Melbourne is quite right and a salutary lesson to some of the more over-excitable happy clappers amongst us

'This smile thing worries me, Clinton and Blair smiled a lot and look how they are ridiculed nowadays.'

Whereas May, Johnson and Mogg are perfectly trustworthy ?

'So far we have beaten the current 19th, 21st, 23rd and 24th placed teams, been beaten by the 16th and spanked by the current leaders.'

Well spotted, that man

We should not have lost to Millwall, worth at least a draw, their first goal was a joke. We didn't actually play too badly against Leeds, and had spells where we controlled the game. Remember we had just lost a key player in defence just before that game. Plenty to be optimistic about.

My son saw the Millwall game and said their first goal was pure fluke and Derby had 2 penalties and a goal turned down. If we had won - or even drawn that game - we would be flying really high instead of just high. The Leeds game I expected us to lose. A team of strangers v a well established and well managed side.
I am really impressed by the fact that Frank Lampard's aura of greatness has improved the attitude of ALL of our players and he has a very skilled pool of talent to draw on. I love the fact that he loves Mason Bennett. Under his and Jody Morris's tutelage he will become a very valuable player. Very strong, quick and determined and still young. The same will be true of Josefzoon and Mason Mount, Bogle and other youngsters. We are in for some better times. Stoke did us a real favour in paying us to take GR away. And Mel Morris was shrewd in his decisions since then.

We have been without our captain who most fans think is our best defender, and also without our best midfielder or at least our best passer. Combine that with the fact that more than half the team are new players, most of them very inexperienced, and there is much to be optimistic about. It would be logical to expect that as the team settles in and the players get used to each other and Lampard's style that we will improve as the season progresses.

comment by 🏁AnglianRam 🏁 (U17428)
posted 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
'This smile thing worries me, Clinton and Blair smiled a lot and look how they are ridiculed nowadays.'

Whereas May, Johnson and Mogg are perfectly trustworthy ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+1 Ang.

Add the smiling assassin Hammond to that list as well. I've never forgot how pathetic he was when interviewed regarding Bombardier losing-out to Seimens for the Thameslink job when he was Transport Secretary.

That would never have happened in France, they would have just got a French train company to build it, end of story.

All this brought about by another Tory John Major privatising the railways in the first place - our ability to manufacture railway locos and rolling stock was virtually wiped-out by this decision.

Interesting read about it here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/30/bombardier-thameslink-contract

Only problem we have is that HM's opposition is just as disorganised as the bloody government.

Good job we've got Frankie

Wideboy does make a good point but beating the sides we should be beating is crucial to doing well.
I recall last year we lost to Burton, Sunderland and Reading. I'm sure there were others. It has been a regular feature of a Derby County season.
We have generally done well against top teams but struggled to dispatch the less strong outfits.

It's all good, don't worry, be happy.

Rameses, I agree, you have to beat those at the bottom as well as those around you to succeed.

Out of interest I looked at our stats against the bottom six in the 2013/2014 season (picked at random) when we finished third.

Out if the 12 games against these, (in reverse order, Yeovil, Barnsley, Donny, Brum, Blackpool & Millwall), we recorded the following results:

W 9
D 2 (both against Brum)
L 1 (0-1 at home to Millwall)

So the Derby Way did not apply that season at least!

Great website here for any footie stats:

https://www.11v11.com/teams/derby-county/

comment by Wideboy_of_melbourne (U2847)
posted 10 hours, 50 minutes ago

So far we have beaten the current 19th, 21st, 23rd and 24th placed teams, been beaten by the 16th and spanked by the current leaders.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

At this early stage of the season the league positions don't tell the full story as one win can catapult you up several places, nevertheless there is no arguing what you say is correct WoM.

But just for fun, I have calculated where those four team would be had they beat us and that would be (approx. due to GD errors) 13th, 15th, 16th and 21st, (with us 24th).

I too did that Scouse. But remember to take away the first number you thought of, then divide by 3.

Also allow for windage, and the curvature of the earth.

I havn't won the prediction league three years running for nothing you know.

comment by ScouseRam (U9675)
posted about 3 hours ago
Rameses, I agree, you have to beat those at the bottom as well as those around you to succeed.

Out of interest I looked at our stats against the bottom six in the 2013/2014 season (picked at random) when we finished third.

Out if the 12 games against these, (in reverse order, Yeovil, Barnsley, Donny, Brum, Blackpool & Millwall), we recorded the following results:

W 9
D 2 (both against Brum)
L 1 (0-1 at home to Millwall)

So the Derby Way did not apply that season at least!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scouse - Rameses theory "generally" hasn't applied at all - our record each season over the last 10 years shows we normally pick up more points per game against the bottom 6 than we do against teams who finish 13-18th with the trend carrying on up the table.

There are occasional blips and, of course, you can only really look at the end of season stats.

Our issue has been, when push comes to shove, that we have failed to win the really crucial games against the teams we have been in direct competition with for the play off or promotion places.

I wont call them 6 pointers as that's not PC any more, but you know the games I mean

"our record each season over the last 10 years shows we normally pick up more points per game against the bottom 6 than we do against teams who finish 13-18th with the trend carrying on up the table."

Is this actually the case? I demand to see the evidence.

Well spank my botty for generalising. I should have known better than to offer a theory and expect it not to be challenged.
It just felt that way, especially last season when only Wolves and Fulham out of last years top six had a better points hall against us.
We got 21 points off last season’s bottom 6 and 18 off last years top 7. I’ve included Preston as we finished 6th and obviously didn’t play ourselves.
So not a vast difference between the two.

Fair enough. But do bear in mind that had we played ourselves we would probably have lost so it all equals out!

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 29 minutes ago
"our record each season over the last 10 years shows we normally pick up more points per game against the bottom 6 than we do against teams who finish 13-18th with the trend carrying on up the table."

Is this actually the case? I demand to see the evidence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ask Ang. It's his turn to be Statto.

ok>

Quite so Heb.

We’d be singing “Can we play us every week”

Also Heb who won if we lost in a game against ourselves?
This forum sometimes throws up the most excellent conundrums.

Rameses. He understands how it is........

'Ask Ang. It's his turn to be Statto.'

No chance. I don't have as much spare time as you, Scouse !

comment by 🏁AnglianRam 🏁 (U17428)
posted 16 minutes ago
'Ask Ang. It's his turn to be Statto.'

No chance. I don't have as much spare time as you, Scouse !
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought you were "semi-retired"?

comment by ScouseRam (U9675)
posted about an hour ago
comment by 🏁AnglianRam 🏁 (U17428)
posted 16 minutes ago
'Ask Ang. It's his turn to be Statto.'

No chance. I don't have as much spare time as you, Scouse !
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought you were "semi-retired"?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dun't feel like it !

I thought you were employed ?

You missed the word "gainfully" I think?

I'll tell you what, after being in business on my own for 23 years this month, I have never had so much hassle getting customers to pay their bills as I have in the last six months!

I'm like a bleedin' credit union.