Eddie

I packed it up just before my 65th birthday. A couple of months later, I was at a dinner in Brizzle (a few beers beforehand in the Strawberry Thief, which might explain things) and I allowed my son's boss to persuade me to work for him as a PCI Compliance consultant/Business analyst on a part-time basis. I gave it 4 years then knocked it on the head again, and finally properly retired a couple of years ago. I now spend my time watching the rain at the County Ground.

Most Maggies I know hate the Gumps just as much as we do, so here's hoping....

I can't speak for other people (I leave that to people like you who have a crystal ball or some deeper insight that I'm just not wise enough or clever enough to possess) - but I get behind the club from top to bottom. My philosophy with respect to the manager of Derby County is that I will support them until the day that they no longer hold that position. I started watching The Rams regularly 58 years ago when we moved back into the area (the love affair was, by and large, from afar before then). Tim Ward was manager at the time, so he had my support. I didn't call for his head when we finished 17th in the old Second Division, and neither did I call for Brian Clough's head the following year when we finished 18th. I just carried on supporting the club. You would have been yelling for Clough's head though - because Clough was a Fourth Division manager, and you would have not deemed him good enough for a Second Division side. Now before you start some sort of mindless prattle about comparing Warne with Brian Clough (or even Nigel), I'm not. I'm just saying that, sometimes, a particular manager in a particular club at a certain time can be a good fit - or a bad one. Coming back to the point I highlighted, it seems to me that people are either on board with Paul Warne or they're not, and it doesn't matter what he achieves this season or in any subsequent time that he may be at the club - the doubters/haters will still be doubters/haters, and the reason for that is simple - some people do not have the capability to ever admit in public that they were wrong, no matter how much evidence mounts up one way or the other.

So wonderful, I've decided to watch it myself again. 3 episodes in, it's still brilliant (as is the music)

John Simm is wonderful in it.

Aye, for the most part, the batting is back in DuPavillion these days.

I'll settle for catching practice. If Derbyshire had taken their chances before lunch on day 1, it might well have been a feeling of "The weather robbed us" as opposed to "The weather saved us".

It's definitely a 'slow burner'. After the likes of 'Kin' and 'Baby Reindeer', slow is a pleasant change. As an arthritic sepuagenarian, I would not have fancied those steps.

If ever there was an advert for 'not playing football', this is it. Teams trying to stop us by playing football - W 10, D 8, L 27. If that's the best anti-Warne argument you can come up with, don't bother.

Liu Cixin's second part of the "3 Body Problem", aptly called "The Dark Forest". Surprisingly, no VAR yet.

Ripley (Netflix) Really good - Andrew Scott is a much, much better Tom Ripley (in my opinion) than Matt Damon.

I've been performing rain dances for the last hour, so expect a tropical heatwave.

Is that horror, or flower-arranging?

Baby Reindeer. I found this extremely disturbing, but compelling.

Yes, I know.

I've only been in the 'home' end once in 57 years of going to away games - and that was at Highbury (The North Bank). It was our first time visiting the ground (1969/70) and we asked Dibble which end the North Bank was, planning to go to the other end. "Cheers" we said, promptly walking in the opposite direction and, yep, we ended up on the North Bank. Of course, the scuffer thought we really wanted to try to 'take their end' (all 6 of us) so pointed out the other end. Once inside, it took us all of 10 seconds to realise our little faux-pas (the 3,000 or so Gooners might have been some sort of a clue), and about 15 seconds to leap over the wall at the front, run the entire length of the pitch and make the sanctuary of the 'Scoreboard End'.

If you thought that was a tough watch, you should have been at the County Ground watching Leicestershire giving a proper mauling to Derbyshire with both bat and ball, AND having to read the negative stuff in this thread. Cue "We had it tough" 4 Yorkshiremen sketch.

We don't need anything from any other, side, and that's how it's been for weeks bar a single blip matched by the other promotion candidates having their own wobbles.

I'm 4 days younger than Leighton. This one really hit home.

Me too. My son is James Roy.

My son James is named after him.

So, basically, the FA lied.

Four more weeks of the season?