I've been quiet on here as it's been a very traumatic week in my life. I've left Australia after my one year visa expired, aged 31 and despite doing my 88 day farm work to get the second year visa, due to being 31 and not 30 means I'm not eligible to do this. My partner Rachel is still in Sydney ( 24 ) and she's hoping to get sponsored with her company. In the mean time, I'm moving to South Korea tomorrow to teach children English. We're pretty devastated to be living apart from one another however things all pan out in the end. Time will tell! I always felt I needed to give TEFL another go after having a crook agent in Thailand who never paid me in full. We'll see! Hopefully we'll be reunited shortly.... For the Sheff Weds game, we were along with her parents on a bus for a trip to the blue mountains. When Nuhiu scored it pretty much summed up my week. Wasn't happy. I didn't have a positive feeling about Villa due to Dids being injured and McCarthy likely in my view to rotate. I wish I hadn't guessed the scoreline is fair to say.... watched the highlights for both though. SHOULD have beaten Wendy and Loovens - jesus that's a sick 'tackle' to say the least. Why the hell our goal at Villa was wiped off I don't fully understand either.... when your luck is down. I think if that had have stood, we wouldn't have lost. Onto Derby..... This is the game in hand myself and other positive folk have been beating the drum about. However, with us sadly SIX off the play offs, and with a considerably worse goal difference, to me this is critical we find a way to collect three points. If we lose, 8 off with a worse goal difference, 19 played............ looks a MASSIVE ask and we'd require 2 of the top 6 to utterly implode. Derby just smashed Boro 3-0 at the Riverside - no mean fete that! As for line up, is it Huws time? Will Spence resume at RB inplace if Iorfa, who didn't exactly do the basics right at Villa.......... You'd imagine Celina will be back in. The only positive for me is we have a superb record on Derby's patch in recent years. Cannot recall our last loss there. Sod it, 2-1 town.
Hiya Westy, sorry to hear you're having a tough time and hope it works out the way you want it to, as for football our usually fairly solid defence of the past seems to have sprung a leak, and our midfield is as consistently useless as ever, although I'm hoping this will improve as long term injured players return. As for Derby this is a tough ask with the form they've hit and we will do well to get anything out of this one.
Hey Westy, what a bummer for you both, so you still get your pleasures on here, mad fool! Things will work out and knowing you a bit, travel and adventures soon mould a partnership if that's the way its meant to be. I taught TEFL for several years, mostly Malaysia, Indonesia and Fiji! Teaching that does restore one's faith in life, unless you are employed by a crook! Your are right, our confidence has taken a hit with a series of bad luck incidents. Derby is not the fixture we need right now, but if we go at them, and our little talent shines and no give-aways, we could nick a point! But honestly, I dont think so! My heart says 2-1 Town, my head 2-0 Rams.
I'm hopeful Mick will stick Connolly at Right Back (if not then give it to Spence) and we see Huws start the game (probably to be replaced late on by Bish) Bart Connolly | Chambo | Webster | Jonas Ward | Skuse | Huws Waghorn | Garner | Celina I think we'll get something out of this, purely on the basis that we don't often lose 2 on the spin and Derby for all their money spent in the past couple of years are as up and down as us this season. 1-1 and another good performance from Bart who keeps us in it.
I admire everyone's optimism, but i honestly think we'll get mauled in this one. I can see a 5-1 drubbing. Our defence is so poor, it'll take a lot to get anything out of this game. Derby, for me, will finally fulfill their potential, and i think will be top two come May.
Sorry to hear that Westy, hopefully the situation sorts itself out and you can both make it work. As for the Derby match, I think we'll lose it. While I admire the optimism on here, we are developing a reputation for this division's flat track bullies. While we are comfortable scraping victories against the weaker teams, we come undone when up against a side that can string more than several passes together and possesses a will to attack. Derby can be inconsistent, but they possess more than enough firepower to cause problems for our erratic and error-prone back line. McCarthy's cautious, safety-first line-up and brand of football can produce credible draws and narrow wins away from home, but this season that knack appears to have deserted us against the Championship big names. Derby's 3-0 demolition of Middlesbrough, another side with realistic designs on promotion, will ensure they're fired up and confident for this one at their ground under the floodlights. Expect our poor form to continue as we slip into mid-table and Mick's managerial reign here goes out with a whimper. My prediction is a 2-1 Derby victory with a slightly above average performance from ourselves.
I fear you may be right stretchy. Another defeat and we will descend into bottom 6 and no hiding place. I just dont understand why our defence is so unsure and error prone. Thought that was the one aspect of the game MM got right.
Our defence is so poor, because i don't think we have played with the same back 4/5 for more than two games on the spin. He needs to work our which is his best defence, and stick with it. Chop and change the midfield and forward line, but not your defence. We have too many jack of all trades in our team, most can cover a number of positions, but are starting to lose sight of their main job.
Another issue with the defence is that while our attack and midfield areas were given some investment and led to decent additions, McCarthy overlooked improving most of our defence, despite the loss of Berra and other squad players. Our defensive additions all focused on the right-back spot, which was understandable given our long-term weakness there, however, of the three right backs brought in, Spence has been fairly decent but defensively suspect, Iorfa has been awful, and Connolly, who may well be our most solid right back, has been repackaged as a central midfielder in another example of McCarthy's 'square pegs in round holes' managerial thinking. Emmanuel, who could potentially be viewed as our right-back messiah in more desirable circumstances, has been frozen out of Rotherham's first team in League One, so presumably is not ready for the step up. Injuries affected our defensive performances at the start of the season, where we were relatively fortunate in winning games, but now the focus is on McCarthy's back line and, approaching the mid-way point of the season, it looks pretty average. Knudsen and Spence are limited full-backs, while our second choices Iorfa and Kenlock seem incapable of defending well for an entire 90 minutes. Kenlock gets the benefit of the doubt for being young and hopefully still learning, but Iorfa has been shocking despite some early signs of encouragement. As for the centre backs, Webster is a technically competent and classy defender who, despite struggling in the games immediately after his injury comeback, appears to be coming back to form despite the issues around him. Chambers is a decent defender, but his passing ability appears to solely consist of hopeful long punts up the field and he looks uncomfortable on the ball, undermining the supposed new philosophy of playing the ball out from the back. Tommy Smith is somebody who I feel gets a bit of pass from some supporters because of his long association at the club and loyal service. But maybe the reason he's been here so long is because he is distinctly average and our rivals don't see him as a particularly decent addition to their defensive ranks? Ideally in the next transfer window, I'd like to see an experienced, solid centre-back brought in, Iorfa returned to Wolves, and maybe another right-back brought in. Spence can be retained but if we're not going to play Connolly in his natural position, as we have an abundance of options in central midfield, then we could do with him off the wage bill too.
|'ve just checked all past results, and am flabbergasted to see that Derby have not beaten us at their ground since November 2006. We have won 6 and drawn 3 of the last 9 fixtures at Pride park. Totally amazed. Still, records are there to be broken.
Chin up Westy, things will work out Me and my wife had a long distance relationship at the beginning and I've been with her 17 years now If Tommy is fit I can see Mick going for a back three again against Derby. Chambers has been terrible lately and Webster hasn't been convincing with the ball. 3-1 loss
Sorry to hear of your predicament Westy. My wife’s Brazilian and we had a year of immigration worries which kept us apart a while but these things have a way of working themselves out! Yes, we could definitely do with not losing tomorrow if we want to stay in youch6. Tough one though, despite good form against Derby I can’t see us coming away with much. An optimistic 3-3
Based on current form all I can see is a good tonking despite our good record at Pride Park. Derby 4 Town 0 They have got Lawrence, Vydra and our arch nemesis Nugent all playing! All we can hope to achieve is to keep the score line respectable.
Every season we pull off one unlikely result - could tonight be the night? Nah - i'll stick with my 5-1 prediction
Warky - i totally agree. Everything points to us getting, as Big Al says, our pants pulled down and whipped. But, we always pull off one unexpected victory per season. Tonight could be the night (or we could wait for Wolves away)
I've got a whole stack of Peaky Blinders to catch up with tonight so I wont be checking the score too often!
