Vs Middlesbrough (H) Match Thread

[Srg]

Will there be a player ratings thread this year?

[Nuwtfly]

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

[Srg]

6 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

We were playing James Collins up front, are still 3 or 4 players short, have an entirely new midfield and were playing one of stronger teams in the league. You rather play as open as we did at Blackburn?

We do have one of the worst 3 squads in the league. It’s been assembled with nuts, bolts, a curly wurly and hopes and dreams. 

Edited August 18 by Srg

[Tamworthram]

13 hours ago, Poynton ram said:

Biggest attendance in the championship today, over the season can only see Leeds and Sunderland higher. Any idea how long Cash will be out for as Warne suggested if it is concussion can be up to 3 weeks?

 

Just to pee on your parade a little, there was only one club (Sheffield United) playing at home yesterday that has a stadium big enough to to accommodate the numbers that were at PP yesterday. I haven’t worked it out but I reckon we wouldn’t have been in the top 6 if you’d measured it on crowd as a percentage of total capacity.

Nether the less, a good crowd and a great atmosphere. Considering the numbers they brought and the way they dominated most of the game, I thought the Boro fans would have made more noise for longer periods. I guess as the game wore on though, the depressing thought of having to return to Middlesbrough started to have an effect. 😀

[derbydaz22]

7 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

Let’s just see how it goes with a few more signings we need a number 9 and a CB both with pace for sure and I won’t be impressed if we set up like that at home to Preston etc but some positive signs yesterday. 

[Srg]

Just now, derbydaz22 said:

Let’s just see how it goes with a few more signings we need a number 9 and a CB both with pace for sure and I won’t be impressed if we set up like that at home to Preston etc but some positive signs yesterday. 

Got to start somewhere. Get on the board, get a little confidence we can compete and grow into the season. We’d all love to be more expansive but the grit and determination on show will stand us in good stead. 

[angieram]

And we weren't playing that way before we scored - we had a few other interesting attacks, came to not much due to lack of fire-power.

Then we sank in, yet came out again more attacking at start of second half before we quickly sank in again.

That suggests to me it's more an instinctive reaction from the players than instructions from Warne. I bet he said to the players what the old bloke behind me said - you can't play like this for another 45 minutes and expect to win the game!

Granted, the longer we held on, the more we made substitutes to hold on to what we'd got, but who wouldn't under those circumstances? 

The number of times I've sat at Pride Park and seen teams do that to us. It felt quite satisfying to get our own back - especially on Middlesbrough!

[derbydaz22]

2 minutes ago, Srg said:

Got to start somewhere. Get on the board, get a little confidence we can compete and grow into the season. We’d all love to be more expansive but the grit and determination on show will stand us in good stead. 

Certainly can’t fault the effort and Derby fans will always get behind that.

[Dimmu]

Always good to win a six-pointer against another automatic promotion rival, right?

 

[Mucker1884]

7 hours ago, B4’s Sister said:

He would have loved it. I think it was a good test for the first home match. I was up on my feet for the last five minutes of the match, as I’m sure Dan would have been. Well deserved win. I’m glad I wore the purple goalie shirt today. Best performance I’ve seen from Vickers. 

One man's "Purple" is another man's "Dark Pink".

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.  c.1987.  Probably.

 

[BaianoPOTY98]

1 hour ago, Srg said:

Will there be a player ratings thread this year?

Is Ellafella not around?🤷‍♂️

[Tamworthram]

14 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

Your fears may prove to be justified but let’s not go all doom and gloom after just one home game that we won (albeit with our backs against the wall but against arguably one of the best teams in the league) and one away game that we were very much in (and in the ascendancy after a shaky start) until we inexplicably pressed the self destruct button.

[angieram]

What a joyous photo that is.

 

[Ambitious]

16 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

We went to Blackburn and had more possession than them, more passes than them in the opponents half and more touches in the box. This was a different game, the clean sheet and a defensively clean game was needed after going 1-0 up, especially. 

The work done off the ball, defensively was huge and got the win. We don’t have a lot of quality within the squad in comparison to teams at the top of this level, but we do have a manager who knows how to work with what he has and achieve. If we don’t have any more investment forthcoming between now and the end of the window, we need to make sure we can win games by hook or by crook!

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

28 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

Completely agree. I enjoyed the win yesterday but wins like that will be rarer than hens teeth if we try this every week.

[RamInSweden]

23 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

To be fair we played like that last season too. We didn’t outplay many teams at all, even the bottom ones, despite having far better players. If we have the players, we will win ganes regardless of how we play. If we lose games this season it won’t be down to how we play, it will be down the the fact our team is poor compared to most of the league.

[IlsonDerby]

I think Warne said in his interview ‘we won’t play like this every match but some games require it’ or something along those lines 

[BaianoPOTY98]

22 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

I agree to a point but a lot of reasons behind yesterday’s performance; still 4 or 5 players short of where we want to be, especially the No.9 altho Collo worked his socks off, lost 2 of the back four after 25 mins, midfield 3 still getting used to each other and Boro a very strong quick team who will be in the mix at the end of the year. I thought we could take a lot of positives from yesterday, but yes still a lot of room for improvement.

[MACKWORTHRAM]

22 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

Did you listen to Warne yesterday? That's not the way we will play most games and he wanted more on the counter attack. Fatigue kicks in and you don't use the ball as well.

We were playing against a team yesterday that are better than us and will be right up there next season and tactically we got it spot on. The only big chance they had they were offside.

Watford away next Saturday might be the same (they've scored 11 goals in 3 games)

Our next 2 home games are Bristol City and Cardiff. I'd be absolutely amazed if we played like that in those games, infact I think we'll be on the front foot.

Don't underestimate how big of a win that is. If we'd lost that with another hard away game next which we could easily lose, all of a sudden you're 3 games and haven't won. The longer that goes on the harder it gets.

Getting a win at home against a top 6 side will show that team if they can beat them they can beat anyone in this league at home.

If we'd watch Oxford or Portsmouth do that to Boro and win we'd have nothing but praise for them and say that's what we need to do, look how solid they are etc.

I said it on another thread. Real Madrid went to Man City and did the same. Real had 8 shots and Man City had 33 and 70% possession. Ended up 1-1 but Madrid were 1-0 for a long period.

Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do to get a result.

I was buzzing yesterday about everything, yes it would have been nice to hit them on the counter. But it showed me that we knew exactly what we were doing and completely nullified Boro's threat forcing them into long range shots or getting it out wide to cross it straight into Vickers hands.

 

[FlyBritishMidland]

16 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

Phenomenal effort from all involved to get the win today, those really are 3 absolutely massive points - getting that first win of the season is absolutely vital for confidence when you’re a newly promoted side. Everyone at the club needed that after how the summer has gone so far.

Did we deserve to win? Probably not on paper. But for sheer work rate and battle to see the game out, I think we did. Our defending was outstanding - to a man everyone did their jobs and remained resolute. Against teams like Middlesbrough, who have significantly greater funds than us, that sort of shithousing performance is exactly what we need. Well done to Paul Warne, he got it spot on today.

Special mention to the entire midfield, who I thought were all excellent. We’ve really strengthened that area from being our weakest last season to now being our strongest.

Not sure my body can take too many games that are that stressful, but I think we may be in for a few more! Hopefully we can show more control and attacking threat against teams who don’t have the resources and quality Middlesbrough have, but I have to say I feel a lot more confident about our chances this season having seen that performance. We were much less naive than we were against Blackburn, and much more cute tactically. Fantastic atmosphere too. Well done all!

 

Spot on summary.  I thought we had excellent game management, something we didn’t always have last season.  Warne has talked about high press but yesterday we were comfortable in letting them have the ball until they got in our half.  Everyone knew their jobs and did them well.  Good point about the midfield, it looks so much more mobile and we still had good options like Adams and Thompson off the bench.

Bradley was superb when he came on and make few important blocks.  Other than the offside goal, they never got through and we kept them to long range shots.

We’ll have a few games like that this season against teams like Burnley, Norwich, Leeds, etc who are going to be in and around the top 6.  We showed we can play in different ways.