Rams vs Coventry (A) Matchday Thread

[Mick Brolly]

Miles off

[angieram]

A great point away at Coventry. I thought we started brightly, and were the better team without creating too much, until the Coventry penalty.

Seen them given, but it was a bit soft. Just like us after the goal, we seemed to wilt and let Coventry's press undo us time after time. Players who were great on Tuesday - Jozwiak, Shinnie, Lawrence in particular - struggled with the lack of time they got on the ball. Only the central defenders and the reliable Bird went in at half time with head held high.

A shout out for the Coventry crowd, really got behind their team from all sides of the ground. A big contrast with the last time I was there when the place was three quarters empty against Swindon. That was only three years ago - what a transformation. There's no wonder they've won every home game with that noise behind them. 

I wasn't looking forward to the second half, it felt like the gap was wider than a single goal. For that, we need to credit our defence, and that gave us the platform we needed to come back into the game.

The Derby fans seemed to know what was needed, and started to sing. It still took a change of personnel, coupled with a tiring Coventry press, but Colin made an immediate impact with the great turn and scuffed shot hitting the post. That seemed to spark the game to life, for both sides. They nearly scored, hitting the bar from a free kick (Lawrence, take note!) but we had much more attacking intent too with Bird dominating, Shinnie starting to find the passes at last,  Sibley moving the ball on much quicker than Jozwiak and Morrison suddenly coming into the game more.

I felt the goal was coming, and was so pleased it was Shinza who got it. He works so hard and his roar of Pride to the Derby fans was a special moment to share! 

I don't think we had enough about us to get a winner, but thankfully neither did they, and for once a draw felt like the right result. It's good to see Coventry doing well after their recent troubles and wish them well for the rest of the season. 

I didn't know there'd been crowd trouble as I was down on the left, but just to say if it was on the right divide, the Derby fans there would have been cash pay on the day, so presumably untraceable. Just saying! 

[Comrade 86]

Dodged a bullet today. Clearly onside. 

Image courtesy of the EFL archive

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

Graham Shinnie. What a man.

[Yani P]

2 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Graham Shinnie. What a man.

Great to see that passion on front of our fans..

[uttoxram75]

3 hours ago, StockholmRam said:

Strange day. I live in Sweden and pay a monthly subscription to Rams TV. Never miss a match. 

Then today my Rams TV said ” broadcast not available in your location”!! Huh? WTF

So instead of getting cross and frustrated I dropped an email to the address they provide for support! That email bounced.

Then I got cross and frustrated. Seriously Rams TV. Thanks for ruining my weekend to twots.

Could be worse Stockers, you still can't get Channel 4 in Ashbourne.

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

15 minutes ago, Yani P said:

Great to see that passion on front of our fans..

These lads dont owe DCFC much, and to be blunt I'd understand it if they were looking for the door, but they keep putting the graft in.

The last couple of seasons I've questioned their bottle and their fight, but this season they are stepping up in a rubbish situation. Fair play. 

[66DegreesNorth]

3 hours ago, StockholmRam said:

Strange day. I live in Sweden and pay a monthly subscription to Rams TV. Never miss a match. 

Then today my Rams TV said ” broadcast not available in your location”!! Huh? WTF

So instead of getting cross and frustrated I dropped an email to the address they provide for support! That email bounced.

Then I got cross and frustrated. Seriously Rams TV. Thanks for ruining my weekend to twots.

I'm in Iceland and I was more than peeved when I logged to find only audio available. However, if you have a bet account thats open 365 days a year, based in Stoke and live outside the UK, you can often view games live as long as you have a little money in it ?

Edited October 23, 2021 by 66DegreesNorth

[uttoxram75]

3 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

These lads dont owe DCFC much, and to be blunt I'd understand it if they were looking for the door, but they keep putting the graft in.

The last couple of seasons I've questioned their bottle and their fight, but this season they are stepping up in a rubbish situation. Fair play. 

Good point.

These players are giving it everything, its not always good enough, occasionally the quality is not there at crucial moments, but, you can't question their commitment to DCFC and the manager.

Perhaps Rooney and his backroom staff have used the situation to create a backs to the wall mindset amongst the squad. 

Whatever the reason, its turning into an enjoyable season full of passion and energy on and off the pitch. I've never heard the fans so loud in years and I'm loving the team spirit.

COYR ?

 

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

A draw was a fair result and a good result too. Max Bird man of the match, Shiinnie passion, industry and a great goal, the whole of the defence did well. That's for he positive. For the rest Morrison, good player that he is he needs to look up and plays a simple pass now and again. In the first half i lost count of the time when he got past a player, Festy was there by the touch line ready to run at the defender, the ball never came, Ravel ran into a crowd in the middle instead. Jozwiak just not strong enough for this league i dont care what he does for Poland, championship is a different game altogether. He should have been hooked at half time, why give it 10 mins?Tom Lawrence did what a Tom Lawrence does, quality is there the output tends to go missing. Festy could have done more but sadly did not see enough of the ball. Sibley did more in 55 mins than Jozwiak in 55. CKR great effort of the post and we need to keep him fit to be a nuisance to the opposition CB and that will open spaces for our wide players.

[jono]

1 hour ago, Tombo said:

Took me a second to believe you when you said you live in Sweden for a second. I was like "yeah yeah, same as everyone here who claims they're in Cyprus"

Then I read your name ?

There’s a syndrome when you do things like that, can’t remember what it is though 

[kevinhectoring]

3 hours ago, Yani P said:

It was Rams TV

Sorry my mistake I thought you were watching on DAZN 

[Donegal Ram]

Delighted with a point in the end against a good home team. Some real positives from the game and some things that are not improving. 

Positives include commitment and desire by majority of the team. The goal celebrations from the team shows a real togetherness from a group who backs are against the wall. Some players have really stepped up their game to slowly drag this team forward. Bird being the standout. 

Not improving on are closing down the opposition, yesterday, We was always a second or two slower than it should be rather than predicting their play.

Decision making in the final third is costing us. Wasting some good positions by a poor final ball or the wrong ball.

Lawrence dead balls are definitely not improving.

My main gripe is a old one but still applies today. On several occasions either the centre backs or Shinnie in particular needed to beat a man going forward before they could pass the ball forward. Lawrence and Morrison were not showing for the ball even though a five yard run would have been enough. 

We missed knight yesterday but kazim definitely changed the game when he came on. 

[Archied]

9 hours ago, EtoileSportiveDeDerby said:

A draw was a fair result and a good result too. Max Bird man of the match, Shiinnie passion, industry and a great goal, the whole of the defence did well. That's for he positive. For the rest Morrison, good player that he is he needs to look up and plays a simple pass now and again. In the first half i lost count of the time when he got past a player, Festy was there by the touch line ready to run at the defender, the ball never came, Ravel ran into a crowd in the middle instead. Jozwiak just not strong enough for this league i dont care what he does for Poland, championship is a different game altogether. He should have been hooked at half time, why give it 10 mins?Tom Lawrence did what a Tom Lawrence does, quality is there the output tends to go missing. Festy could have done more but sadly did not see enough of the ball. Sibley did more in 55 mins than Jozwiak in 55. CKR great effort of the post and we need to keep him fit to be a nuisance to the opposition CB and that will open spaces for our wide players.

Funny how we see different things , for me joy is plenty strong enough ,he wins and holds balls he has no right to, Sadly his decision making makes promising situations fizzle out all too ofte ??‍♂️

[Tombo]

9 hours ago, jono said:

There’s a syndrome when you do things like that, can’t remember what it is though 

Swedish Syndrome? ?

[BramcoteRam84]

Only got RD to go on but after a promising 20 mins we were lucky to get in at half time at only 1-0 and I feared the worst for the second half, thought it would just be damage limitation. But once again this team surprises and we were excellent second half thoroughly deserved a point, could’ve even won it. Don’t agree with Ed Dawes often but he commented about Cov running out of gas against Preston and with their intensity in the first half questioned would they be able keep it going and if Derby stayed in the game they could have opportunities late on, and that’s exactly what happened, combined with a couple of tweaks from Derby (Kazim and Sibley made a huge difference) and a much better performance from Shinniesta second half which along with Bird changed the game.

As regards the team, Ebosele has twice played in the wide attacking role now against Peterborough and Cov and has underwhelmed in both. It’s a condundrum where to play him, I think that will be his position in eventually but needs more development. Reminds me so much of Adama Traore, be interested to see how far he goes but he’s certainly our most exciting player to watch by some distance just can’t quite fit him in the team at the moment.  As for Joz was he as bad as has been made out. Charlie Palmer was losing it just talking about his performance you could hear the anger and derision coming through because in his view Joz wasn’t helping his teammates out and doing the dirty side of the job, a couple of occasions he cited where Cov attacks developed and he stood and watched. If this is accurate then we can’t afford that in the team at the moment.

We said let’s see where we are after 10-15 games. Well in the circumstances the lads have done brilliantly. Crazily we are only 1 point worse off this season than last season despite having a 12 point deduction!! Just shows how bad that start last season was. If we can get a mid season of 1.7 points again with Bielik returning (like last season) then things could be looking up.

We looked at these fixtures as needing to get wins, we haven’t. But this is the championship and it never goes to plan. People were moaning when we didn’t beat fellow relegation battlers Huddersfield on opening day, they’re just outside the top 6, Luton have just gone 5th, Coventry have the best home record in the league which shows what a good result that was yesterday. We’re still relatively solid, we’re creating chances, we’re playing well. I agree with Charlie Palmer on this. We don’t know what will happen with further points deductions. Only thing we can do is what they are doing, keep chipping away picking up points and see where we are at come Christmas. The key to us surviving this season isnt even the EFL sanctions, it’s the ownership being resolved by Jan as if not, any Alleviation on points deductions won’t mean anything as this squad will be absolutely decimated in January.

Well done lads again and keep going.
 

 

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

18 minutes ago, Archied said:

Funny how we see different things , for me joy is plenty strong enough ,he wins and holds balls he has no right to, Sadly his decision making makes promising situations fizzle out all too ofte ??‍♂️

He does now and again,works hard, but overall lacks the speed to get away quick or the strength to hold the ball if static. You need at least one or the other in an attacking position. He's got the technique for sure. He might have more impact coming on late when people start to tire a bit.

[G STAR RAM]

My take on yesterday's match.

Roos - fine. One decent save, good distribution. Not sure what he was doing when they hit the bar but haven't seen it back so won't be too harsh. In all honesty he didn't have much to do.

Defence - back to their usual solid selves. Lazy challenge by Buchanan and looked a penalty to me. Good assist from Byrne, absolutely bust a gut to overlap CKR.

Midfield - poor first half, controlled the game second half.

Forwards - poor. Offered absolutely nothing until CKR came on. Work rate seriously lacking. Really hope we get to bring someone in come the January transfer window.

One thing I would change right now is the captaincy. When Coventry scored there were 3 or 4 players trying to rally the troops and Lawrence just stood there on the halfway line doing nothing. Understand why WR experimented with it but just dont think its the right call.

Massive shout out to the fans yesterday, turned up in numbers and the atmosphere was the best I remember for some time. Can only imagine the scenes if we had gone on to get the winner! Also thought Coventry played their part in that. Some years since Ive been but I also remember Highfield Road being the same.

Good away day and excellent point against a decent team. Need to start turning a few of our draws into wins though. 

[Anag Ram]

35 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Only got RD to go on but after a promising 20 mins we were lucky to get in at half time at only 1-0 and I feared the worst for the second half, thought it would just be damage limitation. But once again this team surprises and we were excellent second half thoroughly deserved a point, could’ve even won it. Don’t agree with Ed Dawes often but he commented about Cov running out of gas against Preston and with their intensity in the first half questioned would they be able keep it going and if Derby stayed in the game they could have opportunities late on, and that’s exactly what happened, combined with a couple of tweaks from Derby (Kazim and Sibley made a huge difference) and a much better performance from Shinniesta second half which along with Bird changed the game.

As regards the team, Ebosele has twice played in the wide attacking role now against Peterborough and Cov and has underwhelmed in both. It’s a condundrum where to play him, I think that will be his position in eventually but needs more development. Reminds me so much of Adama Traore, be interested to see how far he goes but he’s certainly our most exciting player to watch by some distance just can’t quite fit him in the team at the moment.  As for Joz was he as bad as has been made out. Charlie Palmer was losing it just talking about his performance you could hear the anger and derision coming through because in his view Joz wasn’t helping his teammates out and doing the dirty side of the job, a couple of occasions he cited where Cov attacks developed and he stood and watched. If this is accurate then we can’t afford that in the team at the moment.

We said let’s see where we are after 10-15 games. Well in the circumstances the lads have done brilliantly. Crazily we are only 1 point worse off this season than last season despite having a 12 point deduction!! Just shows how bad that start last season was. If we can get a mid season of 1.7 points again with Bielik returning (like last season) then things could be looking up.

We looked at these fixtures as needing to get wins, we haven’t. But this is the championship and it never goes to plan. People were moaning when we didn’t beat fellow relegation battlers Huddersfield on opening day, they’re just outside the top 6, Luton have just gone 5th, Coventry have the best home record in the league which shows what a good result that was yesterday. We’re still relatively solid, we’re creating chances, we’re playing well. I agree with Charlie Palmer on this. We don’t know what will happen with further points deductions. Only thing we can do is what they are doing, keep chipping away picking up points and see where we are at come Christmas. The key to us surviving this season isnt even the EFL sanctions, it’s the ownership being resolved by Jan as if not, any Alleviation on points deductions won’t mean anything as this squad will be absolutely decimated in January.

Well done lads again and keep going.
 

 

Couple of points from someone who was at the game.

Yes, Ebosele is a raw talent but we don’t play to his strengths. He needs the ball early and when he has space to run into. We play the long ball over the top or to his feet when surrounded by two players.

Jozwiak was poor again and will go in January along with Bielik. There’s no way we can hold on to an asset as valuable in the mess we’re in.

Derby we’re nothing more than resilient yesterday but it won them a great point. 

[BramcoteRam84]

21 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Couple of points from someone who was at the game.

Yes, Ebosele is a raw talent but we don’t play to his strengths. He needs the ball early and when he has space to run into. We play the long ball over the top or to his feet when surrounded by two players.

Jozwiak was poor again and will go in January along with Bielik. There’s no way we can hold on to an asset as valuable in the mess we’re in.

Derby we’re nothing more than resilient yesterday but it won them a great point. 

Fair point re:Ebosele, my observation is he needs the ball deep and in space as that seems to be where he does lots of his best work. Doing as you say they did won’t get the best out of him.

Assuming we’re still in a mess in January then everyone will be sold, if the ownership sorted then no reason why we need to sell. I like Joz but starting to think we should move him on anyway as he’s not delivering the consistent performances we were expecting. If he’d got a few more goals and assists maybe we could cut him some slack. 
 

As for the game yesterday, fair enough if that’s how you saw it. Other posters who were there saw it in a more positive light. IMO being nothing more than resilient is the West Brom game which to be fair was pushing that idea to the absolute extremes. I got the impression yesterday second half was much more than that and we were the better side but I wasn’t there.

Edited October 24, 2021 by BramcoteRam84