Kathcairns

Ended flitting between pubs after the game on Saturday but just wanted to say how brilliant it was to be apart of the atmosphere. Five Lamps rammed, the dualling chants between Silk Mill and the Dolphin, The Exeter probably being the best in Derby and The Smithfield’s quite excellent beer range. All pubs full of happy Derby fans. Just wanted to make it to Bustler and Brunswick before the train but think it would have tipped me over the edge, but it sounded like Bustler had a fantastic night. You can say what you want about Derby, but not many cities have the amount of decent pubs in walking distance that we do. Also helped spread everyone out rather than having thousands in one spot.
All the credit to the staff in all establishments I went to who got everyone served and kept their bar queues down too, not easy but should be appreciated. 

Pray for Thompson's liver.
 

Last performance of the boyband. 
Looking forward to the reunion tour already! 

Great photo of the academy lads put on Twitter by Sibley…

Going on what Rotherham fans were saying in September 2022, Warne had learned from his 2 relegations with the Millers and had them 8th, albeit after just 9 games with a game in hand on all those above them. Win the GIH and they were 5th. He left they ended up 19th last season and got relegated this season. I think the 2 relegations say more about RUFC than they do about PW. 3rd time round he'd got some players who were capable of top half play and results. My hope is that he does that with us and plays all football has to offer. Decent keeper, solid defence, both steel and skill in MF, wide players who can go both down the outside and put in a decent cross to a #9 who's where you want your #9 to be and also cut inside and shoot. Strikers who can put a good header in, be in the 6 yard box to pick up the pieces, create goals himself, run the channels at the right time, shoot from distance and hit the 20 goal mark through the season.
All of the above must be able to control the ball and have a good first touch. I do realise this particular demand would mean we wouldn't take Haaland on as his 1st touch is awful (atrocious v Real Madrid) but he does have a great eye for a goal...
L1? Thanks but no thanks. Too many dark arts teams. Too many awful referees, their assistants and 4th officials. Too many cloggers who get away with it. If I were to referee a L1 game, I might end up having to abandon the game as at least one side would not have enough players left on the park. Refereeing guidelines call for yellow cards for timewasting. They get given very occasionally. Idem ditto for diving, feigning injury, preventing the quick taking of a freekick, corner or throw. All designed to reduce the chances of an opponent creating chances and possibly scoring. These are all things many fans hate, refs have been told to take action but they seldom do.
When I played, I did commit fouls but I never purposely took down a player who had "done" me. I am a firm believer that, if you get beaten by speed and/or skill you should accept it and stop the player next time, legally, by being better positioned and "doing" him. I'm convinced that a return to "sporting behaviour" and cutting out the so called professional foul would see more attractive games and more goals scored. Isn't the game all about scoring goals and also not conceding them within the Laws of the game?
Football is probably the one profession where deliberately breaking the Laws is seen as a professional act rather than the act of cheating that it actually is.

Without knowing our budget and how far that will stretch and looking at necessary parting of the ways with some players, I'd consider a good season to be somewhere mid-table, hopefully without ever really feeling like we might get dragged into the relegation mire.
I watched a few games at the top of the Championship and tbh, most of them (unsurprisingly) looked absolutely streets ahead of where we are. Get up, stay out of trouble and get established. Any thoughts of getting promoted are pure fantasy I'd say. It's important to be realistic or the moaning will start just because we are suddenly chasing shadows against the better sides with high quality squads bloated by parachute money. We've stepped up a level now and we're going to need to rebuild a Championship quality squad and that will be no small task. I think we're a lot closer to Sheff Wednesday than Ipswich so lets not over-react to the inevitable games where we just are well short of the level of the opposition.

After starting from a position of near oblivion a couple of years back, this was always going to be evolution not revolution as we rebuild and hopefully push on in a responsible way. The general perception was that the crowd was going to be important in the season just gone, and I think it was, particularly away. I think that goes double next season though. We'll need a levelling factor to compete with the better opposition and the crowd could be that if we stay positive but perhaps temper expectation a little.

No.  I'd take 5th from bottom as a starter and rebuild from there.  Not 4th bottom, I've had enough stress

21st will do for me! Seeing how Plymouth smashed League 1 but still aren't safe tells you all you need to know about the strength of the Championship. We need a lot of strengthening but I'm confident in Warne and the team getting it right and keeping us up.

I'm going full Nigel Clough and will be happy with 50 points. Anything else is a bonus!
(Although I've a sneaky feeling we will do quite a bit better than that.) 

I agree. If my assumptions about our resources are likely to be accurate - and we’re sensible with the money we have- then I reckon mid-table would be a very good achievement. Higher than that - an excellent achievement.  We may well struggle a bit, especially at first.
If we do struggle, then I hope people manage their own expectations a bit and we don’t start getting at the manager, players and owner.  Sure there will be some who want instant gratification and pushing for playoffs straight away, but hopefully most will be sensible and be patient (especially when the parachute payment boys come to town!).

Stay up, spring a few surprises, get points off Forest.
Sensible club, build properly.
 

I'm sure some of you will have shifted your thoughts on to next season now, what is the early thinking towards next season before any arrivals/departures?
Obviously it would be nice to do an Ipswich, however I'm not sure it would be fair on the ownership, staff and players to set the bar that high.
Our promotion back to the Championship was fast tracked somewhat, achieving it in half the time it took Ipswich despite starting with only 4 players on the books.
The idea of being in a Championship relegation battle again isn't one I'm terribly excited by, however it feels like it's a fair and realistic target to have which will ultimately see us survive, before taking the next step.
When you look at the likes of Watford and Sunderland who are currently just 9 points above the bottom 3 going into the final game of the season, that relegation battle is not confined to the bottom 4 or 5, mid table and you're looking over your shoulder into the new year as a mini slump can throw you back in there.
I won't waffle on anymore and say by early target for the club next season is to finish between 14th and 21st. 
Anyone feel like the minimum bar of expectation should be much higher?

Jon Percy saying in his latest article over 20,000 sold already. Not seen anything official from the club on that but if he’s correct it’s decent going. 

I’ve no problem with critics provided they have some evidence/justification to back up their arguments. It the speculative ones who say things like “Warne won’t be able to manage in the Championship” I cannot really tolerate. 

Yep, there were two clambering over the seats to get out at the end of Wycombe away (cos they were too important to queue like the rest of us) flinging their fingers in the direction of the pitch
"f*** off Warne, you're f****** useless"
Angry, aggressive,  entitled.
We have a fair number of them. 

If only they'd relocate their ground to there.

I hope so. I feel like I've seen enough to see there's something there with him. Pre-season will be massive for him.

I hope it will bring a smile to your face that Dan found a place on here where he was understood , loved and defended to the hilt , it always made my smile and made me proud when perhaps a newish member or one who hadn’t had much interaction with him might get in a bit of a spat and so many of us would jump to his defence , yes we could disagree the odd time over an opinion but going over the top with Dan was not tolerated, im sure there are many ( myself included ) who learnt so so much from Dan or at the very least reminded us of things we already know but at times can forget 

B4 April 2023…….
Well calling all derby fans to get really really really behind the lads we need get behind the lads lets have wall of noise and have sea of black and white let's have scafs flags and balloons let's cheer lads on.
get behind the lads ✅
wall of noise ✅
sea of black and white  ✅
scafs flags balloons ✅
cheer lads on ✅
……………...I think we did you proud Saturday Dan. 👍

 

Without wanting to tempt fate, the Derby County mural at Cotton Lane near the old BBG was not messed with despite there being lots of grafitti on the surrounding pedestrian rail bridge. 

Bank holiday Monday provisionally agreed but not confirmed as happening yet by the club.

The Carlisle fans summed it all up for me, 
I met some on the train yesterday who were brilliant. About 30 of us Derby fans got on at Utch station to a chorus of, "your just a bus stop in Stoke" from them. 🤣 A couple of us were offered cans of beer from them and the banter was great,
Walked up to the ground with some blokes who were sound and very respectful about Derby as we were with them. Proper fans of a proper club, they've had very little to cheer over the years but the miles they put in following their club is unbelievable.
Good luck to Carlisle, hope they have a swift return to League 1 and to all the other clubs who have fans who choose to follow their local team rather than be plastic supporters of Man Utd or Liverpool.

I've had a blast going to towns I haven't been to before and visiting stadiums that aren't just soulless generic copies of each other. As said in other posts, the clubs had history, passion and pride for their team and ground. I've loved our time here but now it's time for a return to the big time.

I prefer it to the Premier League. 
If you're outside the clique of Premier clubs then each game is just damage limitation. 
I hope the top six or whatever leave for some TV super league (Harlem Globetrotters anyone?) and the top domestic league becomes more competitive as a result. 
Even the championship is now ruined as a competition by parachute payments tilting the balance. 
At least League One was competitive, unpredictable and, in the most part, entertaining.