TomTom92

Glad to see that Warne has got the necessary praise for the job he's done.
My own personal journey with him is as follows;
Delighted he got the job because I found LR ball boring. Gutted we stuttered out the play offs last season but still fully behind him. Wanted him gone after Stevenage. Accepted DC stance and our improved form softened me to him again. Delighted he's taken us up and believe he deserves a crack at keeping us there. My expectations of next season is for us to finish bottom 8 so unless we're doing a Wednesday from earlier on this season or Rotherham throughout the entirety of this season then i'll be content with whats going on. Whether PW can take us to the next level (PL) is debatable but i think we're at least 3/4 seasons away from entering that picture so plenty of ups and downs to digest before then.
Hopefully we can see a wave of positivity behind him and the team now and over the summer. Although i can't help but think if we lose our opening couple of matches a few posters toys will be thrown out their pram, hopefully i'm wrong. 
Congrats Paul, keep up the good work.
 

GK: Hopefully none if Wildsmith signs
Defenders: A new centre back and left wing back to leave us with; Ward, Wilson, Nyambe, Nelson, Bradley, Cashin, Forsyth, Elder, plus 2 new
Midfielders: Adams (fingers crossed), Sibley, Thompson, plus 3 more in my opinion. Could keep Smith and make that 2 more if we don't have the funds. 
Forwards: A new winger and 2 new strikers: NML, Barkz, CBT, new winger, Wash, Collo and 2 new strikers
FWIW i rate Gayle better than Collins but got a sneaky feeling we'll only offer 1 of them a new deal and reckon Collins will get rewarded for his endeavours over the season. I don't mind Collins and Wash on the bench but wouldn't want them starting many. 

Glad to see that Warne has got the necessary praise for the job he's done.
My own personal journey with him is as follows;
Delighted he got the job because I found LR ball boring. Gutted we stuttered out the play offs last season but still fully behind him. Wanted him gone after Stevenage. Accepted DC stance and our improved form softened me to him again. Delighted he's taken us up and believe he deserves a crack at keeping us there. My expectations of next season is for us to finish bottom 8 so unless we're doing a Wednesday from earlier on this season or Rotherham throughout the entirety of this season then i'll be content with whats going on. Whether PW can take us to the next level (PL) is debatable but i think we're at least 3/4 seasons away from entering that picture so plenty of ups and downs to digest before then.
Hopefully we can see a wave of positivity behind him and the team now and over the summer. Although i can't help but think if we lose our opening couple of matches a few posters toys will be thrown out their pram, hopefully i'm wrong. 
Congrats Paul, keep up the good work.
 

This post about mirrors my journey and feelings this season.
Now I hope Paul gets the praise and respect he deserves. I would add that there is no doubt he has produced a TEAM here willing to work hard for him and each other all across the pitch. At times during the run in our defending front to back has been heroic. He deserves patience now to build a team to take us out of the Championship and I fully expect with better players will come better football. 
 
Anyway thank you Paul, Saturday was one of the best days of my 62 years and hopefully it will remain long in the memory 🐏🐏🐏🐏

If I’m brutally honest and leaving sentiment apart, I think we need better players than Smith, Thompson, Elder, Washington and Barkhuisen in the Championship. I’m not sure we should keep Forsyth though he’s been written off before. After a while, injuries take their toll.
I’m not sure Bradley is first choice and if he isn’t, then I’d rather see a younger CB in the squad. Bradley can stay if he wants to fight for his place. Rooney shows promise as additional back up.
Collins may be more ambitious than a squad option though his attitude is excellent. Gayle is too much of a risk injury-wise and has failed recently in the Championship.
I’d get a new LB/LWB, a new CB, three midfielders plus Adams, two new strikers and a winger or two.
 

I'm actually quite muted about what happened at the weekend. Clubs with our infrastructure shouldn't be playing at that level. We did, because we deserved to, but it was of our own making. I have to admit I found it more relief then celebration to put that chapter behind us.

GK: Hopefully none if Wildsmith signs
Defenders: A new centre back and left wing back to leave us with; Ward, Wilson, Nyambe, Nelson, Bradley, Cashin, Forsyth, Elder, plus 2 new
Midfielders: Adams (fingers crossed), Sibley, Thompson, plus 3 more in my opinion. Could keep Smith and make that 2 more if we don't have the funds. 
Forwards: A new winger and 2 new strikers: NML, Barkz, CBT, new winger, Wash, Collo and 2 new strikers
FWIW i rate Gayle better than Collins but got a sneaky feeling we'll only offer 1 of them a new deal and reckon Collins will get rewarded for his endeavours over the season. I don't mind Collins and Wash on the bench but wouldn't want them starting many. 

Think Nyambe is a good option to have. 
Defensively solid can play right back or right centre back and i doubt he's earning a wedge.
Think another centre back and another left wing back is all we require to strengthen for next season.

Glad to see that Warne has got the necessary praise for the job he's done.
My own personal journey with him is as follows;
Delighted he got the job because I found LR ball boring. Gutted we stuttered out the play offs last season but still fully behind him. Wanted him gone after Stevenage. Accepted DC stance and our improved form softened me to him again. Delighted he's taken us up and believe he deserves a crack at keeping us there. My expectations of next season is for us to finish bottom 8 so unless we're doing a Wednesday from earlier on this season or Rotherham throughout the entirety of this season then i'll be content with whats going on. Whether PW can take us to the next level (PL) is debatable but i think we're at least 3/4 seasons away from entering that picture so plenty of ups and downs to digest before then.
Hopefully we can see a wave of positivity behind him and the team now and over the summer. Although i can't help but think if we lose our opening couple of matches a few posters toys will be thrown out their pram, hopefully i'm wrong. 
Congrats Paul, keep up the good work.
 

Totally agree. 
Maybe because i watched the match on the tv with my mates and then none of them wanted to get on the lash. So the day ended earlier than expected. 
Don't get me wrong i'm happy we're up but i can't say I've enjoyed the last two years, just didn't sit right playing the like of Morecambe etc because of one mans madness.

League One is a melting pot of smaller clubs who are relatively well run and then bigger clubs who are down there for a reason. It's an enjoyable league for the match-going fan and with 49 wins in two seasons there has been plenty of happy Saturdays, albeit those wins (a lot of the time) feel more like 'job done' than enjoyable and anything other than a win feels like we're playing well below ourselves. 
In two seasons we've probably been the underdog by the bookies in less than 10 of our 92 games which underpins the level of expectation. Expectation ultimately drains the joy out of football.
in hindsight, it's been an enjoyable experience (of sorts) but I'm in no rush to experience it again. 

4th bottom or above is job done.
Of course i'd rather not be involved in a last day great escape but i think any higher than bottom 8 and we've done very well. Of course this opinion changes if by some small miracle Clowes wheels out the war chest.

I love that Wildsmith is impervious to embarrassment. Which means he is our best asset in game management. If it's 0-0 on Saturday and we're under the cosh, he will find a way to take the sting out of the game and allow us to regroup. A vital part of the modern game but not anything our keepers have embraced before. 

Not sure if I am alone in this today but I feel an overwhelming sense of closure after yesterday’s achievement. What a relief to be back in the Championship. But it’s more than that.
It feels like all the hurt over the last couple of years: the administration, the points deductions, the financial turmoil, the humiliation, the relegation; it feels like we can finally turn the page on that sordid chapter of our history. Like we can move on. 
I’m not sure why I’m sharing this, but it feels even more personal for me than that, too. In the summer of our relegation, I lost my grandmother to cancer. She was the major connection to Derby for me. My whole ritual of going to the matches involved staying with her for the weekend. For some reason Derby County, the city of Derby, the supporters bus that would pick my Grandad and I up from outside The Gate in Swanwick, the cone of chips before the game, all just seemed to have disappeared.
I know it sounds strange but I feel like I lost my connection to the club in so many ways that summer. 
Yesterday, watching everyone celebrating and the tears and David Clowes and Ed Dawe’s’ tears, just felt like closure. The end of the trauma and the start of something new. It felt like moving on.
Thank you, Mr Clowes, for all of that 🐏

Glad to see the back of it and hope to never return.
I can understand those regular away fans that were able to buy tickets and experience new grounds, was an adventure for you all. 
Not wanting to sound arrogant, a club of this size should not have been playing at these grounds outside of cup competitions and pre season. There is a reason why Derby last season was a big day out for most of the league. 
I'm glad we won't have to play Burton and Mansfield next season, I'm glad we won't have to feature on Welcome to Wrexham and we're back to one promotion away from being back in the top flight.
The Premier League has it's faults, VAR is terrible, we're never going to win the thing and it's all about the big 6, yet Brighton, Brentford, these are clubs we should replicating in some form and on the cusp of breaking into the European spots.
If League 1 was an adventure, imagine taking a couple of days off work midweek to fly out to Prague on the lash and watching Derby. 
I bet Leicester City fans never thought for a second they would achieve what they did.
I'm fully aware we are still miles away from that, our immediate focus has to be Championship survival, then stability before we can think about progressing to the next step of chasing promotion.
But we're closer now than we would have been had we lost on Saturday and Bolton won. 

Hi all,
I just wanted to pop on and say congrats on a successful season and well deserved promotion. I know there's been some ill feeling between fans, mostly on the toxic social media platforms (not helped by a large number of idiots of which we at Bolton have f****** loads). I've scanned through your forum and a few others to regularly to check in on the thoughts of some of our promotion rivals over the season and as forums go, this one is generally positive and full of good and honest opinions. We have another fan called Wanderlust who often peruses the various forums and I feel he is a good fan for honest opinions too. I hope we can join you, I'm sure there's plenty of you hoping we stumble and end up stuck in L1 for at least another year, mainly for the fans who've been making stupid excuses for us not winning points this season. Reality is, you and Pompey were the most consistent teams over the season and thoroughly deserve your promotion, so well done and good luck in the championship next year. With your stadium and fanbase and what your fans have been through (trust me, I know what it feels like too), you deserve some good times now!
 
All the best gents (and ladies)

Big screen as well

Sadly this will be my last match today. My first was in 1956 as a 13year old, My dad used to take me before that but he stopped going when we went down to the third division north. My mate and I would catch the 12 oclock bus from Melbourne and be the first in the ground. We stood in the Normanton end pigeon loft, I think it was 3 shilling. To this day I remember that team. We were champions in 1957 and I ran onto the pitch after the last match against Southport, Ray Straw scored 37 goals that season, The next ten years saw me start work, get married and have two children, I had moved to Derby, and after my family, the Rams were the most important thing in my life I never missed a home game in those ten years even though we were only an average second division side. And then in 1966 after England won the world cup my mate and I decided to have a season ticket, Little did we know what would happen that season, I was at work one day and a Rams supporting work mate told me we had signed a player from Bradford Park Avenue, his name was Kevin Hector I'd never heard of him but he was without doubt the most wonderful footballer to grace the Baseball Ground I had ever seen, and because of this we wanted to see more players like him which led to Tim Ward getting the sack and BC becoming Manager, what followed was ten years of unbelievable success and enjoyment. And then things started to go wrong off and on the pitch and I stopped being a season ticket holder during Peter Taylors time as manager, i still loved The Rams of course and when I turned 65 and retired my old mate from Melbourne and I bought season tickets again. But sadly covid left my best friend of 80 years with a dementia problem and he know no longer knows me. For the last two seasons I have been going alone to the match but its just not the same for me. Therefore I am calling it a day, as I write this I am welling up as I will do this afternoon. Thank you Derby County for every thing I will love you till I die.     

If we could cherry pick any team to play for this match it would be Carlisle at home. If we mess it up its on us.
I've been bad for this, but i think all this talk of Posh's weakened side is nervous chat. 
FWIW i think Bolton will win on sat but not by more than +2 GD which means we'd have to lose by -2GD at home for the first time this season.
Hopefully we get a early goal, hopefully whilst not match fixing Simmo isn't bothered if we win and we can all relax with a promotion in the bank come Saturday night. 

If we could cherry pick any team to play for this match it would be Carlisle at home. If we mess it up its on us.
I've been bad for this, but i think all this talk of Posh's weakened side is nervous chat. 
FWIW i think Bolton will win on sat but not by more than +2 GD which means we'd have to lose by -2GD at home for the first time this season.
Hopefully we get a early goal, hopefully whilst not match fixing Simmo isn't bothered if we win and we can all relax with a promotion in the bank come Saturday night. 

If we could cherry pick any team to play for this match it would be Carlisle at home. If we mess it up its on us.
I've been bad for this, but i think all this talk of Posh's weakened side is nervous chat. 
FWIW i think Bolton will win on sat but not by more than +2 GD which means we'd have to lose by -2GD at home for the first time this season.
Hopefully we get a early goal, hopefully whilst not match fixing Simmo isn't bothered if we win and we can all relax with a promotion in the bank come Saturday night. 

They’re going to need to win by 4 goals on Saturday in order to overtake Bolton. Given it’s a bit of a lottery as to whether it’s better to finish 3rd or 4th I reckon they’ll be resigned to finishing 4th. Our best hope (only as our insurance policy as I can’t see us losing on Saturday) is that they will want some momentum going into the play offs (there may be some negative psychological effect of being beaten badly by Bolton even if they do play the kids) and they may not want to rest the players too much and risk them getting a bit rusty.
My best guess is that they’ll field a reasonable squad but the players may not be going full pelt through fear of injury. Maybe Bolton will be doing the same. They’re probably more confident that Derby won’t lose than we are - especially the fans.

3rd place gets second leg at home too? 

Not saying we should sign him but in JCH defence i think his lack of match time has come from him turning down moves away and upsetting DMAC and Fry.

Not saying we should sign him but in JCH defence i think his lack of match time has come from him turning down moves away and upsetting DMAC and Fry.