Back from the game - Derby

[bobbybottler]

Funny one really, having been down twice I'm pleased to get a draw in the end but we've not seen us dominate a match like that for a while, certainly not this season, and really, we should have won.

This is good though, we've clearly improved since the Watford / Barnsley period, and I'm a lot happier about the short term.

Kudos to ALF but Jem MOTM for me - always available, and making things tick. Best bit of the match was a tango falling over next to us.

[loyalroyal4life]

Did well to get a draw in the end but considering our dominance disappointed not take 3 points as well as let in 2 goals.

Thought Mills looked weak throughout the game, Alf took both his goals well and was unlucky not to have had a hattrick.

Looking forward to Saturday hoping we can put on a show for the cameras!

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Thought we played great tonight - best performance I've seen this season. Like I said on the other thread we are close to dishing out a real tonking to someone soon.

Gorkss, Le Fondre & Karacan were the stand out players for me tonight. Karacan has to keep his place. Think him & Legs work better as a pair.

[floyd__streete]

+1 to most of Bob Bottler's post.

Tbh, we're a midtable side on the evidence of our defending for the first goal and - despite Alfie's sharpness in front of goal - you wonder where else a steady supply of goals might come from because Church has all the killer instinct of Winnie the Pooh. HRK looks to be shaping up to fill next year's black hole. Mills has absolutely no composure.

Happy enough with a decent point, happy enough with the fighting spirit which has grown in spades since the Watford debacle, happy enough with 14th place with this team and not absolutely ruling out BMc squeezing a wee bit more out of them.

[Focher]

+1 to most of Bob Bottler's post.

Tbh, we're a midtable side on the evidence of our defending for the first goal and - despite Alfie's sharpness in front of goal - you wonder where else a steady supply of goals might come from because Church has all the killer instinct of Winnie the Pooh. HRK looks to be shaping up to fill next year's black hole. Mills has absolutely no composure.

Happy enough with a decent point, happy enough with the fighting spirit which has grown in spades since the Watford debacle, happy enough with 14th place with this team and not absolutely ruling out BMc squeezing a wee bit more out of them.

yet again the RFC voice of positivity

[grey_squirrel]

2 points lost.

Mills is a liability. Bring back Harte for the next one.

Legs and Karacan better. Got stuck in. More creative.

Thought we were trying to be too much like Arsenal (especially in the First) and tried to walk it in too often, but yet, pleasing to see some nice quality inter-changes in and around their box.

HRK is going rapidly downhill.

ALFie is going to be a RFC legend if he keeps at this.

Promising signs for optimism, but this game should have been put to bed by half time. They were poor.

[FiNeRaIn]

He's right though, we concede goals for fun and really struggle to create most of the time. Oh and can we PLEASE get harte back in the team....Mills is really, really poor. Set pieces are terrible , both goals conceded were his side and his passing and awareness 90% of the time is terrible.

Positives were Alfie's goals, looks a very good buy.

[floyd__streete]

HRK is going rapidly downhill.

Reckon? He adds more than Captain Marvel McAnuff these days - IIRC his cross for the 2nd equaliser tonight?

Otherwise, agree with the rest of your post.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

The 2nd goal was awful but finding it hard to be anything but positive after that. Each time they went behind they just went straight down the other end & equalised. The work ethic & team spirit is immense. You can see we are getting better by the game & we played some nice stuff on the floor tonight.

We have a great chance of beating Saints on Sat.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

harte..Mills

Mills is playing because Harte has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that he is so far past it, he couldn't run to save his life.
If you believe we have a problem at left back, then Harte is not the answer to that problem.
This means we have to go in to the transfer market.

You don't cure cancer by getting Aids.

Ha ha. Shame we can't bring on Harte for set pieces & then take him off again straight after!

[CayeneMatt]

Mills is a liability. Harte needs to come back in asap, or we need someone else.

Mills has energy and a half decent dead ball, but his positional play is terrible, my 8 year old can read the game better, and his passing is shocking. Unless of course he's intending to over hit, under hit or pass the ball out of play in which case he's doing a top job.

In fact, if I was Harte, I'd be seriously worried because if your only competition is playing that sh!t and you're still not getting a game, then I'd be worried.

[loyalroyal4life]

both mills and harte are poor, would test out cummings on left with griff at right back

['lista]

Derby Fans (pointing at the scoreboard showing tonight's mediocre attendance): "What the oxf*rd hell is that?"

Reading Fans (pretending to misunderstand the question): "Big oxf*rd telly, it's just a big oxf*rd telly"

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Kudos to BM in my opinion. He is squeezing every last drop out of that squad & we are playing some good stuff. Cheer up everybody we are right in the mix.

[grey_squirrel]

Mills brings absolutely nothing to our game. Was completely at fault for their second (and childishly tried to blame the Lino) and all he seems to do is lump the ball aimlessly forward when he has it.

Hmmmm, a bit like the first incarnation of Cummings to be fair.

Think McD will need and want a bit of composure and experience at the back for the Scummers game, so although Harte is probably past his sell by date, would be a better all round option, so long if McD gets Jobi/HRK to act more as wing backs to cover him.

[floyd__streete]

Re: Mills - as much as there is a huge question mark over him, I would add that 2 years ago Cummings looked just as bad, if not worse. These days he looks more than half decent at right back and performed very well again today. Guess what I am saying is that BMc seems to have a habit of getting the best out of players - Kebe's best form has come under BMc, for instance.

[grey_squirrel]

Derby Fans (pointing at the scoreboard showing tonight's mediocre attendance): "What the oxf*rd hell is that?"

Reading Fans (pretending to misunderstand the question): "Big oxf*rd telly, it's just a big oxf*rd telly"

What was the attendance? Did look pretty poor.

Shame our retort was cut short with them getting their second (gift)

['lista]

15k ish

[andrew1957]

And there was me thinking that Mills had quite a good game tonight - apart from being muscled off the ball too easily for their second goal. He adds a lot more than Harte in an attacking sense - apart obviously from free kicks and he is also better defensively much of the time. Ian Harte is very skilful but I think a lot of you have forgotten that he is very slow.............

Derby were well organised and you can see why they are near the top this season. It was encouraging, therefore, that we totally dominated the game and restricted them to 1 shot on target according to the stats (which is confusing as I thought they scored twice). It was nearly a perfect away performance by them.

I thought all our players did ok. Church had a good night and is forming a good partnership with the excellent ALF. ALF has really surprised me. I was expecting a lazy goal hanger and he is far from that and is now beginning to look more PL than League 2 which is fantastic. A lot of teams will be kicking themselves for not taking the £350K risk with him. Well done to Brian and Nicky for doing so.

Legs looks so much better now and Karacan always gives 100% as far as I am concerned and should always be one of the first names on the team sheet. HRK had a quiet game but a fantastic cross for the second. Cannot make my mind up about Kebe. He looked interested at times and less so at others. If he won't sign a contract we should try to get something for him in January IMO.

The defence did ok generally and were very unlucky to concede two from one (or maybe two) shots on target.

All in all a bit frustrating as we deserved a win, but once again the team spirit really shone through as we came back well twice from behind.

[Allyh84]

Church looks 100x the player he was before with Alf. He's done a lot better this season, but imo he'll never score more than 15 in a Championship season.

Things are ticking along nicely though and our heads never dropped.