Derby County 2 - 0 Cheltenham Town

comment by Desicafu (U8481)
posted about 2 hours ago
Not sure if I feel reassured after reading those last two posts!

At the half way stage I looked at what points were accumulated by the teams in the past to go up automatically and established we can only afford to lose two more games due to our poor start. We've reached that point now so can't really afford any more loses if we're to chase down Plymouth and get our slim automatic promotion chances back on track .I think Sheff Weds are clear, have a strong squad and minus an injury crisis should go up as champions.

We really have to improve our away record and from the sounds of current matches played our performances need to go up a few notches too. We've managed a total of 5 wins & 6 draws away from home which isn't a great record (let's put the subject of creating a makeshift team in record time to one side). Plymouth have only lost once at home so it's certainly a fortress for them and will be an incredibly difficult place to go and get the win. How do we set up given our current struggles?

We've only managed to score 18 times away from home and only 12 teams out of 24 have a weaker Goals For than us.

We've got Shrews next at home and they're on a reasonably good run with only 2 loses in 10 since Jan. Here's hoping we can grind out the results but the next two games could really prove to put a spanner in things. I certainly hope not.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s be honest with the state of play before the season kicked off most sensible fans would have been over the moon to be in play off contention. However, because they’ve exceeded expectations, a lot more fans are now thinking we should be serious contenders for autos. The reality is, we are not. Whatever happens this season, the future is long bright.

comment by KentuckyRam (U7775)
posted less than a minute ago
comment by Desicafu (U8481)
posted about 2 hours ago
Not sure if I feel reassured after reading those last two posts!

At the half way stage I looked at what points were accumulated by the teams in the past to go up automatically and established we can only afford to lose two more games due to our poor start. We've reached that point now so can't really afford any more loses if we're to chase down Plymouth and get our slim automatic promotion chances back on track .I think Sheff Weds are clear, have a strong squad and minus an injury crisis should go up as champions.

We really have to improve our away record and from the sounds of current matches played our performances need to go up a few notches too. We've managed a total of 5 wins & 6 draws away from home which isn't a great record (let's put the subject of creating a makeshift team in record time to one side). Plymouth have only lost once at home so it's certainly a fortress for them and will be an incredibly difficult place to go and get the win. How do we set up given our current struggles?

We've only managed to score 18 times away from home and only 12 teams out of 24 have a weaker Goals For than us.

We've got Shrews next at home and they're on a reasonably good run with only 2 loses in 10 since Jan. Here's hoping we can grind out the results but the next two games could really prove to put a spanner in things. I certainly hope not.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s be honest with the state of play before the season kicked off most sensible fans would have been over the moon to be in play off contention. However, because they’ve exceeded expectations, a lot more fans are now thinking we should be serious contenders for autos. The reality is, we are not. Whatever happens this season, the future is long bright.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking* stupid autocorrect..

I think we should all stop blaming autocorrect and take responsibility for our own mishtakes.

A more conservative side last night. Our free scoring over the good run perhaps led to complacency in defence. The Barnsley result seems to have exorcised that demon.

I was convinced that the Barnsley result had meant that autos were out of the question but Plymouth had a bigger drubbing than us on Saturday from a side not as good as Barnsley, so there may be a chance that Plymouth will do an impression of us in 2015. Just keep winning our home games and defend better away from home and we may still do it.

Ipswich appear to be like Reading were last season. Just as we are about to overtake them either we or they have a result which scuttles our chances.

There's hope. Plymouth are at home to Charlton on Saturday so if we beat Shrewsbury we are likely to go to Home Park 8 points behind them and a win would be likely to be essential to have a chance of overhauling them. I just don't think we are solid and consistent enough to relentlessly grind out the results required but obviously I hope I'm wrong. If we did beat Plymouth it might just rekindle the self-belief we had in our long unbeaten run but which for now seems to have gone missing.

How ironic that with the issue of the White Paper on footie governance both Reading and Brum are now facing further points deductions and Sarfend are facing liquidation!

Just a word for the ref. She got virtually everything right and in a very unfussy manner. In fact you hardly noticed her which is always a good thing. Could it be we need more women refs?

comment by Chicagoram (U22653)
posted 33 minutes ago
Just a word for the ref. She got virtually everything right and in a very unfussy manner. In fact you hardly noticed her which is always a good thing. Could it be we need more women refs?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want a job doing, ask a .......

I thought she did well but that she let quite a lot go. In a more intense game I felt that she might have lost control. I thought it was quite an an easy game to ref though of course you could say she takes some credit for making it that way. I don't think you can generalise too much about men vs women on one individual performance. She ought to have been stricter with their keeper for his excessive delays in taking goal kicks. I thought the best ref we have had this season was quite recently, might have been the Charlton game. We were being a bit blatant about standing next to the ball to prevent quick free-kicks and the ref called Forsyth to talk to him as the captain to say he wasn't going to tolerate it. That approach is better for me than brandishing yellow cards. I think the female linesman we have had has been very good though in many ways I prefer it when they are crap so I can fling a bit of invective in their direction.

Posh looking to start legal action against Reading in a similar spat to Derby Vs Wycombe.

( Should we not look to start legal action too Vs Reading? Kidding)