Exeter City v Derby - Match Day Thread

[Caerphilly Ram]

1 minute ago, Tamworthram said:

I guess the point is, we weren't playing a more "streetwise" team. 

If the game plan was to allow them to have the lions share of possession, believing they were unlikely to really hurt us, then it worked. 

Perhaps we'll deploy the same tactic at Barnsley, who knows? I was at the Bolton away game and I seem to recall they game us the run around for large parts of the game but we nearly came away with something there (if it hadn't been for the unjust sending off and a heavy deflection for the goal).

Was Blackpool away similar too? When Korey De Bruyne showed up in a Derby shirt?

I’m all for it, messaged my uncle last night saying how nice Exeter’s passing and movement was, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of our performance and the result. Good luck to them, playing that way will hopefully serve them well. 

I’ve said before I’m not particular about styles as such, just want the team to be effective and win, which Warne, his staff and the players do seem capable of on the road and more so against “passing teams”, what they ideally need to do is flip the approach against the stubborn teams that dig in.
More controlled passing and dominating teams when we’re at home would be grand, absorbing pressure and smashing teams on the break away from home, what a treat that balance would be.

[Ghost of Clough]

1 hour ago, Archied said:

Yep it’s interesting that the poster minimise mcg under warne and perhaps nml by saying his goals per game was better than his best career season under warne when mcg dropped down before yet we have heard consistently how warne beasts his players and causes time out injured , well he got a tune out of mc g and is doing the same with nml , 

I just wish certain posters would give warne a fair crack of the whip , everything bad is because of him , everything good in spite of him is the default of some 🤷🏻‍♂️

He hadn't played at this level since his half season at Coventry in 2012 (16 goals in 22 games). That was after 3 seasons of struggling at Forest who signed him as a 22 year old.
The season before joining us, he contributed to 6 goals in 969 Championship minutes (1 every 162 mins) and 9 in 2402 PL minutes the season before (1 every 267 mins). His increased mins per contrubtition following another drop down in level was to be expected (1 ever 99 mins). However, credit must be given to the staff for keeping him fit enough to play in 39 league games.

[admira]

12 hours ago, CodnorRam said:

What happened to Blackett Taylor ? Iv missed most of the game 🥲

So did he.

Edit:

Just seen someone's done that joke already

Edited February 14 by admira

[admira]

12 hours ago, oomarkwright said:

Rovers get our cast offs and City get our good players! 

And they give us Korey Smith 😏

[sage]

10 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Of course your criticising just in a backhanded way.  I couldn't care if you did. According to our manager Bird hasn't been playing as he can as his head was on impressing potential suitors and now he'll have more freedom to play.  He wasn't working for the team and was pedestrian at best on occasion looking like he'd been on a 3 day foam party bender.  If he's playing better now fabulous, he wasn't for the first two thirds of the season.  Nowt to do with Hourihane or having to work his b******* off.  If that was his mandate he was failing grimly till 4 games ago. 

Warne was referring to Cashin in terms of heads turned. 

He has also praised Bird consistently and this week also pointed out he covers more ground than other players.

I'm slightly disappointed that you can't see that playing in a 3 with someone who also covers a lot of ground isn't a major factor.

 

[Gabby'sThighs]

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

Is Elliot Bonds worth a shout? 23, central midfielder, English but plays for a minor, non-European national team? That's our vibe.

[ram59]

I thought that last night's game was almost the perfect away performance. For all those complimenting Exeter on how well they played the ball around, I ask "is that because we let them do so in not dangerous areas?"

For all their possession and 'attractive' football. how many proper saves did Wildsmith have to make, a big fat zero! On the other hand their keeper had to make a few decent saves, in addition to the 3 goals we scored.

Could you imagine the 'moaners' on here had the teams been reversed last night, it would have been a total melt down. Comments like knocking it around with no penetration, got caught 3 times and could have easily been 5.

[angieram]

2 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Glad I wasn’t imagining things as no one else seems to have seen it 🤣 

I think 1200 of us saw it, but the referee didn't! 

[MadAmster]

24 minutes ago, ram59 said:

I thought that last night's game was almost the perfect away performance. For all those complimenting Exeter on how well they played the ball around, I ask "is that because we let them do so in not dangerous areas?"

For all their possession and 'attractive' football. how many proper saves did Wildsmith have to make, a big fat zero! On the other hand their keeper had to make a few decent saves, in addition to the 3 goals we scored.

Could you imagine the 'moaners' on here had the teams been reversed last night, it would have been a total melt down. Comments like knocking it around with no penetration, got caught 3 times and could have easily been 5.

Imagine the comments if we tried playing the way we did last night at Pride Park...

Imagine the confusion if the oppo were also set up to concede possession and hit on the break 🙂

[Eoghan1884]

Just seen Boltons next 7 league games include 5 away fixtures. Travelling over 1,100 miles. 
 

Also that from now until after they play us on the 16th of March they’ve to play every Tuesday to catch up on missed games. 
 

They’ve already picked up injuries to their best Defender and best striker Santos and Charles. Could see them getting a bit of a burn out with them fixtures. 

Big few weeks to try build a gap over them. 

[MadAmster]

Set the side up to surrender possession and hit them on the break. Worked a treat. My word for the display is competent. Nothing flash, not commanding, simply competent all round. Bird and NML a goal and an assist each plus a goal from Barks was sufficient for all 3 points. Clean sheet is always welcome. The stats show Exeter had 2 shots on target. Both were from long range free kicks and straight into JW's hand. Having said that, they created 3 or 4 chances where they shot wide/over that they will be kicking themselves for being so wasteful. 1st half they tried to get the ball over our back line at speed, their 2 best chances saw poor control stifle their best one and the other time they beat the back line, their player was offside. A more ruthless opponent may well have scored.

0-3 away win from 30% possession, a thoroughly competent and professional performance but we shouldn't forget that they did have chances, chances another opponent would put away. Feet on the ground, we're not there yet.

CBT. Not worrying yet about the lad although he has shown little in his appearances thus far. Totally unsuccessful in anything he did last night and replaced at HT, apparently suffering from a tight hamstring. I really hope he started the game (or picked it up very early) with an iffy hammy as that would explain, in part, the poor play. He has a good game in him. Maybe he needs a couple of weeks of relative rest to get fit? Too early to write him off, way too early.

The ref? What had to happen for us to get a free kick? He refused to give us a shedload of serious fouls yet, later on, gave us a couple that, to me, weren't fouls. A case in point, Adams ushers the ball out, 2nd half and he's already on a yellow, and he gets pulled over by an Exeter player. ref calls both players over for a "chat". He had been so inconsistent all game I feared he was going to card both players which would have seen Adams off. I am still at a loss as to why he felt the need to have a chat with either player. Nothing untoward happened other than a foul which deserved to be given as such and no more. The foul wasn't given. Quite possibly the worst ref we've had this season. IMO.

Both Bolton and Pompey won last night and it's starting to look like the top 3 might be slowly pulling away and making it a 3 horse race. We play both the Trotters and Pompey, win both games and we're a step closer to the promised land. 14 games to go and we play 4 of the top 7, starting with Stevenage on Saturday. I'll be there with 'er indoors. COYR!!

[On the Ram Page]

1 hour ago, May Contain Nuts said:

Wrong.

Other factors like the experience they've gained from careers played at higher levels, the current quality of opposition they're up against and the standing of their current team within it, the quality (and type) of teammate too because one season you could be playing alongside a greedy b****** who gives you no supply, the next a selfless player.  You can throw in popularity with fans as well, and personal circumstances away from football make a difference too.

It's not a fair crack at the whip you want him to be given though, it's for him to be given all the credit for his grandmother's ability to suck eggs.

Nowhere did I say that Warne isn't a contributing factor, but attributing the reason for them having their best directly to Warne is just daft.

Nothing I've posted is unfair on Warne, it's just an assessment based on what I see while holding him to the standards set by his billing, his comments and our aims and objectives.

So what’s your take on McGoldrick this season - 12 goals in a lower league (should be much easier to score. So must be playing alongside a greedy player or ones lacking quality, as the fans adore him and his personal circumstances haven’t changed or are better.

what were the other factors in the Derby season which made it so successful- quality of players were obviously not better, 

[G STAR RAM]

2 hours ago, IlsonDerby said:

Why is it so controversial to acknowledge that Exeter knock it about really well and were playing the better football?

Our higher quality showed over the 90 but imagine what it’d look like if they had our squad/budget and were coached to play football like that? 
 

We played really well on the break. 

I'm not sure at what point in time people lost focus of what the idea of the game is.

Football is about scoring at one end and not conceding at the other end.

Doing lots of pointless passes does not make you a better football team because you get absolutely nothing for doing lots of passes.

They were better at keeping the ball than us, that is all.

 

[Ghost of Clough]

47 minutes ago, Gabby'sThighs said:

Is Elliot Bonds worth a shout? 23, central midfielder, English but plays for a minor, non-European national team? That's our vibe.

Only 2 goals all season and no assists. Seems to put the odd very good performance in (usually against the top sides) but poor most of the time. This is how he compares with other L1 mids:

[angieram]

Some of our defending last night was very impressive and should be appreciated in the same way as good offensive moves. Sadly, it seldom is.

[Premier ram]

3 massive well earned points, celebrations in the pub after the game well into the night, a full English breakfast and just setting out for the long trip back to Derby , well done to the players, management and every single one of our wonderful fans who made this trip and supported the lads , we all gave everything for our club and it is this level of support that makes away days so special , keep it up everyone , Derby County are on the way back

[DavesaRam]

Je suis tres satisfied after last night's show! Like many I was expecting a really tough match, but for a lot of the time we seemed quite comfortable, despite the possession stats, especially as the possession stats were our choice!

We started of playing in bursts and spurts, ie good link up play moving us forwards quickly and creating a threat, (the bursts) along with misplaced passes meaning that the passing stopped earlier than it should. It was quite a contrast with Exeter's swift triangles and movement, and they played some nice football through the transitions. I would love for us to do that, and believe we are capable of it, but last night went the different route of allowing them the ball. And we could do that because we weren't going to let them  break in on our goal that much. It seems a regular thing that we fear the opposition s striking prowess, only to find that they had left it in the changing rooms. Sometimes that is because the opposition strikers are poor, but how many times is it because we defend so well for the majority of our matches?

It was also encouraging that we didn't sit back as soon as Max had weaved his magic, although even for Warne/Derby County that would have been way to early. Instead we carried on with what had worked so far, which is a great development. and gradually our play blossomed into more control, yes even though we kept letting them have the ball. It was a bit like taking your kids to the park to play, but not letting them run too far away - "Here you are, Exeter. You can have the ball, but we're not going to let you score with it"!

And by and large it worked - apart from a semi-switch off from a throw in when they hit the post, and that missed sitter near the end, they didn't really get near to threatening us. 

Biggest shout out has to go the travelling fans. A really long round trip, and great support. We didn't hear too much on Rams TV, with some people reckoning we kept up the noise all the way through, others saying the opposite. It could be that the audio feed from Exeter TV was poor. But you did make a lot of noise booing the match officials off at half time. Well done from me!

There have been a few calls for the siege mentality of the Rooney relegation season, or from the Poison Dwarf promotion season. But I don't know whether you have noticed it, but in recent weeks when we are under pressure there are a ton of players showing a willingness to die for the club, throwing their bodies in the way to block shots and make tackles. There is a clear "Thou shalt not pass" attitude. It helps not spending ages sitting back defending a 1 - 0, but even last night when the closing stages was "attack v defence", Exeter hardly got a sniff of our goal, and when they got their chance, they sneezed! We are clearly doing something right.

And it helps having 3 in midfield, and being prepared to use them, a terrific development. Maybe Paul Warne had intended this type of play when he signed Fornah, although we still went hard left or right as soon as we were out of defence, but the change is demonstrated by Max Bird playing like the Max Bird we know, and have largely missed until now. He is going to have a great last 16 matches!

Interestingly, if we had won on Saturday and drawn last night, everyone would have been delighted with the 4 points. But we've still got the points. It is more a case of Jim Bowen on Bullseye saying "Look what you could have had"! 

So, bring it on, Stevenage, especially if we get match officials instead of police protection for Stevenage's bully boys from the reffing equivalent of bent coppers.

 

Edited February 14 by DavesaRam

[Caerphilly Ram]

8 minutes ago, angieram said:

Some of our defending last night was very impressive and should be appreciated in the same way as good offensive moves. Sadly, it seldom is.

Oi, I definitely said maybe one thing one time about it!

I agree, last night there was a real determination amongst the team, one shot they had came from a similar situation/area of the pitch down the right hand side to the equaliser on Saturday, it was dealt with then Hourihane and Elder went nuts. Lots of organisation, talking, supporting one another, doubling up, covering, tackling, blocking, it was great to watch. 

[Ram-Alf]

2 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I guess the point is, we weren't playing a more "streetwise" team. 

Then I guess if we played a more "streetwise team" the tactics would/could have been different, You have the opposition watched, You come back with a plan, You put that plan in place...except when you play STFC at home, It looks as the coaches are beginning to learn what football is all about.

[angieram]

On the crowd noise, we were split into three sections, seated (yes 😲) on the side beneath the radio Derby commentary, then two separate standing areas behind the goal, one set slightly in front of the other.

Hence there were different chants starting in each section and not necessarily being picked up by the other areas. 

There was plenty of noise but it was a bit chaotic.