Match Day Thread Derby County vs Saints, Sat 4th October, 15:00

Agree with pretty much all of this mate.

The bit in bold is undoubtedly my biggest concern and for me risks wasting any good work in the transfer window regarding other positions.

Just remarkable that we've gone into this season relying on a striker who's barely kicked a ball in 2/3 years and another who'd totally unproven and seems miles off it.

If we had someone like Carlton Morris in our squad we'd be infinitely better off and that represents a huge failing in the window for me.

 

Totally. Welly is a better defender.

 

He pulled up holding his hamstring. At best he strained it. At worst he will miss another six months.

Apparently having an MRI this week to find out.

 

I said at the end of last season that this championship season will be tougher than last time because of how far we fell. and gave the example of where Derby's record breakers finished the next season (19th).
Yes we have spent but we have also lost players too and building a team does take time and we haven't known the squad until the Skates game. I said 10 matches after the transfer window and I stand by that, if we are still not performing well then questions will be asked but not right now.
I thought that we were ok today and Derby matched us and it was a very competitive game and a good watch.

 

Yep, actually ended up on the train to Tamworth with a Derby fan after the game who said 'if you had Carlton Morris to come on when you lost your centre forward, you'd have won that game' and I found it hard to disagree

 

It should be remarkable. But alas, with SR's record, it's not. Just standard by them. I was concerned long before the window closed that they were gambling far too much on Stewart remaining fit.

I was very surprised that a bigger Championship club than Derby didn't sign Morris this summer. Excellent signing by them.

 

Not been back long myself from the game. Agree with a lot of the comments already made about the game.
Looked pretty good whilst Stewart was on, but afterwards was very scrappy and that continued throughout the second half.
Thought Fellows should have done better with the chance right at the end, but probably didn’t deserve to win the game at the end.
Was talking on the way home that with Stewart out, I feel going back to the back 4 would be better with the striking options we have now, as need to get Fellows and Azaz firing, and give Jalert a chance at either fullback position, with Scienza providing pace and attacking intent on the left?

 

I agree that it will be tougher for us compared to last time, partly due to last season (though I don't think the impact of that is as big as portrayed sometimes, to counter your Derby example you could say Sheffield United got 92 points last season after only 15 the season before), but mainly because the team is weaker than last time. None of our strikers are as good as Che and none of our defenders as good as Bedders.

On the plus side I think the league itself is weaker too than last time which is good news for us given how we've started and means theres much less of a gap to the top of the league.

Please don't think that I'm writing the team or the manager off, as you allude to it's far too early to be doing that.

I did expect us to perform better than what we have so far though and think we really need to get going sooner rather than later.

The Swansea home game is looking huge right now.

 

In a perverted way, it's almost kind of impressive to have had Shields, Ankersen, Wilcox and Spors all to have passed through the club with responsibility for recruiting and squad planning and to still be in a situation where we have not been able to just sign a consistent goal scorer or a proper goalkeeper. Going into 2026 with Alex McCarthy and Ross Stewart at either end of the pitch having to play significant roles is just nuts (and a failure)

 

Yeah I think I mentioned it after the Ipswich game, where it already seemed clear what type of striker Will liked and how light we were with those players.

I guess all we can do is hope Stewart's injury isn't too bad. For his sake as much as ours tbh.

I know I've already said it a couple of times but it really was mental to start him today imo.

 

Changing subject slightly.

I'm more than a bit baffled/concerned by the sudden lack of game time for Robinson in the last 3/4 games. Especially as I thought he did well when coming on on Tuesday night.

We were so predictable in the second half today and though he's young to me seemed the exact sort of player which could have given Derby something different to think about.

 

I'd say that we also miss a player that can transition play with direct running at the oppo through the middle like Stuey used to. Fellows had a few runs today but never really led anywhere, maybe that will change in time.

 

Scienza showed this today, albeit without the robustness of Stu. It's why I'd be inclined to get him and Fellows on the pitch as much as possible now, if Stewart misses any real time

 

Where Stewart's injury is concerned, a two week break is a good thing - but then coming back to three games in a week is a bad thing. At worst he misses all three (and maybe even a whole lot more). But even if he recovers, Still surely won't risk him in three games again.

I don't like any of the alternative options. But in terms of what I least dislike, I wonder if Azaz in a sort of false-nine role might be worth a go? For a player like him, he is taller than you expect. And it could still allow Armstrong and Fellows to play wide. We did something similar a small number of times under Martin, using Alcarez, and it sort of worked (but never as good as playing Che at no.9).

 

Yep Stuey would have been the third player I mentioned after Che and Bedders.

Hopefully Azaz might become that player for us. Really think we need to try and find a way of playing which gets the best out of him and give him a run of games.

 

Manning's worst game of the season, both in attack and defence, but to be fair to him, he's played practically every minute of every game since Welington got injured. And playing wing-back too. Lad must be pretty knackered.

 

Oh and something I forgot to mention, but the play acting from their number 27 is the worst I've seen from an opposition player for years.

Properly pathetic

 

Dreadful from him. And he's their captain!

He was also very lucky not to get a second yellow. Seemed very dirty.

 

That was ****ing awful. Lewis Travis, I think, pretending that Arma had stamped on his fingers it looked like?

 

I hope to god it's merely strained. I thought okay it's just a hammy, then remembered TLND's hamstrings are his achilles

Poor Ross it's always soft tissue, must live on a diet of zinc, copper, and magnesium