FlyBritishMidland

Like others have said, put in as much as you can afford. Also, make the most of your employers contribution too. I’m lucky that my company puts in a decent percentage, doubling my contribution up to a maximum percentage. I make sure I get the full amount from them. Is it salary sacrifice? If so, you won’t pay tax on your contributions and that’s an added benefit.

Me too. I remember having a couple of pints on the Friday night - OK, a bit more than a couple. On the Saturday morning I listened back to the Sportscene show while doing my morning dog walk. When Ed broke, I broke. I was walking round the village with tears running down my cheeks. It was the same when I listened to the interview with David Clowes 1 year on. The thing is, it’s more than the football. I’ve made new friends through Derby County with the people I sit with. During COVID, in some ways I missed a couple of beers and the banter as much as I missed the match. If wasn’t for The Rams we would probably never have met, yet here we are 20+ years later. Sadly, we lost one of our little group earlier this year. So come on Derby, let’s get this done for those who are here, and our absent friends!!

Let’s forget about this game - I know that’s hard given our track record. We can’t control what team Peterborough put out and we can’t control the outcome. We can’t even control what Derby do. But let’s put our energy and focus on Derby v Carlisle. We do our job, we go up. Let’s focus on a positive outcome. No more what if this or that happens, if Bolton win by 2 or 3. Focus on The Rams getting the job done. It would be great if we could just focus on positive posts between now and Saturday. Get us all in the right frame of mind and our positive energy can rub off on the team.

Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and now Alan Shearer are well known Derby fans.

Brilliant. I don’t remember hearing it but it will now be my ear worm for the rest of the week.

I think it was Brailsford Ram who used to say MM wasn’t really a football man. I think he went to school with him or something. Brailsford Ram doesn’t post any more. Shame, I used to like reading them.

I actually think this could be a tight game. Ferguson has already hinted at resting a few in midweek. He can rest players on Tuesday, bring them back on Saturday after a weeks rest and still have nigh on a week until the first leg. Neither team will want to go into playoffs on the back of a hammering.

Good point. I think we remember the Reading game because of the way the season collapsed in the last 10-12 games, well I do anyway. T going into that game we were on a shocking run of form. Plus, it’s a typically British trait to look on the dark side and imagine the worst. This season is totally different. We’re in good form, we’re playing bottom of the league at home and we don’t need to rely on anyone else. When it’s come down to clinching automatic promotion we can get over the line. We did in 86, 87 and 96.

That’s pretty much me too. I’ve always been a fan of having stability. Too often in the last 7/8 years we changed manager, sometimes needlessly others through necessity. I wobbled around October time, I was never Warne out but thought he needed a big improvement by the end of the year, and it came. I should have had more faith. Regardless of what happens in the next few weeks I’d keep him for next season. Whether that’s go up automatically, via the play-offs or, heaven forbid, not at all. Record points and record away wins, he’s earned it. He’s clearly done a lot of work to change the culture of the club, and I think the players would walk through brick walls for him.

I missed the late 70’s glory years and starting supporting The Rams in the 70s so the mid to late 80s and late 90s are my glory years. But if we get over the line next week it feels like this one would mean more. I put that down partly to being a little bit older (not necessarily wiser!!) and the amazing turn round in 2 years. 2 years ago, we were a week away from going bust. Now we’re a week away from a potential return to the championship 🤞. If it happens @DarkFruitsRam7, enjoy and saviour every moment.

So pleased we got the win yesterday. Really good first half and probably should have been more than 1 goal up. Great moment of quality forum Sibley and NML. Superb pass and a calm finish from someone who hasn’t scored for a while. The 2nd half was nervous, but on reflection, Wildsmith didn’t have a save to make. The defence was superb and we didn’t give away my silly free-kicks. Their main threat came from the long throws. Wildsmith seem to have forgot what he was doing 2nd half. He managed to fall out with Bradley & Nelson and his kicking was shocking. Let’s hope he’s got that out of the way.

Cambridge 1 Derby 1 FRGS Nelson

Totally agree. Not only would Championship clubs have a chance of a major trophy, top end L1 clubs too. Given the luck of the draw it would be quite feasible for teams in the top 6 of L1 getting to the semi-finals. Makes me laugh when they talk about player welfare. The PL clubs put out weakened sides in both cup completions anyway. And they can afford to do so given the size of there squads. All it means is someone who’s usually sat on the bench plays a couple of games less each season.

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