Derby County vs QPR

[Wolfie20]

10 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

I know Johnson didn’t have his greatest of games today, but he was brilliant during the pen, he got in amongst all the drama, and made sure they didn’t get in Wilson’s head, loved after we scored he was straight into the keeper as well giving him grief.

I know he ain’t everyone’s cup of tea on here, but sometimes someone being nasty and mixing it up works

His poorest game for some time - his passing in the first half was woeful. But.....he never goes missing and is the one midfielder who provides some physicality in that area of the team.

[JfR]

17 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

I know Johnson didn’t have his greatest of games today, but he was brilliant during the pen, he got in amongst all the drama, and made sure they didn’t get in Wilson’s head, loved after we scored he was straight into the keeper as well giving him grief.

I know he ain’t everyone’s cup of tea on here, but sometimes someone being nasty and mixing it up works

Nugent as well. When the keeper went up to Wilson before the kick to try and intimidate him he was very quick at putting himself between them, pushing the keeper back and stopping it before it even started. It's only a little thing, but it's the sort of thing you want to see from the more experienced heads in the squad.

[Ambitious]

Absolutely no doubt about the penalty after watching the replay... 

It's about as stonewall as you get, isn't it?

[Mafiabob]

1 minute ago, Ambitious said:

Absolutely no doubt about the penalty after watching the replay... 

It's about as stonewall as you get, isn't it?

No doubt it wasn’t for me, but as I say, you get the rub of the green and it does come round eventually 

[Harrowram]

3 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

But ultimately they did finish the game and managed the victory so whichever way you look at it they must have had the ability to do just that. Otherwise we wouldn't have won.

Not a great performance but it was a win. To read the almost constant negativity of some posters anyone would think we'd lost.

I am happy with the win but the perfromance won't frighten Bristol City, Swansea or West bromwich Albion -and Derby are likely to have to beat two of those three teams.

[May Contain Nuts]

59 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

I know Johnson didn’t have his greatest of games today, but he was brilliant during the pen, he got in amongst all the drama, and made sure they didn’t get in Wilson’s head, loved after we scored he was straight into the keeper as well giving him grief.

I know he ain’t everyone’s cup of tea on here, but sometimes someone being nasty and mixing it up works

I've spent a fair number of years being exasperated by Johnson, and yes I have at numerous points been perfectly happy with the idea of not seeing him play for us again.

About 30% of his performances for us have been awful, 30% inadequate, 20% decent, 10% good and 10% impressive, but despite my frustrations with him I can't say that he hasn't played his part in turning us from a team who look hopelessly lost most of the time to one who look hopelessly lost only maybe half of the time!

I do think though, admittedly as someone who does like to counter popular opinion, that a big part of the temporary upturn in my general thinking on him is as much to do with the people clamouring for Huddlestone to be back in the team as much as it has been for his own performances.

The idea that because Huddlestone is a good passer of the ball it means he controls matches from deep is a bizarre one to me, because all I see when he plays deep is that he's playing the same passes our CBs are capable of but 3 passes later in the move. I almost hate saying it, but I think Johnson is better for our overall team performances than Huddlestone, even with his occasionally shitty passing (Huddlestone has been equally guilty at times) and his tendency to dither on the ball and lose it (Huddlestone has been equally guilty at times...)

I think what I mean is that Huddlestone occasionally offers some pretty passing, but it's rarely defence splitting stuff and the number of allowances that you have to make to get what you want from Huddlestone now actually outnumber the allowances you have to make to get what you want from Johnson, and they most defnitely can't be played together, so, what do you choose?

The lesser of two evils perhaps. I'm glad Johnson is out of contract, I'm disappointed Huddlestone has a new one. I suppose I'll have to pin my hopes on Shinnie, if he even signs, but I haven't seen enough of him to know why.

[Millenniumram]

Read through a bit of this thread, and I’ve gotta say I’m not sure I agree with some people saying we were awful and “got away with it”. First half I can kinda see it, particulary the first 20 minutes when I thought, for the umpteenth time this season, we turned up half asleep, lacking focus and effort which is pretty poor given the occasion and how many times it’s happened before. However, we did eventually wake up a little and by the second half I thought we were clearly the better team, especially once we stopped lumping it (again, lessons gonna be learned some time?) and played it into feet more. Sure it wasn’t exactly amazing, we lacked a lot of quality at times and looked vulnerable on the counter, but we were trying the right things mainly in difficult circumstances against a compete shithouse time wasting side. Proper disgrace and was a shame to see Eustace would send his team out to play like that, but they got what they deserved in the end, a loss in the time added that they wasted. And even regardless of that, by the end we deserved it all ends up.

Got the job done effectively in the end, which in the circumstances, was exactly what needed doing. Thought the ref should’ve controlled the game a lot better and handed out more bookings to their players, but fair play for adding on the time in the end. Don’t think the pen was a pen, but the one on mount looked stonewall to me so evened out across the match. Job done as far as I can see, and a massive one at that in a game which really could have gone one of many ways, even late on.

[rynny]

Fantastic noise today. Certainly seemed the loudest this season. 

[Leicester Ram]

Been really critical of Nugent this season but he was excellent when he came on. Found myself wishing we’d bring him on more recently, brings a cool head up front and doesn’t rush it. Too many of this lot try the Hollywood pass a bit too often.

Might sound a bit weird but I found the game massively cathartic because it felt like what should have happened at Wembley. A horrible QPR team with quiet fans clinging on for dear life bested by a talented young derby team. Didn’t play our best today but never, ever stopped going.

Showed a lot of winning mentality.

EDIT: Can’t believe I forgot this, QPR’s keeper was honestly one of the worst players I’ve seen in the Championship in years. Shocking.

[Carl Sagan]

1 hour ago, Mafiabob said:

I know Johnson didn’t have his greatest of games today, but he was brilliant during the pen, he got in amongst all the drama, and made sure they didn’t get in Wilson’s head, loved after we scored he was straight into the keeper as well giving him grief.

I know he ain’t everyone’s cup of tea on here, but sometimes someone being nasty and mixing it up works

Also, when Wilson scored the pen and went to the corner Johnson was very professional and called the rest of the team up the pitch to waste some time in the celebrations. I always hate it when our opponents do that! 

Lots of sloppiness today but lots of guts too. I guess when you're in the Championship, you can't have it all. Well done, Bradley. 

[SaffyRam]

6 hours ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Days like today are why we are football fans! It’s why we put ourselves through the ringer, it’s what we live for. Yes we were crap for long periods but it doesn’t matter, the heart and desire were there, the fans sensed the team needed and responded - tremendous. Then when we thought it wasn’t going to happen, from nowhere a penalty. Waiting for Wilson to take that pen took me back to the playoff semi with Southampton 12 years ago!! Nerves, despair, drama, euphoria, elation that game had everything. 4 stands doing the bounce FFS! (Well 3 then not sure the west stand were). 

It may all prove to be for nothing but in my near 30 years of supporting Derby, this was one of my best days as a fan. We’ve had a few good days this season, let’s hope we can have some more, maybe even one at Wembley!!

COYR!!

I was in the West Stand and I can confirm many of us were bouncing ?

[Ghost of Clough]

Surprised by how QPR fans felt the ref was ‘bent’ and they couldn’t understand why we had 9 minutes (11 in the end) added on ?

[DarkFruitsRam7]

7 hours ago, Leicester Ram said:

EDIT: Can’t believe I forgot this, QPR’s keeper was honestly one of the worst players I’ve seen in the Championship in years. Shocking.

Really? Distribution was poor and could have done better for our second but I thought he was alright. Made a good save from Mount.

[BramcoteRam84]

8 hours ago, Harrowram said:

I am happy with the win but the perfromance won't frighten Bristol City, Swansea or West bromwich Albion -and Derby are likely to have to beat two of those three teams.

Just like Bristol’s performances against Reading and Sheff Wed won’t frighten us, or boro’s performances in at the least the last 8 games won’t frighten us.

We’re playing the best of all the teams competing for 6th place!

[BramcoteRam84]

3 hours ago, SaffyRam said:

I was in the West Stand and I can confirm many of us were bouncing ?

I thought you were but thought I must have imagined it!! ?

[BaaLocks]

- Got the best and worst of Malone yesterday. I've always thought his strong attacking play masks a rather poor defender and for the first twenty minutes he proved that point, get caught woefully out of position on many occassions. Then he put in five minutes of stellar defending like I've never seen from him against their right winger, Osayi Samuel, who I would say was their best player. Only downside was that he ended up a bit limited going forward as he was pretty much on defensive duty but good to see him do what he's supposedly paid for.

- Marriott was great when he came on, as was Nugent. I don't get why we keep trying to do these 'behind the lines' passes to Waghorn when he clearly hasn't got the pace to benefit. My only observation on Marriott was that I would have loved for him to finish the chance for the second, showed a mature head to lay off to Wilson but goalscorers always want to score goals and I worried a bit that he didn't take the chance himself.

- Bogle grows in confidence by the game, some lovely little turns and twists to break through the lines. All a bit Messi-esque at times. Tomori was class and rightfully man of the match, he's as guaranteed to play for England as they come.

- We should be worried how many chances we gave them and how many times we got countered. A better team would not have left us with a clean sheet. It obviously comes from the midfield and we need to find a way to stop them cutting through us. Bryson looked like someone constantly running to where the ball had been a few seconds before and both Wilson and Mount lack steel (and I'm not just talking tough tackling) to stop attacks before they start. If we are going to go on and get to the play offs it will be interesting for us to see how we set up to prevent losing silly goals while still having a formation to win games.

Cracking day out in the sun....

[Srg]

Have to say that if we were in QPR's position I would have been furious with that display. All but nothing to play for and play so negatively with some of the worst time wasting tactics I've ever witnessed. What was the point? I understand you might want some form of away result before the end of the season if you're Eustace, but that's not the way to do it. Go and play with a bit of freedom, by all means the usual delaying tactics but it was so extra it was laughable. 

Shithousery of the highest order from Queens Park Rowetts.

[Anon]

1 hour ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Surprised by how QPR fans felt the ref was ‘bent’ and they couldn’t understand why we had 9 minutes (11 in the end) added on ?

It's hard to fathom how those cheating Berkshire hunts can seriously believe there's some kind of EFL conspiracy against them even after the pathetic "punishment" they received for flagrant rule breaking. They rival Leeds for a misplaced sense of entitlement.

[BramcoteRam84]

I’m with @Millenniumram we weren’t great yesterday but by no means were we terrible. First half hour we were off it definitely, improved slightly in the run up to half time. Second half we built a lot of pressure without creating much but you could sense it was building to a finish and what a finish it was. Sometimes you have to do that and find a way to win.

I think the contrasting performances of the midfield. The worst players in the first half were Johnson Bryson and Wilson. Second half Bryson went off, and Johnson and Wilson were immense. Wilson started being positive committing players trying to make things happen (possibly helped by the position change) and Bradley and the centre halves played further up the pitch, we took control of the midfield and that ultimately was the platform for the win. I can see the argument for Huddlestone to give us control in midfield but when Brad is positive and scraps like that and not too deep as both him and Bryson were in the first half it gets our match winners into the game Waghorn, Wilson, Mount, Marriott, Lawrence (though he didn’t have a great game yesterday).

Thought Marriott was excellent when he came on as well. If Bryson is injured should start him against Bristol and move Wilson into midfield.

[Anon]

11 minutes ago, BaaLocks said:

- Got the best and worst of Malone yesterday. I've always thought his strong attacking play masks a rather poor defender and for the first twenty minutes he proved that point, get caught woefully out of position on many occassions. Then he put in five minutes of stellar defending like I've never seen from him against their right winger, Osayi Samuel, who I would say was their best player. Only downside was that he ended up a bit limited going forward as he was pretty much on defensive duty but good to see him do what he's supposedly paid for.

I think it might have been too early to bring him back after his injury. He was gassed before half time and looked dead on his feet with 20 to go. Tomori and Bennett had to cover for him on several occasions. Had Lampard not needed to use all his subs on offensive players to push for a goal, Malone certainly would've been subbed.