Stuniverse

Saturday 25th February 2023 Barnsley v Derby County League One (34) I promised changes after the home defeat by Charlton last time out and I've made four: Keiren Westwood > Daniel Grimshaw Festy Ebosele > Ziggy Gordon Haydon Roberts > Archie Brown David McGoldrick for Jason Knight -- Well, we made changes but it was the same old story as individual errors cost us. Both Barnsley's first and second goals were very similar, we didn't pick up runners into our penalty area, leaving us out-numbered and they picked us off with some incisive passing. We missed a great chance to equalise when Conor Hourihane shot narrowly wide at 0-1. We changed to Positive (from Balanced) and went 4-2-4 WIDE after going 0-2 down and it made a difference with David McGoldrick blasting over at 0-2 just before the break. We made a couple of changes at the break Tom Barkhuizen for Lewis Dobbin and Matej Vydra for Simone Zaza and went Attacking but, before we had chance to see if it had made any difference, our captain Curtis Davies gave the ball away in our our own penalty area and it was 0-3. We tried changing things up again but the damage had already been done. It's another tough one to take because individual errors meant we shot ourselves in the foot and gifted Barnsley their three goals.

Amazing achievement on a shoestring budget. Congratulations!

Saturday 18th February 2023 Derby County v Charlton Athletic League One (33) Losing James Collins, our top goal scorer, our top everything really, with an abdominal strain is a big blow. -- We lost again we should have won and I'm not happy about it. There will be changes for our next match, that's for sure. We had the better of it and took an early lead through a Max Birdthunderbolt from outside the penalty area after great work down the left by Simone Zaza. Then we shot ourselves in the foot. Daniel Grimshaw came for a through ball he should have left for his defenders. As a result, Archie Brown was in two minds whether to deal with it or leave it for his goalkeeper, allowing Smith to nip in between them and chip Dan for their equaliser. We didn't just shoot ourselves in the foot once. No, we did it twice. Archie Brown needlessly attempted a tackle from behind when Smith was running away from goal, Archie got it all wrong and Fraser gave Charlton the lead from the penalty spot. We huffed and puffed after that but never looked like equalising. It was good to give Matej Vydra some minutes off the bench after his cruciate ligaments injury. Yes, I'm bitterly disappointed today and there will be changes for the Barnsley gave next Saturday. There will be changes.

Great work, @lionel messi. I’m looking forward to this. Best wishes.

WOW! Good luck. At least if the Board and Supporter expectations are to try and avoid relegation you should be allowed to manage beyond 12 games (lol) and are unlikely to get sacked...

Updated list of possible teams…

Thanks, @KibworthBull, I had missed that division. Heather St Johns, Leicester Nirvana, Melton Town and Quorn are now on the list, as are a few others I found. Melton and Nirvana are over an hour which means, whilst I’ve gone up to 1 hour 10 mins on the list, Stu Stuniverse won’t be prioritising football clubs with commutes over an hour. He would prefer 45 minutes or less. Thank you for your input. Much appreciated.

Thanks, @KibworthBull. I will check that tomorrow but I couldn’t find them on the custom database, but I may not have looked closely at that division.

I’ve reviewed the leagues down to Level / Tier 9 and added some more teams to the list of teams that are within commuting distance. I’m pretty confident I’ve got them all that are an hour or less away and I also included some that were slightly over. The Level / Tier 10 teams are currently a big long list and haven’t been put into leagues at this point so I haven’t reviewed them all in detail yet.

Aylestone Park and Birstall United are now on the list, thank you @KibworthBull. Quorn aren’t because, as far as I can tell, they are below Level 10.

Thanks, @KibworthBull. Aylestone Park, Birstall United and Quorn are all under an hour away (according to Route Planner) so, as long as they are Tier 10 or above and on the custom database, I can add them to the list.

Some good signings there, @Punch What are the Board and Supporter expectations?

Friday 17th February 2023 Derby's top goal scorer out injured

Tuesday 14th February 2023 Derby County v Lincoln City League One (32) Our injury list continues to grow with Jahmal Hector-Ingram adding to it with a pulled groin. -- This was a game we really should have won. We had the lion's share of possession, created by far the better chances, but as often proves our downfall we couldn't add a second goal when we were in front. James Collins gave us an 8th minute lead after great work by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing. Lincoln never really looked like scoring, but we gifted them an equaliser when Daniel Grimshaw came out of his penalty area, for a ball he was never going to get to first, allowing Diamond an easy run in to score. In the second half, we had a great chance to take the lead, only for Rushworth to brilliantly save James Collins's penalty. As the game progressed, Lincoln went more and more defensive, putting more and more players behind the ball, and we couldn't break them down.

Saturday 11th February 2023 Wycombe Wanderers v Derby County League One (31) This week David McGoldrick had a bout of illness so we'll be without him today. -- Sometimes in football you don't get what you deserve and I thought that was the case today. I won't say we dominated Wycombe but, I did, feel we were comfortable and in control for long periods and we had a lot of possession. Being critical, I suppose, we didn't do enough with that possession. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing gave us an early lead and we had chances to add to that but we were unable to do that. We conceded an equaliser on 54 minutes but we looked like the most likely to grab a winner after that. Going into the last 10 minutes, we went more attacking and, in hindsight, we probably should have just seen the game out as a draw. If you can't win it, don't lose it. But, unfortunately, we committed too many players forward, were short at the back, which meant Costelloe could make a late move into our penalty area and score an easy tap-in at the far post.

Saturday 4th February 2023 Derby County v Morecambe League One (30) We lost Tom Barkhuizen with pulled knee ligaments in training this week so he joins Joe Wildsmith in the medical room. All our other walking wounded are either ready to play again or back in training working towards match fitness. -- We started slowly, I'm not sure why, and Daniel Grimshaw had to produce two good saves before we even got going. But once we did get going, we were very dominant and scored four goals through Lewis Dobbin, James Collins from the penalty spot, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing with a cracker from 20 yards, and Will Osula. We were that comfortable, that with half an hour to go I was able to make five substitutions to allow some of our regular starters to get some much needed rest.

Wednesday 1st February 2023 Monthly Review Results Board Review Finances Dynamics Supporter Review

Tuesday 31st January 2023 Transfer Window Roundup Transfers IN Transfers OUT

Transfer Deadline Day Kavanagh rejects Derby

Transfer Deadline Day Haigh rejoins the Rams on loan

Transfer Deadline Day Kavanagh rejects Derby return Hmmmmn... maybe Leigh wasn't keen on coming back to our U21 squad...

Transfer Window Day Derby want Haigh and Kavanagh on loan When the half season loans of Joe Haigh (Chelsea) and Leigh Kavanagh (Brighton & Hove Albion) came to an end, neither parent club were keen on extending their loan stays with us. Now, we're hearing, both Chelsea and Brighton may have changed their stance...

Transfer Deadline Day Derby miss out on Ebiowei

Transfer Deadline Day Robson-Kanu departs Derby after short stay

Transfer Deadline Day -- -- --