MaltRam

If Warne gets us up and keeps us up, he'll deserve and get a new contract.

If he then nicks a play-off win and gives us 5 years of Stoke under Pulis, Burnley under Dyche type premier league football...would he be a Bald Eagle style hero? Or would folks still moan? I'm not sure what we expect, collectively.

I hope and expect that the football will be better next season IF we do go up.

Curtis Nelson - 10 Immaculate since September
Callum Elder - 5 Started poorly, picked up but do often injured.
Joe Ward - 6 Can't play FB. Crossing from the gods.
Sonny Bradley - 6 redeemed himself to a degree.
Josh Vickers - 8 done well when called upon
Kane Wilson - 7 Can't play FB. Dribbling from the gods.

Martyn Waghorn - 6 looked class early doors, willing, but so often injured.
Conor Washington - 6 looked a pacy threat when fit, but so often injured.
Tyrese Fornah - 5 Where did the Blackpool away form go? Disappointing 

Elliot Embleton N/a...too little evidence
Ryan Nyambe 9 Strength, calm. Proper player...shame about the injury. 
Tyreece John-Jules 6 clearly a player. Always injured.

Winter:

Ebou Adams 11. Best loan since Leon Osman.
Dwight Gayle 7bit of class, but....injured
Corey Blackett-Taylor Can I plead the 5th? No? O.K. 3 - one or two flashes aside he's been awful.
Max Bird* 7 dependable on the ball. Injured.

*I've included Max, as I feel it was crucial we had him to the end of the season.

Extensions:
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing 10. Carries so much threat.
Eiran Cashin 10. Nuff said.
Jake Rooney 8. looked a player until Bkackpool

2 hours ago, ap04 said:

This relates to the Siemens scandal, from the little I know the main reason these were aquitted is not them being found innocent but the case dragging on (20 years elapsing for the main charges, there was also other stuff such as admission of bribery from the Germans' part and an out-of-court settlement for the bribes)

As far as I know and correct me if I am wrong this guy has been cleared of everything and there is nothing pending or "alleged".

Also you are suggesting the court system may be rigged but ignoring there may be foul political/financial/sporting/media interests on the other side wanting him smeared or gone.

What was the xC (expected conviction) on Marinakis though? Maybe he's been lucky so far, and if he keeps getting himself into the wrong positions, eventually his luck will change.

They won't play a full team and they won't be at full tilt. Bolton will smash them, especially if we go behind and they get their tails up. It's on us.

It's us or Bolton then, and judging from how Posh have clocked off, we won't get any favours on Saturday. Get the result or fail.

Be horrible to go one down.

I can't get my dad's ticket renewed online. He's relying on me to get it, but when I check his ID and proceed it's not available. Any ideas? (On my login)

If that's what we're working to, football is dead. VAR has to go. I'm not sure I could stand the Prem any more.

The 50 passes thing was a bit OTT then. Didn't we have a 30 odd pass goal vs Yeovil once under Mac1?

I do want Posh to win midweek. But come next Saturday lunch it's all about us getting out of the traps fast and overwhelming Carlisle. Get in front and keep turning the screw.

This isn't done yet.

A bit of quality from NML at one end, steel at the back from Cash and Nelson, a save from Wildsmith, a sprinkling if flair and a whole heap of graft.

The season in a nutshell.

COYR.

28 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

There is no way Forsyth would have made it as a top flight fullback.  Indeed McClaren was desperately trying to sign Francis and Ritchie from Bournemouth to replace him and Russell.  He tried Russell as a makeweight to get it done, which damaged his relationship  with the club and he never really had the same zest.  Forsyth for me was the weakest player in that 13/14 side.

As I heard it, Eddie Howe wanted Johnny, but Mac would only wear it if they let us have one of their lads...could have been Ritchie...but not as a replacement for Foz.

On 17/04/2024 at 22:13, RadioactiveWaste said:

@RoyMac5 can use whatever pronouns he/she wants! I frequently go by LLW or sometimes ILW, or if I'm sad, VLLW.

If you're sat gloomily watching the box, do you identify as LA-LLW?

Sorry...just love that a radwaste categorisation joke appeared on here.

The job Warne has done, since Stevenage away, has been exemplary.

You cannot play one touch 50 pass moves with league 1 players. Not feasible. If we blow it, and have to face up to another season down here, Warne is definitely the man to rebuild us and go again.

If we go up, he will have earnt the right to build a Championship squad and have a go at keeping us up, as per his original brief.

I know he's marmite, with his off-beat personality profile, but he's clearly an honest and genuine man and it's hard to see a nice guy cop for abuse.

Small pitch? Close them down aggressively, look to score on the turnover, and rely on our greatest strength (Cashin and Nelson) to mop up if they get through us?

52 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Just wondering what our approach will be. Go for the win or make sure we don’t lose. Interesting……very interesting 😊

I'm certain we're going there to win. 

9 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It's a mobility problem as well as cost.

I had swine flu about 12 years ago which ate half of my lung capacity, then at Christmas last year I contracted the hoax that dare not raise its head, which ate most of the rest and has left me utterly dog tired when I do anything. I used to park on London Road and walk to PP for night matches, or catch the bus from Donington. The last time, I had to rest 3 times each way just to get my breath back.

Where is this sunny window? It sounds attractive.

Is there a supporters club bus from Donnington? My dad switched to the supporters bus a few years back, leaves him a 150yd walk and kept him able to get to matches.

Come on Eddie. Sunny window is over-rated, and nursey starts reducing your tripel rations once you sit there.

On 28/03/2024 at 14:02, Eddie said:

I've missed so many games this year that I think it's time to knock it on the head.

Too old and too tired. 

Being old and tired is exactly why you should keep going. You pack this up, pack something else up, pretty soon you're left with hoping to be put in the sunny window and snoozing to pass the time.

Rage, rage, against the dying of the light, Eddie!

43 minutes ago, ap04 said:

Not sure what your evidence is but I hope you trust mine as I've worked a bit on this.

After 46 games the average percentage of lucky/unlucky games net for a team is precisely 9%. The maximum is over 20% -hard to believe I know. This is based on the standard +2 clear chances aggregate worthy of a win.

The average discrepancy to the chances/goal average is 0.35, the maximum over 1. These can all be positive or negative.

You understand what the above mean in terms of points, goals and league positions at the end of a season.

You clearly do a lot of work on stats in football. I hope it brings you joy and wealth.

I personally couldn't give less of a monkey's about average discrepancy to the chances/goal average, xG, or any of it.

I watch football for fun, for the joy of that moment when the ball hits the net, the intake of breath as a defender is beaten. The satisfaction of winning a game. The shared pleasure of a successful season. 

I don't understand what you are saying, why you are saying it, or what joy you get from following football. 

Maybe if you diluted your intensely dry and rather hectoring stats lessons with a post or two about the actual football, or the Rams generally, folks would treat you with less disdain. 

3 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

I dunno - it feels kinda racist when, the moment there is an attack where someone goes loco and kills a bunch of people, before the motive or the identity of the killer is known, for someone to state on a public forum that it was an islamic terrorist

Fair point, but at the risk of quibbling that wasn't exactly stated. Implied, sure.

I feel like we shut people and ideas down far too readily these days, and this is another example. See Dawn French's comments yesterday around JK Rowling.

3 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Just to be clear as I don’t want it to be misconstrued, my reply to you wasn’t personal, it was meant as conversation and debate as others have been advocating for the last couple of days. You feel one way about this season (scraped in), I feel another (earned it but could have made it far smoother an experience overall if we’d put certain teams away) and was explaining my thoughts, wasn’t intended as a dig or anything so sorry if that’s how it came across 

We've earned nowt, scraped nowt and done nowt yet.

Folks, please. Are we capable of losing at Cambridge? Are Bolton capable of smashing Port Vale 4-0 at home?

We aren't remotely there yet. Keep the champagne in the box, and only put it on ice if we win on Saturday.

Joe Wildsmith's diving header to save a point might be the key touch of the whole season.

Been trying not to look at text updates every 30 seconds, but failed completely to do that for the last 15 minutes.

What a result. 

I think we can relax just that touch now at Cambridge. The knowledge that a draw isn't the end of the world means we can play with that bit more freedom, and feels to me like it'll make victory more likely.

I feel...optimism? Is that what this is? It's been so long!

1 hour ago, Alph said:

It was a joke at Rachel Riley's expense after her latest rant. 

So I googled. It wasn't racist. It was ill directed. There are a significant number of Islamic fundamentalist out there who want you and I dead, the more brutally the better.  It's not racist to acknowledge the fact.