Alty_Ram

I've no particular beef with Bolton but they just didn't turn up here. Oxford are worthy winners.

2 minutes ago, CapeTownRams said:

Desperately want BW to screw this up…. But don’t think this is anywhere near over. Oxford can’t press so well for a full 90 and Bolton will score…

Come on Oxford !!

 I know what you mean. Great job by Oxford so far but if Bolton score next then its a very different game.

All the best 'skip'. Difficult to top that season and will be a much revamped midfield next time out and no guarantee of game time. Sometimes it's just time to seek a fresh challenge and the timing feels right. All the very best in whatever you do next.

1 minute ago, angieram said:

Completely deserved 2-0 lead for Oxford at half time. They have a game plan and look like they want it more.

Evatt needs to earn his corn to pull this around. 

Totally. They were incredibly disciplined in the semi-final too. Football it seems is not just about possession stats... 62.8% vs 37.2%

To be fair to Bolton they've produced some really good football at times this season (IMHO as good as anything in this division) but occasionally they've seemed a tad fragile at times too, and ultimately it means nothing if you don't make it count in the key moments. That 2nd Oxford goal could be huge but if Bolton score next it's still very much game on. Oxford need to keep doing what they have been doing but football messes with your head and there is going to be massive temptation to try and hold onto this and risk inviting Bolton on.

Stay out of trouble without any real threat of relegation and a suggestion that we might push on the year after. There is so much parachute money floating around that I think the finances are going to dictate a slow and steady approach and we'll have to be patient.

18 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

Wildsmith not even offered a contract is surprising , but there must be a cracking goalie lined up .

True, that does seem odd but maybe he has been crystal clear about his expectations wage-wise and DCFC and Wildsmith were so far apart in that regard that nobody was interested in going through a pretend negotiation. Also, we have been dubious about Wildsmith staying for a while, so we may have other targets lined up/earmarked and want to just crack on with securing that. The whole farce with Sheff Wednesday dragged on so long last window that we almost missed out entirely and maybe we don't want anyone to steal a march on us just because we're still discussing a dead deal with Wildsmith. Time to move on then it sounds like.

Good luck to him, he's been a good keeper for us but we have a structure and budget and anyone coming in or getting a new contract needs to fit in with that. We will need a new No1 keeper though. I don't believe that promoting our current backup is viable as I don't think he is of the quality required at Championship level.

This seems to be the crux of Wolves' arguments against VAR:

1) Impact on goal celebrations and the spontaneous passion that makes football special.

2) Frustration and confusion inside stadiums due to lengthy VAR checks and poor communication.

3) A more hostile atmosphere with protests, booing of Premier League anthem and chants against VAR.

4) Overreach of VAR's original purpose to correct clear and obvious mistakes, now overanalysing subjective decisions and compromising the game's fluidity and integrity.

5) Diminished accountability of on-field officials, due to safety net of VAR, leading to an erosion of authority on the pitch.

6) Continued errors despite VAR, with supporters unable to accept human error after multiple views and replays, damaging confidence in officiating standards.

7) Disruption of the Premier League's fast pace with lengthy VAR checks and more added time, causing matches to run excessively long.

8 )Constant discourse about VAR decisions often overshadowing the match itself, and tarnishing the reputation of the league.

9) Erosion of trust and reputation, with VAR fuelling completely nonsensical allegations of corruption.

Can't argue with too much of that personally.

1 hour ago, The Scarlet Pimpernel said:

Refs and linos generally do a pretty good job. If they were given a bit more respect by pundits VAR would never have been introduced. Its the cheating players that cause most of the penalty controversies, the offsides are usually very marginal. Hand ball is now farsical. It used to be quite simple, if the hand plays the ball its handball. If the ball plays the hand it isn't. Scrap VAR and pundits for goodness sake!

I think that the rules that they have made re stuff like handball then necessitates having to put something else like this in place to adjudicate it because you'd need the reactions of a housefly to tell for sure. Also, is the arm in a 'natural position' is just such a subjective decision and has such huge grey areas. A ball smashed against someone's upper arm from a short distance away is just not handball in my opinion.

I think this comment from a Wolves fan on HYS summarises my thoughts on VAR very well, and note that application of technology any feeling of being victimised has not gone away - just ask our friends down the A52.

"As a Wolves fan, I’m probably a bit biased because we’ve been repeatedly robbed and mystified by VAR decisions or lack of them this year, it’s been ridiculous. But the key issues for me are the ability to truly celebrate a goal, the time it takes and the experience in the stadium. It might be OK for arm chair fans watching repeats over and again and the the commentary telling you what’s happening, but when your in the crowd your often clueless to what incident or player they are even looking at and then 5 mins later you get a decision that your mate texts you is wrong anyway, something has to change, it’s a farce!"

I really hadn't fully considered how bad it might be in a stadium as I have only watched VAR games on TV. I guess you may well be completely in the dark about what is being checked. His points are centred around the matchday experience as much as VAR's fallibility and I think that is telling.

I wouldn't rule it out for all time, but I think it needs a re-think as to the technology and how it is applied and in what situations.

Goddammit ! Yet another target that we've missed out on 🤬 Warne and Clowes out !

.

.

.

.

* 😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉 * just in case.....for the hard of thinking 😁

2 minutes ago, Archied said:

Problem comes when teams and managers get obsessed with it ,, there’s a time and place for it no doubt but doing it to death is daft , watched spurs last night absolutely gift wrap a chance for city ( which they missed ) and put themselves under huge pressure needlessly time and again 

The logic of controlling the ball from the back is all well and good and there is something to be said for drawing the opposition on to you to then suddenly going through the gears with snappy passing and bypassing them, and if your defence have the first touch of a Man City defender then all well and good but doing it at all costs in all situations is inviting trouble, particularly with a Champ/League 1 squad.

There is a perception that this is how football is played these days, and it may well be at the upper levels level, but you need every player to be calm and comfortable on the ball and their team mates to be mobile and creating space and actively wanting the ball. If nobody shows for the ball then a pass gets delayed and your defender gets closed down and mugged and you concede a goal and your defence and keeper look like chumps.

At this stage in the process of (hopefully) rebuilding a quality side, I would rather that we were pragmatic and mixed it up. If the opposition are all over us and closing us down and are forcing errors then sometimes you just have to be a bit cannier and mix it up with some balls down the channels or whatever. A high energy hard-pressing game is hard work and if that's what the opposition are doing then you should get more opportunities later but I don't see the point of playing to 'pure' football principles in every situation if the opposition are just going to force error after error because of the quality of their press and/or the limitations of your defenders. We'll face some ruthless forwards this year compared to last and you can't just constantly gift opportunities by over-playing.

18 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

I wasn’t that man but I’ve groaned with the best of them during the season. I’ve never shouted anyone was rubbish though.

At times, it was a bit like watching your children in an awful school play, being generally supportive but not entertained 😊

Throughout it all, I appreciated that the team was always giving its all. Sometimes in games, nothing ‘clicks’

League One is a tough old division and teams battle hard. That’s why it’s such a relief to have escaped.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.

Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

16 minutes ago, BaaLocks said:

Probably true but also rather sad - we can't turn on Birmingham fans for revelling in the prospect of our own demise and then look on in joy as it happens to other clubs. 

I think I'm comfortable enough wishing some pain on them without wishing them to cease to exist. Their ambulance chasing chairman was the main issue but plenty of their fans thought it was totally reasonable behaviour as we teetered on the brink of oblivion.

Fans of clubs that get themselves in trouble through no fault of said fans, will always have my sympathy. The handful that absolutely revelled in (or actively contributed to) our impending doom though, will have nothing but my utter contempt, but then again, some of them had that already anyway.

Watched this in the pub. Really pleased for him and the Gateshead loan has been a very different and valuable experience. Hopefully we can keep hold of him and see how he develops.

Down the years we've seen so many young strikers come through the ranks but never really make it that for once it'd be nice to see the project through to him a fully fledge first teamer. Plenty of work to do on him yet of course, but a finished article striker is a win-win for the club. Either we benefit on the field or we get genuinely game-changing money for him. The battle is always going to be holding onto them long enough to become that big asset, before they seemingly inevitably become Crystal Palace's 7th choice forward.

15 hours ago, Red_Dawn said:

I think all the three teams are going to need to invest pretty heavily to have a chance

Bout thats the same with every year. I didn’t realise how big the gap actually was. And it’s getting wider

This. The way things have been allowed to develop, there seems no alternative to spending heavily to even up the playing field to stand a chance of surviving. An amount that may not be sustainable if it doesn't work, even with parachute payments, if you drop into an uber-competitive top 8-10 of the championship with a bunch of similar clubs with parachute money eager for another go.

Sure, you might build a really fortunate blend of highly promising players in your promotion season that you can use most in your PL season, but you won't know that until it's either worked or you are already 12 points adrift at Christmas.

I think what sums this up is Sheff Utd. They've made Even Burnley and Luton look adequate. They've been absolute dog**** this season but who'd be surprised if they were right in the mix again next year in the Championship ?

That always seemed the most likely outcome to be fair, Forest just a bit better than the relegation fodder down there. For all the "Plucky, spirited Luton" narrative of recent months the reality is that they went down with a bit of a whimper in the end and the bottom three will all finish below 30 points even if they win next week. Luton lost 4 and drew 1 of the last 5. Burnley had 1 win in the last 6 games. They simply didn't put any real pressure on Forest at the sharp end of the season. Sheff Utd were just rubbish and are on a run of 6 straight defeats and setting some records.

2 hours ago, BWFCNick said:

Honestly guys, that last 20 mins was horrendous, my poor heart haha

One positive I can take from it is that we got the job done despite never really playing well in either playoff game (partly because barnsley arent great) and also that I think Oxford suits us better than Posh (and tbh as much as I'm desperate to win, if we do lose, I'd rather lose to Oxford than Darren Ferguson).

 

Fingers crossed we turn up and get it done. Our last 2 trips to Wembley are Bolton 4-0 Plymouth last season and Bolton 0-5 Stoke in the FA Cup semis about a decade ago so could literally be anything based on our history.

 

Got some Rams fan mates who were at your QPR Wembley trip that I sympathised with and was gutted for at the time so I hope more than anything we don't experience that kind of pain and we get a good day out, the boys give it their all and make us proud

I'll bet. That sort of stuff can age you 10 years ! 😨 In terms of the performance, yeah, in these situations its always nice to win it at a canter, but sometimes getting the job done when your backs are against the wall can be better prep for difficult tasks and situations ahead.

That QPR game was horrific. We should have won that so the late horror show was absolutely sickening ☹️ Then again, we rather mugged WBA a few years earlier so..

Anyway, objective one achieved, a trip to Wembley. Oxford await. I guess you'll probably be fairly strong favourites and that can bring its own pressures and they only hopped into the playoffs on the last day so there is probably still a bit of a feeling of it being a free swing for them. Ultimately you were 10 points better over the season though and you need to bring that belief. Easier said than done though of course. As they say, 'the playoffs are a lottery'. Best of luck.

We've had sides that were perhaps not the most talented or subtle and were quite physical, like the Davies promotion side, but I don't think I've ever thought of any Derby side that I watched as being outright dirty. That could just be the Rams-tinted glasses I suppose, but we never seem to have been a particularly 'nasty'.

Might just be me, but it seems a bit odd that we stopped renewals earlier than usual (before season end) but haven't released those un-renewed tickets for sale yet and nor could you get a new ticket if you wanted one. Can't we just sell the ones that had nobody in last year and release the others later ? Or is this delay all about shuffling folk around who want to move  and giving them the widest choice ?

I know that we are back within one tier of the PL but I can't say that I have any great urgency to get back in there. I don't know how you become competitive without spending either a shedload of money (and spend it well) or have really good business model like one or two of the smaller teams that have managed to get established (but they are the exception to the rule).

Otherwise it just looks like a 38 game season where you have to get the better of your clashes against the half dozen relegation fodder clubs around you and otherwise just accept regular rogerings from the likes of Man City while while pundits describe your 5-0 home defeat as "pathetic", "hopeless", "spineless" or whatever, despite the fact that your squad cost less than De Bryne's boots. I've watched quite a lot of games this year and the Sheff Utd games have just been relentlessly depressing and yet I fully expect them to be right up there in the Championship next year. 

This last year it's been nice to watch Derby games with a decent expectation of victory home or away, but for a whole bunch of clubs, the PL seems to be about trying to get 40 points or a point a game and hoping that there are 3 teams worse than you and getting put to the sword in most of the others. At least to be fair to them, Forest have had a go in most games and haven't been battered too often. Obviously our last effort in the PL re-defined abysmal, but this year Sheff Utd have just been awful and must be a really hard watch for their fans. They have just broken the 100 goals conceded milestone with still 2 games to go and that puts even our record to shame. So we never held the most goals conceded in a single PL game and now we don't even have the most goas conceded in a 38 game season. They are on 16 points which is only slightly better than our record breaking awful season. If there hadn't been some other really poor teams to steal points off then they might even have beaten it.

Oh no, that's just awful news. I hope they're OK...

Big step towards Wembley for Bolton last night. Fair play to them. I'm happy to see Barn-se-leh missing out and it'd take something pretty unlikely from here for them to overturn things in the 2nd leg. That 94th minute 3rd goal is probably the clincher but in all honesty they've been in shocking form recently - 2 points from the last 6 games and another defeat last night., so their season has really gone into a tailspin.

1 minute ago, ram59 said:

The new sky deal for next season means that there will be 824 live games from the EFL alone. This means that for every round of games, there will be 18 games on TV. What days and times are they going to use to accommodate these games, every weekend? 

The home fans and especially the away fans are really going to be really inconvenienced.

I suspect that if the disruption is as bad as I fear, next year the following season tickets renewals will be badly hit.

No and it is a real factor/problem for some folks. You can just tell by some of the usernames on here that our fan base don't all just stroll across Derby to attend games - I'm in the North West myself.

The problem is that if you miss too many games due to your personal circumstances (work, family commitments, sheer distance etc), then a Season Ticket looks like less value once you've missed a few games. If you then say to yourself that you'll pay by the game then I think there is an inertia that can set in and to a point you have to justify attending to yourself, whereas as a Season Ticket holder I'm all too aware that in crappier seasons that sometimes I feel that I'm just pouring myself into my car to get on the road because it's already paid for. The DCFC habit !

I also don't like some of the alternative kickoff times because I often feel that stuff like Sunday lunchtimes tend to produce fairly flat atmospheres and Fridays nights and the M6 are a bit of a lottery at the best of times.

There's bugger all that we can do about it unfortunately but I'd imagine that we may get lots of disruption early doors but maybe if Sky conclude that we are not going to storm the league that they will focus elsewhere.

12 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

I thought this as well, fans will be on a high at the moment and can’t get a season ticket if they want one.

Yeah, exactly. After Saturday there must be a fair few waverers who might be prepared to take the plunge but as the euphoria inevitably fades as bit then maybe they'll look at their bank balance and start to get cold feet. After the constant wins of the last year, it's going to be tougher this year and if we had a sticky start then numbers of pay-by-game fans might tail off. Get em signed up! Lets get as many STs as we can.