JJs dms

I don't care much about signings as long as no one leaves. Deadline day departures have shafted us in the past.

OH WHAT A NIGHT! 
I got up at 3.15 yesterday morning for work, and arrived home at 12.30 am this morning. Cream crackered but the best spend of energy ever! And Vale's idea of away fans catering meant that I didn't eat till 11.30 pm, a food gap of 10 hours! I got some ale in, though! And no, I wasn't driving for this match!
Th match itself was frenetic for most of the time, partly because we tend to high-press more than we used to, and Port Vale were up for it, almost as though it was a cup final! There have been loads of comments about how poorly we played, but bottom line is that we had to adapt to playing on a cabbage patch - hence the propensity for the long ball game. Someone spoke about the degrading pitch, but whether that was because it was degrading to play on, or steadily getting worse as the match wore on they didn't say. It was both! So some of the poor finishing, and poor passing was because of the terra firma being so bobbly. And some was because we didn't have a good night.
But the match I was watching Vale were quick and having a go, but didn't create that many  chances until they had scored. By contrast Derby looked threatening, and early on were the ones creating the opportunities. In the end Warne thought our tactics were the best way to go, and he has done well on that score, particularly recently. And having 18 (?) shots with 5 on target in an away match is pretty darned good, don't you think?
Davis was excellent in the first half, and NML is consistently playing well. But stand out to me was Barkhuisen. Like NML on Saturday he had his full back on toast - several times the full back simply whacked the ball into touch when there was no-one near him, he was so rattled. So when Dobbin came on, it was Open Sesame! The full back was not only either useless or knackered, he was a beaten man. Quite rightly Dobbin was given man of the match, because he ended up with 3 shots on goal, and created 3 chances, in only a very short space of time.
It did seem as though it was going to be one of those nights where no matter what we did, the ball simply wasn't going to go in. But the persistence was amazing, and paid of - testament yet again to Paul Warne's fitness regime - we kept motoring on despite having had a draining match on Saturday while Vale had their feet up. And as ever the ref played his part. He booked a Vale player very early on, but that was it. We got 5 minutes of good ref, then it was back to normal. Yet again, all Vale had to do was gently sit down and it was a free kick, while being free to simply run at a Derby player with both arms forwards and push the Ram out of the way without censure. Smith went down holding his face in our area when there was no-one within 2 or 3 yards of him - thankfully the ref let Vale down on that one. And after we went a goal down, Barkhuisen was all-in-wrestled away from a through the ball , and when Didsy went to pick the loose ball up he was hacked down right on the edge of the box, but nothing was given for either. Terrible refereeing, and we only ended up winning because Vale obviously didn't pay the ref as much as they did for the match at Pride Park, allegedly.
The away end was deafening all night, apart from when we were "Sssssshhhhhh"ing at the Vale librarians! And to see the whole team celbrating at our end for the second goal was brilliant. IT was very, very special.
Unlike the burger van outside, although it did serve some very tasty looking items - none of this "Do you want onions or cheese on it? There you go", but properly assembled pieces of art. But like many Rams, we baled out in order to get to out seats for kick off, nipping out at half time instead, only to get to the front of the queue to find that he had run out of food! Massive starvation feelings, but perhaps he had planned it well to run out with only a dozen or so left in the queue. H no doubt made a killing, especially at £7 a go, but surely he would have know that it was an away-end sell out. If he had more than just himself serving, and brought more food to begin with he could have made 30 - 50% more sales. What a missed opportunity. We walked past the chippy in a side street near the ground on the way in because of the queue, and it was closed when we came out. A chippy closed before 10 pm? Good grief!
So we finally got home at 12.30pm, still absolutely buzzing, still floating on air, and for the second match in a row I was leaping around like a madman for the goals! I haven't done that for years, but simply can't help myself! Something very special is happening.
Its a great time to be a Ram!

I have to admit I'd no idea you guys were at this point. I, as I'm sure, the majority of us on here have  empathy with the situation you find yourselves in. It's a horrible place to be. The very best of luck. Please keep us updated with how things are progressing. ?

Worth noting that the British media make little reference to this kind of thing 

Remember an interview with Pat Murphy on 5live prior to a Derby Forest game were when pushed who he wanted to win replied "you never forget your first love"

Remember an interview with Pat Murphy on 5live prior to a Derby Forest game were when pushed who he wanted to win replied "you never forget your first love"

Remember an interview with Pat Murphy on 5live prior to a Derby Forest game were when pushed who he wanted to win replied "you never forget your first love"

In 1985/86 game 26 was a crazy last minute 1-0 defeat at Chesterfield. This was our first away defeat since the first away game at Wigan in August.
For anyone who went to the game, you'll remember how bad the Saltergate pitch was, it made the Baseball Ground pitch look like a carpet.
This defeat left us on 50 points, just 3 ahead of our current total.
In 1984/85, game 26 was a 0-0 away draw at Lincoln City, a game most memorable for the battles with Lincoln fans. The draw put us on 39 points, 8 points behind our current total.
 

Napalm Death v The Fall 5 a side competition 

Oh great. A photo of Mick Brolly!

The script says Fulham, but we all know the truth...
 

Talking of lows in the history of Derby County....

Got to be one of the worst penalties of all time!!!

Seem to remember a threetimes taken penalty against Huddersfield Archie missed twice, think the keeper moved ,and on the third time of asking Robbo grabbed the ball off him and scored .No surprise it was the season we went down and like you say not a lot else for the trouble it caused between Clough and Taylor

……. And isn’t it just wonderful that reading all these posts, we are in such a positive mindset. Happy days at Pride Park and DCFC. Whatever we forecast it’s so so encouraging and making football such a pleasure right now. Like PW has said there will be wobbles but look at us, we feel it’s doable, bring on the Wanderers ?

If I remember rightly the York fans cleared the pitch of snow and we were 3 nil up in half an hour they probably wished they hadn't bothered!!
 

Looks like Cally to me. The mullet, the balance and stance. He’s about to do something flash. Either 86/87 or 87/88 I suppose.
Bobby would be chest out, fists pumped and as usual, scoring an absolute beauty!
Either way, great days!

Seem to remember Billy Davies splashing the cash in January and us dropping out of an automatic spot into the play offs dont think any of the signings proved very successful and he basically went back to his original side to get us up

Seem to remember Billy Davies splashing the cash in January and us dropping out of an automatic spot into the play offs dont think any of the signings proved very successful and he basically went back to his original side to get us up

Seem to remember Billy Davies splashing the cash in January and us dropping out of an automatic spot into the play offs dont think any of the signings proved very successful and he basically went back to his original side to get us up

Seem to remember Billy Davies splashing the cash in January and us dropping out of an automatic spot into the play offs dont think any of the signings proved very successful and he basically went back to his original side to get us up

Seem to remember Billy Davies splashing the cash in January and us dropping out of an automatic spot into the play offs dont think any of the signings proved very successful and he basically went back to his original side to get us up

We had that with John Harkes.  Probably not tripe, but not much better.  Certainly no goals from 35 yards like that cup game.  He did miss an open goal at Wembley for us that someone who'd had 10 pints would have buried.  Not sure he ever recovered from that one. 

Back in the old days a standard match was standing up, dying for a pee, getting soaked when it rained, watching a game through a fence with a pillar in the way.  On top of that you had not just cigarette smoke but some bloke 10 foot away who'd consumed 5 pints of buttblower bitter before kick off and would drop one at 10 minute intervals pervading a 5 metre area with his arse stench for 90 minutes and no possibility of escape.  Add the 20 stone geezer falling on top of you as you desperately fell towards a 4ft high  metal crash barrier coated with 50 years of rust after a goal and the potential for a good shoeing after the game.
Todays seating, gentle aroma of vape smoke that smells of sweets and access to a toilet with some shelter is like a trip to a 5 star hotel. 

Mostly, yeah but there are others that play like that - I mean like Millwall in the Terry Hurlock days - I loved it when Georgie Williams snapped him in half at the BBG back in the day