FlyBritishMidland

I think you’ve missed my point there, or I’ve missed yours. No pitchforks intended from me. I was trying to say it’s different times and society. Back then, you really debated the football and formed your view of the general feeling of supporters by the opinions of your mates and those you went to the match with. Now, you get views of anyone, anywhere in the world instantly. Plus, more exposure to different styles of football from across the world. I suspect if the internet, social media and as much live football on TV existed in the 80’s you’d see similar views. From Arthur Cox is clueless we should walk the league, to we nearly went bust 2 years ago and he’s done an amazing job. It would probably be very similar to now. Flip it round, a lot the people I know think PW is doing alright and deserves to keep his job next year regardless. With no internet, etc, I’d think all Rams fans felt similar. I’ve probably done a very bad job of saying it’s hard to compare eras a feeling amongst fans.

I’m the same. I said to a mate today that I’m about to have the longest 10 days or so of my life. I have so many scenarios running round my head, both good and bad. Peterborough worry me. In the next week they have 2 away games, both winnable on paper. Can they win the both, and if so, by how much? And then I think surely we can get 4 points from the next 2. There’s just too much to think about!!

I don’t remember there being. If there was, he wouldn’t have made it past the 1st season, finish 4 places off a promotion spot. Plus, players were signed from the top division. And there’s some who think we have a good squad now!! There are some reasons for that though. In general, I don’t think there was as much of a “want it now” society. People were prepared to wait for things. There wasn’t the saturation with football that there is now. Back then, you had cup finals and Internationals as the only live football and MOTD and the like was only 3 games, including lower league. Now, everyone is exposed to Man City, Liverpool, Barcelona, etc and it raises expectations. And places like this didn’t exist. There was no forums or Twitter for people to say how rubbish the line up is the second it’s released or comment during the game.

That’s a good point. With Sky now taking over the broadcasting rights in the UK across the EFL, maybe the red button will also cover L1 and L2 for midweek games?

And arguably worse than anything Mad Mel did. And that ended well.

I think there’s a lot of “frequency illusion” going on with Bradley. Some have formed a view and are looking for things to reinforce that view and focusing on that. Yes, he had a dodgy start and was, quite rightly, dropped. But since getting a regular place he’s not made glaring errors that have cost us points. His only misdemeanour was the sending off at Northampton.

I think that’s a bit harsh. We’re the only team to do the double them (I think) beating them 3-0 in both games. They’ve beaten Portsmouth 3-0 away, Bolton, Oxford and only lost 1-0 to Lincoln when they were scoring for fun.

The club have a retro shirt from the 2001-03 era on sale. It’s on display in the shop window. That was made by errea but it doesn’t have the manufactures logo on so maybe it’s self produced. It would be good if they did the sand for some of the old Puma kits.

And you could play with 2 Nr 10’s in a 3-4-3 formation. CBT plus NML with a target man up top and they make runs beyond.

A confident and comfortable performance yesterday. The only thing missing was a goal from open play but that doesn’t worry me. Both yesterday and at Wycombe, particularly 1st half, we created some really good ones. The defence never looked in trouble and I thought we controlled midfield. Smith had a really good game, he was comfortable on the ball and always available to receive it. Collins looked more like himself and put his usual shift in. Kane’s goal was right in front of me, definitely his. I might be in a minority but I don’t mind Bradley. Personally, I think he plays better when he’s captain, he seems to thrive on the responsibility. Yes, he made some mistakes early on but Warne acted on it. Pleased he got his goals and hope that gives him a lift for the last 2 games.

Injuries is interesting. This weeks episode of the Rams Daily podcast building up to the game is worth a listen. Injuries is discussed and Martin Fisher said it seems to be a problem in all the divisions this season. They discussed the stop start nature of the game now affecting muscles, etc and the length of injury time. The Orient chap they spoke too alluded to the same. Their manager has said the extra injury time at the end of matches has had an affect on his players fitness. Particularly at the start of the season when players were still building up their fitness and they haven’t recovered from this.

Derby 3 Orient 0 FRGS Collins

It’s agents fees. And includes signings, loans and contract renewals. From academy to 1st team. Basically everything.

Good point. And just like 10:00 on Wednesday night when the general assumption was that Bolton would win their game in hand, we must assume the same for Rotherham. Therefore, that would take to the, 4th or 5th, 3 points off automatics. It’s also more relevant to compare to the top than bottom because of the number teams between them. Getting in the top 6 relied on a couple of teams losing. Dropping to the bottom 3 relied on 13 teams winning. We’ve had posters saying Rotherham stayed up because Warne left, but forgetting their start and his far better ppg than his successor. This season they’re down with 23 points so far, worse than any season under Warne (40 in 18/19 and 42 in 20/21 when he was in permanent charge although it was 23 when in interim charge). It could be said that it’s more to do with the resources available to them than any particular manager.

Totally agree with everything you say. His strength is in building the right culture and environment. You only have to listen to Adams talk about how everyone has treated him, etc. Look at Hourihane when he hasn’t been playing, he’s cheering and encouraging from the sidelines. That’s all down to Warne and the culture and environment he’s built. That can’t be underestimated.

I half expected that and, I’m glad we didn’t lose. I was nowhere near as nervous through the game as I was against Pompey because while we didn’t look like winning, we didn’t look like losing either. That said the performance was not where it needs to be. Again, too many off days at the same time. Abject is probably a good description. If CBT’s chance goes in, we would probably have gone on to win comfortably but I think that affected not just him but the team too. And NML at least has to make the keeper make a save. I have some sympathy with Washington’s chance as the ball was bouncing and difficult to control. My glass half full position (and helped by sleeping on it) is this happens, even to Liverpool!! When we slipped up at Northampton, no-one else took advantage. I had this as a draw and Pompey as a defeat, so 1 point up. I think Pompey will beat Bolton win both promotion and the league, that’s come at a good time for us. Posh will slip up in the next 5 and away to Oxford on Saturday isn’t easy. 3 wins, and I believe we can do it 🐏.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really that fussed about this. I did listen to the Rams Daily podcast yesterday which is a shortened 45min version and I quite enjoyed it. Is the full version on BBC Sounds? If so, I might give it a go and skip through the bits I’m not so interested in. I used to know the kit man’s dad and have a pint with him before the game. He once arranged for Mrs FBM’s Rams shirt to be signed by the first team squad. I reckon that was around 2002/03.

Wycombe 1 Derby 2 FRGS CBT

No doubt this is a big game, not just for us but the chasing pack too. In particular if we lose, it’ll give them a bit of hope. Something I’ve been thinking about since Portsmouth is the GK position. I wonder if PW may switch to Vickers for the last 4 games. There were some moments with Wildsmith in the last game that I think will have caused some debate at Moor Farm, and none of them related to the goals. Firstly, the handball. Not that specifically but being there in the first place. My initial reaction when I saw him coming out was that he’d give a penalty away as it was almost identical to the Oxford & Charlton games. Then the chance they hit over the bar. Wildsmith didn’t judge the flight of the ball in the conditions, didn’t claim the cross and it led to a chance. And finally, right at the end, he caught the ball and Cashin went down under a challenge, clearly wanting to slow it down. Wildsmith released the ball quickly, something he rarely if ever does, and losing possession could have cost us. Cashin wasn’t very happy. I think it’ll come down to who Warne trusts the most for the run in. Who does he have more confidence in to keep their head? It’s a big call but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change between the sticks.

It’ll be something like RD have the broadcasting rights for the next x years.

I had a similar chat with a mate last night. I explained how we couldn’t even win the league easily back in ‘72 and had to wait for others to finish after we’d played all our games. If there’s a hard way, The Rams will find it!!

I do think that as next season is 50 years since we were last Champions of England (and let’s face it, it’s unlikely to happen again 😢) we ought to have blue shorts just for 1 season. We can then revert to black with no change to club colours.

We’ve got that to look forward to? Can’t wait!!

First point, what you’re saying is you’ll go by commonly used statistics for the rest of the league but make your own up for Derby’s matches to suit what outcome you’re trying to prove. So you’ve proved my original point. Second point, we lost against Northampton. I get criticism when we’ve lost and not played particularly well. You seem intent on making things up to prove we shouldn’t have had a positive outcome when we have.

What you’re saying is you’ll choose to use whatever metrics you want to create and make up to suit your narrative. I’m sorry but I’m really struggling to understand how any fan can go to such lengths to try and justify why their team shouldn’t win/draw/get a positive outcome from a match.