Leeds Ram

Fully deserved win and pretty comfortable except for one ball into the final third we allowed to drop.
No controversy in the win for me. Reading played into the ref’s hands with so many cynical and brainless fouls. On another day, they would have had a man sent off in the first half. The keeper also charged out needlessly, giving the referee a decision to make.
Adams was imperious, but Gayle was the difference. His intelligent runs and movement and clever touches scared the life out of Reading’s defence. He also took his goal very nicely.
If we can keep him fit for the next eight games, we have a very real chance of promotion.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself or allow myself to be excited, but.. I feel like something has finally clicked.
Best performance we’ve ever had under Warne, in my opinion. We’ve fell on to a workable system, the main reason was the recruitment staff doing their job and finding a gem in Ebou Adams and very recently I think it’s not in any small part to having to change the dynamic with Gayle upfront. I believe these two signings in particular have changed our fortunes, similarly to how Nyambe did earlier in the season.
Sibley and Ward are excelling. The defence are well balanced, the cohesion between the midfield and defence is significantly better, gaps aren’t as freely available for the other team and we are now working well going forward. I think we actually look like a team now, which for the majority of the season has definitely been missing something. The last two performances, the dynamic of the team, I’m finally hopeful. 

What a huge result, but it’s probably wise to take it one game at a time bearing in mind how tight things are. There could be two points separating four teams all things being equal.
Reading will be another tough game in midweek where we’ll have to be professional and switched on to get the job done. They’ll be looking and thinking they could do a number on us like Charlton did.
It’s hard not to be positive at the moment though. We are in such a good place. Those back to back defeats could have been terminal but we have bounced back in style. Warne and the players are showing great character.
Adams and Gayle have given us some post January oomph that we missed last year. The whole squad are playing their part - see Bradley, Ward, Smith, Barkhuizen and Sibley all making important contributions to the cause over recent weeks.
Losing to Bird to injury will be a blow but it gives others in the squad a chance to shine. Hourihane and Thompson will be raring to go.
All we need is CBT to arrive at the party and it could be a really really fun end to the season!

Here we go again, @Archied - agreeing again.
In the last few days, I have first  Niemöllered the thread then Santayanaed it. Going for a hat-trick now:
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - Louis Fischer (Gandhi's biographer, attributing the philosophy or message, if not the actual words, to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)

Of home games I managed to only miss.... Newcastle... *sigh* you couldn't make it up. When we went into the next season, I remember it dawning on me that despite being an ST holder that I hadn't seen us win in well over a year. Jesus wept, what a time that was to endure being a Derby fan ! I climbed out of the East Stand at the final whistle on the final day and watched some lads unfurl a banner with 'Thank f*** that's over' written on it. Quality ! Summed it up perfectly!

They were leaving after 15 mins.
We only booed after the final whistle on the last game of the season. Once it was all over. Before that, the team had our full support. They were just awful players at that level, not really their own fault. Just put in a situation where they were massively out of their depth. And that's why we supported them.
It really was, weirdly, one of the most fun seasons I remember.

Sheffield United are truly horrific, and their fans are a complete disgrace.
During THAT season I believe our fans were voted Player of the Season. Every game was a sell out, and bizarrely, the longer the season went on, and the more we fell behind the rest of the league, the better the support was at Pride Park. We took the piss out of ourselves, and every set of away fans that turned up. It seems some of our best times as fans have been when we face adversity. Strange bunch us Rams fans.
Last night Brammel Lane was half empty by half time. Tin pot club, with tin pot fans.

Confess it sounds somewhat niche, but I have no doubt it will be ace. Happy writing!

Mine is a monograph of my PhD discussing Carl Schmitt's exceptional sovereignty in relation to Iran and Syria 🙂 It's called "Carl Schmitt in the Middle East: Unstable Decisionism and the Failure of Political Orders". I'm trying to make it easily readable and am talking to the publisher to make it reasonably priced so it might shift a few copies 🙂 

Mine is a monograph of my PhD discussing Carl Schmitt's exceptional sovereignty in relation to Iran and Syria 🙂 It's called "Carl Schmitt in the Middle East: Unstable Decisionism and the Failure of Political Orders". I'm trying to make it easily readable and am talking to the publisher to make it reasonably priced so it might shift a few copies 🙂 

Great stuff! As I said when starting the AI thread, I'm also writing a book on that for a different publisher at the moment. And, like you, it's currently hard going haha. What's yours for our future reading pleasure?

Great review! Sounds very interesting 🙂 hope it sells well for you! I feel the pain on writing, writing a book myself, albeit not with such a prestigious publisher and it's definitely hard going haha. 

COYR!!!

COYR!!!

Creating books is a really slow process. I moved to Penguin a couple of years ago, but first you have to contract an author to write a book, then they must do the hard graft of writing, and we go through numerous drafts together, and then it moves into production and all the stages there. My very first book from start to finish like that publishes on Thursday and it's a great story - proper narrative nonfiction that follows Chris Thorogood's lifelong obsession with Rafflesia, the world's biggest flowers, and his quest to save them. Lovely review in the Guardian to kick things off. Before this book, I was pretty blind to plants. Now I notice them so much more. It's called Pathless Forest if anyone wants to try out a nature adventure story.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/01/pathless-forest-by-chris-thorogood-review-love-letter-to-a-monstrous-flower

Someone recommended The Bee Sting to me. My reading wish list is growing by the minute today 😂

I think this is a real bind the lower leagues are in. Almost totally dependent on ticket revenue to keep the lights on means an increase in prices with the poor state of the economy means for many working-class families football is now a luxury they can't afford. Not blaming the increase on the club, the ticket prices remain reasonable and as I live a good bit away and oftentimes work until 7.00pm I can't get a season ticket anyway, but I do feel for those families who are essentially priced out of maybe the one luxury they had.

set up 4-2-3-1 and go at them. They must be fragile confidence wise so high tempo, high press and get men in the box. They're a shambles and we need to take advantage. 

set up 4-2-3-1 and go at them. They must be fragile confidence wise so high tempo, high press and get men in the box. They're a shambles and we need to take advantage. 

set up 4-2-3-1 and go at them. They must be fragile confidence wise so high tempo, high press and get men in the box. They're a shambles and we need to take advantage. 

set up 4-2-3-1 and go at them. They must be fragile confidence wise so high tempo, high press and get men in the box. They're a shambles and we need to take advantage. 

I watched the game last night and I thought first half was fine. We generally kept the ball well but made some terrible decisions once we got into the final third. We had more pace but the way we played didn't really suite Gayle. It will take some adapting to so we can make the most of his qualities i think. 
The second half was poor. We never really got going and didn't look confident. Wildsmith is a keeper I've rarely been sure of. He flatters to deceive by making a great save now and again but in the middle makes a host of blunders. Last season he probably cost us around a dozen points with all his mistakes. I think this season he's going the same way. But that doesn't excuse the lack of shape from the squad. The substitutions did more harm than good and we had so little in the middle of the park. 
We'll get in the playoffs which is an improvement but I can't see us picking up an automatic slot unless something changes. If we spend another year in the division it will be much harder for us to leave it with key players such as Bird leaving. It will require another facelift in terms of personnel. If it is the playoffs there is no one that really scares me as such except for ourselves. When we do play well we can beat anyone in this league but those days are too few and far between at the moment. 

I watched the game last night and I thought first half was fine. We generally kept the ball well but made some terrible decisions once we got into the final third. We had more pace but the way we played didn't really suite Gayle. It will take some adapting to so we can make the most of his qualities i think. 
The second half was poor. We never really got going and didn't look confident. Wildsmith is a keeper I've rarely been sure of. He flatters to deceive by making a great save now and again but in the middle makes a host of blunders. Last season he probably cost us around a dozen points with all his mistakes. I think this season he's going the same way. But that doesn't excuse the lack of shape from the squad. The substitutions did more harm than good and we had so little in the middle of the park. 
We'll get in the playoffs which is an improvement but I can't see us picking up an automatic slot unless something changes. If we spend another year in the division it will be much harder for us to leave it with key players such as Bird leaving. It will require another facelift in terms of personnel. If it is the playoffs there is no one that really scares me as such except for ourselves. When we do play well we can beat anyone in this league but those days are too few and far between at the moment. 

If I am not at a 🐏 game, I follow it religiously on the tv. I even had a radio to my ear on my wedding day 🤣 For the first time that I can remember, I didn’t follow yesterday’s game. Unprecedented. I just checked the HT and FT score. Instead. I watched the first couple of episodes of Love/Hate which has been recommended highly on the Jim Smith section of the forum. It didn’t disappoint. The acting was excellent, it was tense and exciting….really enjoyable and entertaining to watch. I would certainly have got my money’s worth if I hadn’t signed up to Brit Box on a free 7 day trial. Can’t wait to go back for more. Afterwards having got the 🐏 result, I spent a bit of time flicking channels and ended up with Mrs Brown’s Boys. I turned the 📺 off 😉

I watched the game last night and I thought first half was fine. We generally kept the ball well but made some terrible decisions once we got into the final third. We had more pace but the way we played didn't really suite Gayle. It will take some adapting to so we can make the most of his qualities i think. 
The second half was poor. We never really got going and didn't look confident. Wildsmith is a keeper I've rarely been sure of. He flatters to deceive by making a great save now and again but in the middle makes a host of blunders. Last season he probably cost us around a dozen points with all his mistakes. I think this season he's going the same way. But that doesn't excuse the lack of shape from the squad. The substitutions did more harm than good and we had so little in the middle of the park. 
We'll get in the playoffs which is an improvement but I can't see us picking up an automatic slot unless something changes. If we spend another year in the division it will be much harder for us to leave it with key players such as Bird leaving. It will require another facelift in terms of personnel. If it is the playoffs there is no one that really scares me as such except for ourselves. When we do play well we can beat anyone in this league but those days are too few and far between at the moment.