Matchday Thread: Derby v Lincoln

[macstheman]

Mmm. Not good!

[macstheman]

Bolton 3 up, Wycombe winning, Barnsley winning!!

[macstheman]

1 - 1 Hourihane.
The red card may save the day!

[triz]

I know warne likes this formation but can we please go back to the 433 that we were smashing the league with. How many games do we have to be **** and drop points before we go back to what was working?

[Andy_Faber]

Shocking first half, the first two minutes was Sunday League standard. Lincoln were well up for it and we came 2nd too often

[SithHappens]

Very frustrating night, we were definitely misfiring but Lincoln held a really good shape and looked good through diamond on the break.

Their goal was offside, but so was ours, our 'winner' probably not offside.

The officials were simply appalling, how many times the ref beckoned for them to speed up with goal kicks and thrown ins but did nothing, a few yellows early on would have helped sort it. The blatant time wasting from Lincoln was shocking too and the ref was too inept to handle it.

People have said the sending off was wrong but for me definately a second yellow, goes in studs up and misses the ball completely, yeah Didzy made a meal of it but it wasnt a harsh yellow.

Looks like play offs now but thats fine, we just need to get over the little blip. On to Charlton, lets put on a better show.

[MadAmster]

Although we eventually finished ahead in the stats, I thought Lincoln played very well. Caused us problems to which we added with some poor failed clearances and passes. One attempted pass saw them score their first. Cash had his worst game of the season. Roberts and Smith weren't at their normal levels. Didzy has looked, in the last 2 games like he's believing the publicity and he's trying too many fancy bits. Needs to get back to basics.

If they hadn't lost a player, we may well not have scored the equaliser, IMO.

The last 2 games have, IMO, shown how much we are missing Bird.

If we don't improve, top 6 may slip away.

Their goal. I thought at first it wasn't offside. This was based om my knowledge and a couple of PL goals this season that stood. Notably the Salah goal where he was in an offside position when the cross came in but the centre half went for the ball and it grazed his head and fell to Salah who put it away. Surely the rebound off Wildsmith was the start of the next phase of play and Shodipo wasn't offside, I thought.... I'd forgotten that this doesn't count when it's from a "deliberate" save. Shodipo was definitely offside because of the rebound being a deliberate save by Wildsmith.

Hourihane was offside. Only just but offside. No opinion on the Didzy "goal" as the video didn't show his position when the cross was sent in.

[swaledale]

I know warne likes this formation but can we please go back to the 433 that we were smashing the league with. How many games do we have to be **** and drop points before we go back to what was working?

I am reluctant to slate the guy because he has done much better than we expected, but I was surprised that he picked the same team and Ok he made changes, but I thought White would cover for Bird and he hasn't started him yet. All in all we need to shape up quickly or even a play off place may be in danger. Not a chance of top 2 now, though I have never thought there was.

[ramAnag]

It’s ‘don’t panic Mr. Mainwaring’ time. We’re having a wobble but all that’s happened is a narrow away loss and two dropped points at home.
Surprised that we haven’t used White yet but I don’t think it’s all down to Bird’s injury...after all we scored five in the first match without him.
As mac says...look at Bolton’s form since we beat them. It’ll come right...need to get back on track on Saturday...but in Warne we trust.

[macstheman]

As can happen too many players have seen their performance levels drop off. When you have a limited squad in terms of depth across the board then a small levelling down in performance becomes significant. It can be said that to a degree we have performed near our maximum for an extended period and that a spell of levelling down was inevitable.
At the start of the season and even taking into account our excellent recruitment under almost impossible circumstances (the EFL restrictions) few if any of us expected a genuine and strong promotion push. Instead, a mid-table or upper mid-table result being the best outcome that most expected. The squad assembled showed an over reliance of young inexperienced players with a few ageing pros BUT with a significant lack of experienced mid to upper twenty year olds. Warne himself commented on this imbalance and imo it was inevitable that this imbalance would have a long term effect.
Whether this is a mini wobble or something more remains to be seen but, either way, what has been achieved since the summer is exceptional. If we make the play-offs it will be a superb achievement, if not, the foundations for the future are looking very solid!