VulcanRam

Therefore I happily apologise.

Warne said he had a bit of pain on his knee. He didn't look uncomfortable, hadn't gone down and the reaction from the crowd was very surprised when his number went up. I accept of course Warne and co know more about this than me, but you have to question whether he could have seen the game out at 1-0 having been so dominant against their front line. 2 or 3 up, yes take him off, but at this stage we were sitting back protecting a one goal lead. We needed him on. I will happily apologise if he genuinely couldn't continue.

Wilson didn't pick the wrong starting line up, Warne did. Wilson didn't make the ridiculous decision to take Nyambe off, Warne did. (Nothing about his body language suggested he couldn't have lasted the last 5 mins). And, and I accept I may be alone in this, it wasn't Wilson's decision to sit back and try to defend for 25 minutes having gone a goal ahead against team whose away record is extremely poor and leave CBT on the bench when we were crying out for some spark. It was however, Wilson who let his man go. So that's 3-1. I'm with @DavesaRam on this. It was poor management yesterday. Anyway, this thread is for positives. It was a better performance than against Cheltenham. South stand was noiser. Adams is great. Bird has turned up since Adams did. It wasn't so cold. I got home about 10 mins earlier than usual as the traffic didn't seem as bad as it can be. The ref was excellent for the first 15 seconds.

The player standing behind Wildsmith and Elder on the line is in an offside position when the shot came in, he clearly interfered with Elder's ability to prevent the ball from going in by shoving/pulling him out of the way of the travelling ball. If the player hadn't of been there, Elder would have blocked it with ease. Therefore he is affecting play from an offside position and the flag should have gone up. Only Bradley seemed to kick up a fuss, which I was surprised about. It was yet another poor decision in an afternoon of poor decisions from the officials.

1Wildsmith 7 - commanded his box well, a good save at 1-1. 24Nyambe - 7 looked to have his opponent in his pocket and there was no danger down that side til he went off. 2Wilson 5.5 - poor defending for their goal, attacked well the rest of the game 5Bradley - 6 - still looks like an accident waiting to happen 35Nelson 7 - our best defender on the day 23Ward - 5 didn't have any joy once he crossed the half way line, on the odd occasion he did 7Barkhuizen - 5 .5 needed to have more of an impact 32Adams - 7.5 along with Bird our best player on the day. Brings a new dimension to the side 16Thompson - 6 buzzed about Thommo style 4Hourihane - 5.5 Rather anonymous, is he rendered unnecessary in this team by Adams' arrival? 8Bird - 7.5 Something has given him a new lease of life, either his move or Adams' arrival 17Sibley - 5 - see Ward 20Elder - 6 solid enough 11Méndez-Laing - 6 never really hit first gear 9Collins - 5 usual work rate was there, but unnecessarily offside a stupid amount of times

Presumably then you agree that David Lowe is Derby County's most successful manager of all time because the stats show he has a 100% win record. He might be 54th in the shooting stats but the important on is that he's 7th equal in the top goalscorer stats. That's ok. He's doing a good job. Anyway, all this proves is that stats are meaningless without context.

I'm with you on this, except if we're able to do a deal for him, he might just be the man we need off the bench in the last 15 mins when we need a goal, the opposition are camped and we're running out of ideas. While never prolific other than at his spell at West Brom, he was always a terrific finisher - better I'd argue than any of the current players - and if that got us 2 or 3 goals, it might be the 2 or 3 goals that makes a difference between 2nd and 3rd.

First point - it has to be a large contributing factor in my mind, only because of my own experience. I'm in the South Stand, have always enjoyed the banter and enthusiasm. This season it's so quiet because games are just boring. Loads of people are just chatting among themselves. People are leaving 10 mins before the end of each half to either go downstairs or go home. At the Cheltenham game there were a few around us sitting down for periods, even though it meant they couldn't see the pitch. And that's down to the style of football - it might be effective, it's great that it's got us into the top 2, but it's not nice to watch for large periods. Second point, I totally agree, is also a large contributing factor. It's great to get promoted, but you're only going back to where you should be anyway. Just as an aside to your last paragraph - same manager and same football wouldn't, I imagine, lead to the same league position in the Championship at this stage of the season. Nonetheless, UTR!

Just in case you'd mishit a button or two.

No, but a nice line in cheap, fatty pre-frozen (and sometimes still frozen) burgers, I am led to believe. Salad bar included in the meal though, and that's got to be worth something.

That's made my day. Brilliant!

There are also better ways of using an apostrophe, but I'd never be so pedantic..

Perfectly put, I hadn't considered that. Top man! Or woman.

Probably worth adding @Braziliance that if you're not into real ale, and want a normal pub instead of beer-bellied beardies admiring the content of their glasses more than they would their wives, if they ever had them, and droning on about "real" beer in a superior manner to no-one in particular, then the Harvester near the back entrance to the station (en route to the ground) is the designated away fans pub so will find your fellow Addicks there downing pints of nicely chilled continental lager.

Is it not a moot point until things are in our own hands? Until then it doesn't matter what we do - we could be brilliant and win every game left this season and still end up in the play offs if Pompey and Bolton do the same.

Just as I was disappointed for Jason Knight that he couldn't attract better interest than Bristol City, same with Max Bird, who not long ago was being linked with Chelsea. If he's going to leave, I'd rather see him play at a higher level than a team who might only be as good as us next season. Equally, maybe he was waiting for more/better offers in the summer but we've forced his hand because we need the money now we know he won't be staying. But I'm not really sure about the loan back. He hasn't been that important a player for us this season given the way we play, and if he won't be here next season I'd rather see us giving more game time to Sibley, Thompson, Adams and Fornah.

You've done a good job trying to explain the wider context on several posts. Nothing about the way we play, in and out of possession, can surely make anyone think Warne believes the midfield to be a key area of the team. Add this to things Warne has said after (at least) a couple of games (it might be more, I don't listen to too many of his interviews) where he refers to only wanting the midfielders to take a couple of touches before moving it on, to actively avoiding the midfield area in certain games. Add this to what we see with our own eyes when teams just run through our middle. Where does any of that tell you he thinks the midfield area is critical to what he wants to achieve? That's not to say he doesn't value Bird/Hourihane, doesn't see a role for them or wants them to leave or anything like that. If he wanted a holding midfielder, or indeed another midfielder, I presume he would have said so by now, instead of just focusing on the wide areas and a striker. For what it's worth, if he wanted to change the midfield dynamic he has Fornah, Sibley and Thompson, all of whom could help affect change in there regards setup, style and tactics, but clearly he doesn't, and that's fine, he's the manager and its his choice. He's clearly happy with what he's got and how he's deploying them. I don't see any point adding to the midfield if, as it seems, nothing will change. It'll just be another player bought and wasted.

This is an interesting point. From a good vantage point high in the South Stand on Saturday I spent a bit of time focusing solely on Max Bird's positioning (let's face it, there wasn't much else of interest going on). There were a few times when, in possession coming from the back, the most blatantly obvious thing to do was for Bird to drop into the huge vacant space in midfield to receive the ball yet he deliberately stayed, or even moved into, a position further wide; further away from his midfield partner, into an area where there were other players, and leaving this hole in the middle of the park. I couldn't work out why the first time but then after watching him for a bit longer this exact thought occurred to me - he's not using his intuition or natural footballing brain/ability here, he looks like he's following strict orders, even if his movement doesn't seem (to me, anyway) to make much sense.

"One thing I didn't get" is the start of a sentence that could go on for a very, very long time.

Even a badly defending Ward which allows Wilson to play on the wing is better than playing Wilson at RB. We've only got 2 creative players anyway, now one of them is lost to defence, leaving us NML, and as we saw last night, if he's not on it, we struggle to create. I'd put Ward back in and play Wilson higher up against Cheltenham. Other than NML, he'd walk into my team ahead of anyone in that position. The potential reward outweighs the risk.

Dare I say, in the mad rush to apportion blame for everything, Burton's second goal was an absolute belter. When our cross went into their area Hugill was on the edge of his own box and was about the furthest forward Burton player. We had at least three players directly between him and the half way line. If you look at the Burton player who comes away with the ball - he's facing and running towards (broadly) the west stand. As soon as he gets it Hugill is off in another direction - more towards the centre spot. Elder, as the last man, is following the trajectory of the man with the ball and looking to cover that area, not realising at that stage that Hugill is running on his blind side and approaching his territory. As the ball is being played, he has to change direction, change his body shape, and try to get across to the ball. Plenty of times he might have managed that, but for two things. Firstly it was an outstanding ball from the Burton player to Hugill, absolutely pinpoint and virtually the only spot he could have put it to allow Hugill a straight run on goal. Secondly, look at Hugill's first touch, it was sublime. Any element of close control, stopping it, scuffing it and Elder is on him, but his first touch takes it out of his feet and directly towards goal, giving him the run on Elder. Also, he started that run from the edge of his area as soon as possession was turned over. Brilliant play. Yes we can ask questions about Elder (I thought he had a decent game tbf), and maybe Hourihane's positioning and movement if we want, but I just thought it was an outstanding bit of play by Burton. Good finish too.

Average salary (a year) £24,000 Starter. £65,000 Experienced. Typical hours (a week) 35 to 40 a week. You could work. evenings / weekends / bank holidays on shifts. From the Govt website. Anyway, looks like Charlton on Rams TV it is then. Shame really, was one of the few away games in the diary.

Unless I'm reading that wrong, are we suggesting that Wilson is below average and near the bottom for running with the ball, but in the elite section for winning headers? Interesting....

I'd view entertaining as being a success because that's what supporters pay to see. Wilson and NML about the only players who excite amid what can often be 90 minutes of rather boring football. Ebosele wasn't the most effective of players but he was exciting to watch and a reason to go to games. To suggest Hourihane and Bird are carrying the side? They might be better than Sibley and Fornah but no way are they carrying this team - Cashin and Nelson are doing a far better job in that respect. Our midfield is the weakest part of the team and, apart from Thommo who I would like to see develop to see what he has - I wouldn't be sorry to see any of them leave.

And that's the concern. Collins remains, and will do for some time as things stand, our only fit player capable of playing 90 mins and scoring goals. JJ is feeling his way back into regularly playing. Washington back next month training means what, being fit to play 90 minutes 3 weeks after that? We might not see him til March at the earliest in any kind of meaningful capacity. Waghorn, we don't know so its conceivable it won't be til towards the end of the season. NML and Barks don't score anything like the amount of goals we need for promotion, particularly if we are pushing for autos. I agree that if Collins is injured we'd really struggle for enough goals to consistently win games. I guess it's down to what our ambition is but I'd say signing a player who is capable of being competition to Collins and can come in and play 90 minutes from the off is crucial to maintaining the promotion push.