Kathcairns

Best of luck ,,, Bolton are a proper football club and you are clearly a proper fan 👏👍

Thanks guys! I personally am fully on board the Evatt train. He took us over when we had unpaid players, a low wage cap and has got us promoted from league 2 and competing to get back to the championship, bringing on younger players, playing nice football. A lot of our morons suggesting we should sack him if we don't go up but I don't see what that achieves personally, we've got better every year he's been in charge and that's despite losing James Trafford and Conor Bradley last summer who both have played regularly in the premier league this season. I'm dreading that it's Barnsley in the semis, they will limit our away allocation to 2000 again I imagine (but at least we're home 2nd leg this time) and we'll have played them 10 times in 3 seasons after these 2 games (won once and lost twice of the 8 so far) so I expect a nervy tight game. Having thumps Oxford 5-0 a couple of months ago I quite fancied them. We will see! I agree that we're probs the better team of the 4 but we all know that means very little in the playoffs so we need to be on it and hopefully our strikers take their chances when they come. Bet you're all so relieved it's done and dusted and can relax and wait for fixture release day now haha

Pompey, Derby and Bolton were clearly the best three sides in the division IMO (Peterborough are far too inconsistent), it's a shame that one of us has to go via the playoffs.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Oxford so wouldn't mind seeing them come up, but I think of the four Bolton are most likely, and would be most deserving. 
TBH, of the four, anyone but Peterborough for me. Nothing against the fans, but Ferguson trying to play smart at the potential expense of Burton and Cambridge didn't impress me. Poetic justice that they didn't get the SF they wanted (Barnsley) and instead get a more in-form Oxford who recently battered them 5-0.
Good luck against Barnsley mate 🙂

Mate, we also have more than our fair share of morons. Good luck in the playoffs. Think it'll be quite an open one this year with no teams really in great form. Of the 4,Bolton are the best team I've seen at PP this year. 
What's the fans take on Evatt, will he be under pressure if you miss out again? 
 

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)

These lads stuck with us when the likes of Buchanan scarpered. Much love

No one is perfect

I’ve been thinking a lot about that this week.  If you think about the last 4 years since COVID started it’s been an emotional rollercoaster as a Rams fan.  We seemed to lurch from one disaster to another - FFP charges, fake sheiks, tik-tok takeover failure, transfer embargo’s, forced to play kids in the cup, staying up on the last day, administration, points deductions, dodgy Yanks, relegation, 5 players, 1 week from disappearing and probably more.
It feels like this is end of the first chapter of the David Clowes era.

I’d question if any Derby fan is actually human if they didn’t get emotional at least once yesterday. 
We nearly lost it all. Everyone has their ritual, whether it’s going with lifelong friends and getting on the beers, travelling from afar to visit home, seeing family they may otherwise rarely see… would be all gone  
There were kids that pitch who were probably too young to remember the Villa play off loss, let alone the QPR one, they wouldn’t have seen a single moment of success watching us. I’m 33 and don’t remember promotion in the 90s, all I have is 07. Suppose we could support Man City? Nah, never, that’s not football. That’s not belonging. That’s not family.  
There’s a lot of pain in the recent past, and yesterday was a stark reminder of what may never have been again. 

Jake Rooney seems like such a genuinely lovely lad doesn't he. What a nice thing to sit and play guitar for your mates after going up. I hope he has a part to play next season.

Someone else enjoyed the day 👌

It’s just people on the wind up. Every season there’s a runners-up trophy, I don’t think it’s always presented on the pitch like that but that’s up to us. I saw a photo of Ipswich’s last season too. It does make sense that you’d get one for finishing second if the play-off winners get one, that’s just an extension to the season after all.

Cheers Grimbo! 🍻
For the record, yesterday was not perfect, but it was magnificent, it was memorable, it was joyous, and nothing... not even the pitch invasion and/or lack of a lap of honour... spoilt my mood yesterday, today, and forever.
In fact, I've quite enjoyed winding a few up on here.  It's been somewhat entertaining for me, and I feel quite the rebel, having now experienced my first foray into wumming.  I may try it again next season!  👀
... and yes, I have already come clean to a mod via PM, just in case I needed to avoid a ban!  😉🐏👍
 
 

My dad is 97, in a residential home. Cant see photos to well, his sight not good. So when the weather is good going to take him in a wheelchair to see it. My dad has got s great sense of humour, and my daughter has told him its that big even he will be able to see it.😊

Hope my stats are correct but I thought I’d look at the average attendance for the mighty Rams promotion from L1 compared to the L1 promotion season from that team where they made frilly pants.
DCFC 20/23 - 27,278
Trees - 07/08 - 19,956
As the great man said Nottingham never has been and never will be a footballing City !
COYR !
 

Also called Paul Warne to  ask if it was ok for him to stop by at Moor Farm.

"Clowes’ humility and reluctance to be the star of Derby’s revival has meant he has rarely undertaken media duties and does not impose on Warne. Such is his unassuming nature that in the build-up to the final game of the season, Clowes made a rare visit to the training ground and was stopped by one of the players who asked what he did at Derby.
“Some other owners would have been devastated,” Warne said. “David replied in the nicest way saying he owned the club. He wasn’t embarrassed by that.”
https://theathletic.com/5449568/2024/04/28/derby-county-promoted-paul-warne-david-clowes/

I'll second that. RamsTV puts other clubs in-house media to shame.

Just watched the game on Rams Tv and the celebrations afterwards which were very emotional. Need to say a huge thank you to Owen Bradley who I think has worked tirelessly this season to bring us superb coverage of matches, interviews etc. He gets better and better. Shaun Barker has also made a great contribution to the season. Please say thank you to the entire team that you front. Hope you are back next year(

Great day that will live long in the memory.  Early goal settled the nerves and even though we lost our way a bit in the middle of the 1st half, they never looked like scoring.  I don’t really remember Wildsmith being troubled other than the tip over the bar.
Really nice that Bird got his standing ovation and hugs from the players as he went off.  Cash-in ran half the length of the pitch to hug him.  Adams was immense and my MOTM.  He was everywhere.  A bit like the shopkeeper in Mr Ben - as if by magic, Adams appeared (one for the over 40s!!).  And David Clowes got his well deserved moment too.
It’s nice to read all of tweets from ex-players today, keep posting them.
Fantastic end to a great season 🐏.

You could see the lino on the far side (away from the tunnel) was running before that even, he had obviously told his assistants via the ear piece to make their move about 10 seconds before he blew, he started jogging himself then and his far side lino was already most way across the pitch by the time he blew. I think you are right though, he didn't want to risk it and IMO he made the right call. This would've been highly controversial though if it was something like 1-1 and Bolton were winning by a fair margin.
 
 

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 🐏

Will post this on to my cousin who sits next to me  she isnt on the forum.