

I’ve just turned 59, I’d fancy playing Derby here 

I’m 59 with an artificial knee and I think I could do a job 😂

14 minutes ago, alram said:

to be in this position we really cant throw it away now

I didn’t know whether to clap, laugh, or heart this. 

Interesting one for Bolton today. Looking at the form for the last 6 away league games, they’re right at the bottom!

https://thefishy.co.uk/formtable.php?table=3&tab=tab-away

But they’re playing against Bristol Rovers, who over the last 6 home games have only the 17th best record.

https://thefishy.co.uk/formtable.php?table=3&tab=tab-home

The form table would suggest a dull nil nil draw.

6:0 to Bolton it is then!
 

7 hours ago, ap04 said:

In the game I saw we scored 2 goals and created nothing else of note in 90 minutes.

Portsmouth on top of their 2 goals missed an open goal, had a 1v1 saved by Wildsmith's legs and the penalty incident at the end. Calling the above an even game and a fair draw is a bit of a stretch.

Can I suggest you try something like basketball instead. Might be a bit easier for you to follow, where the tactics aren’t too taxing - just run from one end to the other, shoot, turn round and defend the other team’s attack. 

19 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Climb out of your own arse. You're not half as smart as you think you are and folk are sick to death of your BS.

I remember a few seasons back, a continued insistence that Vydra had clearly hit a shot completely the wrong way - should have gone for the near post instead of across the keeper,  or some such blather - with an absolute insistence that it showed he simply was not, and never would be, good enough. 
Vydra then went on to destroy everything in his path, scoring for fun as one of the most efficient scoring machines Derby has ever had. 
Since then I’ve read the proclamations of footballing insight and knowledge that are beyond us mere mortals with the respect they deserve. The ramblings of someone who likes the sound of their own voice a little too much. 

4 minutes ago, YouRams said:

I'm not a Warne basher at all but imo he's had a stinker, Collins shouldn't of been on the pitch still being on a yellow and you're asking for trouble sitting back. We looked really good going forward in the first half best I've seen us in a long time so it's frustrating we didn't continue to go at them in the second.

That’s still a long way from being “a stinker” in my opinion. The context is that they have won their last 5 home games with an average score of 3-1. 

8 minutes ago, YouRams said:

Think Warnes had a stinker there and 2 points dropped. They didn't look like doing anything that second half. Their LB picked up an early yellow, should've pulled Collins for Wash and him and NML go at them down that wing. Sat back, left Collo on too long and inevitably they score.

So the manager has a stinker because the opposition didn’t look like doing anything? I wonder if that might be anything to do with how he set the team up. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t a good setup. 

Been watching this second half for over 20 minutes already yet there’s only 4 minutes gone. What’s that all about?

5 minutes ago, oodledoodle said:

The worst miss I've seen this season. Good grief what a letoff.

No worse than Nelson hitting the ball as hard as he could from 6 yards and it barely making it over the line. 

We’ve had as many - if not more - clear cut chances. 

3 hours ago, Gerry Daly said:

I heard Jeff Bezos wants to deliver us the Premier league title

Hmm. The worrying thing about that is it will be delivered late, and to our neighbours. 

Thanks @B4ev6is  

You can clearly see his influence here with the rainbow marking where he’d guided the ball into the net. 

Is RamsTV frozen?

1 hour ago, Bris Vegas said:

Derby need 4 wins, Pompey probably 3.

Bolton, Posh and Barnsley will drop more points. 89-90 points will be enough.

We’ll easily get it, looking at our remaining fixtures. We can probably afford to lose to Pompey, Wycombe and even Blackpool and we’ll still be fine.

 

2.2 points a game for 7 or 8 games gets the teams in 3rd and 4th to the 89/90 point mark. The likelihood of them exceeding that rate is low I think. 
So we need 12 points from 7 games. Call it 14 to be safe. That’s still 2 points a game, or 4 wins, 2 draws, and  1 loss. 
We’re in the driving seat but it’s still all up for grabs. 

Bolton huffed and puffed and Wildsmith had to make a couple of good saves but:

- Barkhuizen cross to Mendez-Laing was close
- Smith had a ferocious drive blocked : keeper would have struggled
- Nelson should have scored with a free header 
- their keeper made a couple of other saves

Mendez-LaIng struggled with his second touch today. If it wasn’t for that he’d have been clear at least three times. 

You can have all the passing it across the lines and looking comfortable on the ball you like, but they didn’t really breach our defence very often for all that.

In summary, we might not have looked pretty, but I think we were quite effective. I’m enjoying the effort and passion, and the occasional flashes of skill.