FlyBritishMidland

I think this was a win and type of performance you need to get out of this division.  I’ve enjoyed the last 2 games, both professional performances.  13 points out of 15 since Reading, opened a gap on 3rd and applied a bit of pressure.  What’s not to be happy about?

39 minutes ago, ap04 said:

I will try and clarify it for you. We currently are
4th luckiest in the league on this (xG vs actual)
5th luckest in the league on this (same metric)
5th or 6th luckiest in the league on xG points vs actual (-7 excluding today, same source)

By my database
Chances to goals scored (3.09, avg 3.72) is as lucky as it gets after 33 games
Chances to goals conceded (4.17) is luckier than 72% of teams
The two combined (1.08) is luckier than 86% of teams - for reference last season was quite unlucky and this was only 0.38 against
Finally on results we are 8 points better off, this is luckier than 88% of teams

So we are 2nd on luck after about 2/3 of the season?  Luck wins cups where you have be good on a one off.  Luck doesn’t get teams at the top end of the table.

19 minutes ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

Just back from a game that I actually really enjoyed....the team really grafted that victory against a horrible bunch of players with a even more horrible manager.

Bradley was outstanding today I thought but there was no one I could really criticise a great deal.

Warne,overall,picked the right team and played the right tactics with this one and in doing so,nullified Stevenage.

Another 3 points well earned,spot on.

Oh,I forgot to mention the crowd today,we were outstanding 😁

 

That’s pretty much how I saw it.  Bradley had his best game in a Rams shirt, I wonder if being captain gave him more confidence?  I think Warne picked the best starting 11 he could given he’d lost Collins on Wednesday and being a bit careful with others coming back.  I also thought his subs were spot on.  Smith allowed Bird more freedom and a bit more positivity on the right with moving Wilson there.  I think if we want Sibley to play in a more attacking role, he’s best as an impact sub and it worked today.  Full credit to Warne, I’ve been critical of his use of subs in the past, but not today.

I’m sorry but I really don’t get this place sometimes.  We’ve taken 6 points this week and opened a gap on 3rd and 4th.  They have games in hand but they’re under pressure to win them and it this stage of the season I’d rather have the points.   We win 3-0 on Tuesday and we didn’t deserve as we only had 30% possession.  We win today and we only had 2 shots on target. They were organised at the back and did OK at nullifying us and we lost our focal point up front in the week.  I despair!!

2 hours ago, David said:

We will be winners today regardless of the score.

Having this bloke only ever sat in the opposition dugout and not the home team at Pride Park is a win. 

 

He looks someone arrives at East Mids airport dressed like that for 2 weeks in Tenerife.  In February.  Then you’re sat next to him on the plane.  You get there to find he’s in the same hotel.  And hunts you out at every opportunity.  And, in his opinion, your families got on so well he insists on swapping phone numbers and meeting up when you’re back home.

30 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

.....and fall out of love with @Big Travwho said he was out for the season.

Torn....if our number 1 itk has it so wrong, then there's no one left in the world to trust.

And maybe BT’s sources has said he’s fine but go and put it out there that he’s done for the season.  All mind games 🤞.

Derby 3 Stevenage 1

FRGS Barkhuizen

1 hour ago, inter politics said:

I heard it. We had all of January. Not saying deals in Jan are easy, they clearly aren't. But we got CBT done with plenty of time to go.

My point was, we weren’t just looking at Sheffield and we did think we had a striker over the line until the last hour or so.

1 hour ago, inter politics said:

We had all of January and we didn't just have to deal with Sheffield wednesday 

You need to listen to the interview with SP.  He said there were 3 targets, 2 in the PL and 1 in the Championship.  The players in the PL started getting games.  A deal was done for the 1 in the Championship and all the paperwork was sorted.  Then his club changed their mind at something like 9:30.

19 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Is job share an option in football management? Come to think of it, didn’t Liverpool have some weird set up with Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier in the 90s? 

They did indeed.  There’s also been Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt at Charlton and Coventry won the cup with John Sillett and George Curtis as joint managers.  Even our own Roy McFarland any Colin Todd had a spell together at Bolton as joint managers.

55 minutes ago, ap04 said:

I meant double figures for the clear ones, all in they were on double figures too. As you said we had 5 or 6 big chances (3 goals Collins M-L, Barks not an easy finish imo), they had 4 as big but twice as many 'non-bold' ones. The 3' M-L one was not a chance at all. Us edging it but not by much with the possible caveat it was game over on 62'.

A different site gave 1.24-1.24 for the xG - also xG 1.27-0.98 is not enough for a win, and xG does not add anything if you've watched the actual game.

And yet we did win.  And then you say xG adds nothing.  I’m with @Caerphilly Ram, why are people looking for reasons as to why we shouldn’t have won?  Totally baffled!!

Professional performance last night away to a team in form.  3 excellent goals, all well taken.  I agree with Bird being MoM but it could easily been a few others.  I think Adam’s has been key to an improved Bird.  He’s been that reliable rock in front of the back 3/4 allowing Bird to focus on being further forward in the role Warne wants him to play.  Fornah was signed for the same role but it hasn’t quite worked.  Hopefully he’s watching and learning from Adam’s.

13 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Well if Pearce is under a (numerous?) NDAs how much will Clowes know?

Well I suspect they’ve had a discussion about how they want to work together.  And it wouldn’t be unreasonable for SP to say he doesn’t like being micro-manage and wants freedom to do his job.  Within specified limits, obviously.

5 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

And that's the only comfort we're left with really. If Clowes really trusts him, then nothing we say will or should change that

I said after the Supporters Q&A though, that I found it disappointing that he acted so slippery under questions. He could have earned an awful lot more good will if he'd been honest and said "you know what - it was a really, really hard job, under difficult circumstances and I may not have got everything right, but I care about this club - and that's why I'm still here. Because I want to fix things. I ask for forgiveness and the chance to make it right"

 

Get where you’re coming from.  With DC’s comment about him being allowed to do his job it may infer that MM didn’t allow him to and interfered.  And he’d really like to say what it was like, but can’t.  Which is a shame cos that might be interesting!!

Exeter 1 Derby 1

FRGS NML

12 minutes ago, Simmo’s left foot said:

It will be interesting to hear what he has to say. However I don't expect anything new re the admin and MM era. That's privileged  and sensitive information and it would not be ethical to discuss it. It would be like me publicly discussing the sensitive stuff I know from my previous employer and the inner workings of the business they were in.

I'm mostly interested in how the club is doing now, with the new ownership and sensible approach DC has, and how it will look going forward.

As far as I'm concerned, DC has appointed him, and as he is a sensible businessman I'm happy with that.

Totally agree.  I seem to remember an interview with David Clowes (can’t remember if it was just after he’d taken over or the one last summer) but he said something along the lines of SP being very good at his job and he’s being allowed to do his job.  David Clowes obviously trusts him or he wouldn’t be here.

To the outside world we must look a bit mad.  A team sat 2nd in the league and we have a thread about sacking the manager that reaches 120 pages.  And about 13.5, over 10%, of those pages since going into 2nd place.  This must be some sort of record amongst fan forums.  Most fans would be delighted to be 2nd in their respective league.

A lot of the concern and debate is about the football.  I get it may not be pretty all the time, but I also don’t think it’s as bad as portrayed in here. It reminds me of Mel sacking Clement and coining the infamous “Derby Way” phrase.

I also get the concern about PW in the Championship.  What I would say is, he’ll have far more resources to build a team to stay there than he ever had at Rotherham.

16 hours ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

An hour long sit down interview with Stephen Pearce with Radio Derby. If the preview clip is anything to go by, he'll be ducking most questions it seems. Hopefully not though!

12 hours ago, ilkleyram said:

I think, but may be wrong, that this is the first time we’ve heard publicly from SP to any significant degree since September 2023 and the fans forum.  @Owen87ITK’s advice back then was to watch the whole forum on ramstv before commenting (he referred to twitter comments more specifically) but it’s probably relevant now given that Radio Derby are most interested in gaining a sizeable listening audience on Tuesday night. This will be well trailed.

But this clip does suggest that there were/are legal agreements in place as part of the sales process that limit what SP can say. If that is so - and we have no reason to disbelieve SP now even though @Owen87ITK said back in September that he had no knowledge of any NDAs in place - then we are never going to get any comment from SP about his time with Mel, and certainly nothing that amounts to an apology or description of his side of the story. Every answer he gives on the topic will be evasive. Perhaps he was at fault; perhaps he wasn’t. We’ll never truly know. 

SP is our CEO. We can like it or not individually or collectively but Clowes is the only one that can change it. 

I listened to the RD Shrewsbury build up podcast this morning. Dom started saying this is coming and that there are legal agreements in place on certain subjects.

Derby 2 Shrewsbury 1

FRGS Bird

35 minutes ago, RYRAM said:

Sadly Warne as said they haven't been abroad 

Why I don't know. 

So alot of these free that are any good playing out of England we are just not going to gamble on 

Shocking really get looking overseas. Derby 

Probably because we’ve had to rebuild the recruitment staff since administration.  The Head of Recruitment only started in the summer and Warne also said that they’re looking to improve the scouting network abroad.

58 minutes ago, Dcfcsr92 said:

Forest did it in the championship and jones is a good manager 

Forest appointed Cooper in September and Jones is a good manager in Luton, hasn’t worked so well outside of there so far.  And as @Kernow has said, they’d pretty much need to win every game.

Just now, HorsforthRam said:

No expectation of teams giving us promotion at all. I’m asking if they just put more effort in or did they change tactically that gave us problems. That’s all. No agenda, just curious why we really struggled to keep any sort of possession for 20 mins. If it was “just their spell”, that’s fine 

It happens all the time.  Team goes in a goal down at half-time, manager issues a rollicking, they come out fired up for the first 15mins or so of the 2nd half.

I think we’ll be top 4.  Then it’s who can be most consistent.  If we can manage that, Top 2 is definitely on.  We’ve steadily improved our league position and since getting into the Top 6 we haven’t dropped out.

I do wonder if our injuries have come at the right time.  The bench yesterday was probably the strongest it’s been all season with some coming back.  Getting Washington and maybe Waggy and Foz back later this month will add that bit more quality, depth and experience for the the last couple of months.  Signing CBT means we can be a bit less nervous about NML getting injured.  Adam’s looks like he’s given us a bit of an edge in midfield.

I seem to remember Mac1 saying that Fergie used to say you don’t need to be top but be in touch going into Feb, and then kick on in the final third.  Being 2nd, others do have games in hand, after the 1st weekend in Feb is a nice place to be.

Charlton 1 Derby 1

FRGS Collins

41 minutes ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

Sadly it was runny. Over the plughole area so the cat’s effort and consideration can’t be faulted. A metaphor for our recruitment team? I couldn’t comment.

So you make the cat have the tap end??

I’m either going insane or had too much to drink.  Are we really debating whether a penalty should be counted in goal stats, it inflates stats, the taker may not be involved in the build up, a tap in, blah, blah, bleedin’ blah?  Can’t we all just accept that Collins is having a very good season.

Goals win games no matter how they’re scored or who by.  Did we get a bonus point for his volley last week?  No.  If we win 1-0 to tomorrow and it’s a 90th minute penalty do we only get 2 points?  No.  Give me strength!!