Jayram

Why oh why can we never take the game to teams like this, why are we always so on the back foot? We are second in the league; we should have gone to Oakwell full of confidence and swagger. Barnsley are the sum total of f*** all and yet we gave them too much respect. Its the Derby way every season, bottling the crunch games.

Think this is where I'm at too.

Absolutely loved his interview. Sounded to me like he’d make a great captain in the future if we can get him in permanently.

The thing is, PW knew how Shrewsbury would play, he talked about it pre match and yet he still got the tactics wrong. The lack of nous is soul destroying at times, it really is. We barely won any second balls, kept playing head tennis and the number of risky passes at the back was terrifying. We were playing a team in the bottom six who have been beaten by every one of our promotion rivals this season and yet they have taken 4 points out of 6 off us. Why does this stuff keep happening?

Were you there last night? I was and I can tell you that Reading did not ‘get in our faces’. We had the freedom of the pitch for most of the first half but we played like we were trying to throw the game. Last nights result was nothing to do with how Reading played; they were garbage until they got the goal. At half time my friend and I were laughing about how poor we had been but thought that Warne would see that and change things. Imagine our surprise when he sent the same 11 back out with no change in tactics. The mark of a decent coach is that they can identify the issues and changes things accordingly; that we didn’t speaks volumes about Warne and his abilities.

Or maybe get a manager/coach in that understands that a functioning balanced midfield is an alternative to endlessly lumping the ball out wide and into the box in the hope that someone will get on the end of it. Bird isn’t a bad player but is being made to look so by a coach who has no interest in playing football in any way other than his own prehistoric way.

I thought we were played off the park today by the best team I’ve seen at PP this season. They were sharper, brighter and pulled us all over the place. We looked like the away team for large chunks of the match so no complaints from me, other than we should have stopped sitting deep and inviting them on to us in that last 10 minutes; we might have got a point otherwise. Need to go and smash Fleetwood now and get back on track.

Well that performance last night was an absolute tonic to me after a dreadful Christmas (my dad is terminally ill and has been in hospital throughout Xmas). I wasn't going to go , even though the Kassam Stadium is less than 2 miles away from where I live but my family persuaded me to so I went and apart from that first 15 minutes I had the best away day I've had for years. That second half performance was brilliant; relentless attacking pressure that blew Oxford away. The Rams fans last night were also amazing; you wouldn't have known we were the team 2-0 down. I couldn't speak at the final whistle from all the singing! Its nights like that that make following this club so special. After what has been a rough few weeks personally I really needed that experience last night. COYR

This is more or less where I am with things. I think his realisation that 3 at the back wasn’t working and reverting to a back 4 has been key in results improving and long may it continue. Looking forward to the Oxford game - I live 8 minutes away by car from the ground!

Christ, it’s pathetic isn’t it? Every time you think we’ve turned a corner we fall apart again. Is it the manager? Is it the players? So depressing.

But much more football played through midfield compared to previous games. I actually enjoyed a home game for the first time this season.

Nothing to do with luck or the injury crisis, more the style of football has changed from tedious hoofball to actually playing some of it through midfield and on the ground because our manager finally understands that his style alone was getting us nowhere. Credit to him for adapting though; I enjoyed the match on Saturday - that’s the first time I’ve been able to say that since Blackpool. Long may it continue.

Well in that ‘pre-arranged meeting’ Mr Clowes must have said, ‘FFS Paul, how about playing some exciting football that our fans can actually enjoy before you end up emptying the stands’, because the football on Tuesday was a transformation from the rubbish I watched at Stevenage. Long may it continue.