[jjamez]

Its another game under the lights down Leeds Road as Huddersfield welcome Wayne Rooney's Derby County to West Yorkshire. Both teams come into the game on the back of draws over the weekends set of fixtures, Huddersfield came away with a lucky point against Stoke, Josh Koroma scored Towns goal, although he was lucky to be on the pitch after a high challenge on Taylor Harwood-Bellis. The second half was a backs against the wall job, yet again, for the umpteenth time at home this season. Town contrived to send aimless balls upfield only to see it come straight back. With the ball bouncing around the box, box Hogg and Pears attempted to pass the ball out of the area, Pearsons pass went nowhere far and ended up at the feet of former Barnsley forward Jacob Brown who fired past Lee Nicholls. Odds on a backs to the wall second half on Wednesday? I'm saying its fairly likely, we seem to be afraid of playing at home for some reason.

Whilst Town played on Friday night, the Rams played on Sunday lunchtime against Birmingham City. Rams fans protested before the game about how the administration is being handled with numerous parties stating an interest in taking over the club, only for it to get drawn out and said party to lose interest and pull out. The club had until February 1st to show the FA that a deal was imminent otherwise and how Derby would be funded for this season or else it would have seen its license revoked and been forced into liquidation, that deadline has now been extended by a month, but the list of interested parties however, is not. American Chris Kirchner announced his interest in saving the club back in October but he wasn't selected as the preferred buyer and ultimately stepped away with the difference between he and the administrators too pronounced. Fellow Americans, the Binnie family, who are founders of investment company Carlisle Capital, made a £28 million offer to buy the club 10 days ago, with the deal not including buying the stadium from former chairman Mel Morris. It is believed that the club have debts of over £60 million, with some media outlets quoting the figure as being over £80 million, with one suggesting the club has an unpaid tax bill of £26 million as well as owing clubs £8.3 million in transfer instalments. There are two other parties other than the Binnie's interested in buying the Rams, one being former owner Andy Appleby who owned the club from 2008-2015 before selling his stake to Morris and the other being former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, who must have a bit of loose change in his pockets now, although he is reportedly frustrated at how long the administrators are taking over the process.


Moneyman Morris Mike Cashley Andy Applebees

Whilst the off field shenanigans are interesting, the game itself on Sunday also had a fair bit of entertainment. The Blues, fresh with the new signings of Lyle Taylor and former Town player Juninho Bacuna, took a 2-0 lead, with goals coming from Taylor himself and former Halifax and Rochdale striker Scott Hogan, however the Rams fought back in the last 10 minutes of the game. Academy graduate Luke Plange scored what was seemingly nothing more than a consolation goal, but enough to give the Blue Noses a squeaky bum, however, in the last minute of the game, Derby got a set piece, with everybody up, it was former Arsenal player Krystian Bielik, a year to the day after suffering an ACL injury, who sent the Rams into raptures with an overhead kick.

Now it would be easy to laugh at Derby's situation, some fans are, but lets not forget that nearly 20 years ago, we were in the same situation and on the cusp of going out of business, it could be said that we are only recently fully recovering from it, with the return of the stadium shares a few seasons ago. Sure some Derby fans lauded it up when they were signing the better players from other clubs and thinking they were a biiig club, but it wasn't the whole of the club, just a few and every club has those sorts of supporters. It could be a long and steep windy road for Derby to come back from with the amount of debt they are in and the fact that they don't own the stadium etc, I feel it will be a path that quite a few more clubs will follow over the next few seasons, a lot of clubs have found that relegation from the Championship to League One is notoriously difficult to come back from, with quite a few fallen Premiership clubs down there and lower, the likes of Ipswich, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday to name some, but its noticeable a few have had financial issues along the way.

The Rams have done remarkably well this campaign, despite the problems and points deduction. Had they not lost any points they would be sat level on points with Millwall in 15th, but even with the -21 they still sit off the foot of the table, with Barnsley having that honour but they do have a game in hand. The Rams have lost once in their last 5 games, that coming against local rivals Nottingham Forest the other weekend and have proven to be far from push overs for many teams this season despite their disadvantages.

So who should we be looking out for?

Well their main threat is the mercurial Tom Lawrence. The former Ipswich man was at the centre of controversy when he was involved in a car crash along with former Town defender Richard Keogh and a few other younger players. Keogh was released for his part in the incident, but the other younger players and Lawrence were kept on the clubs books. After recovering from injury Lawrence took a bit of time to start regaining the form that caught the attention of Premier League clubs before the car crash, but with the trouble Derby have with making a squad, Lawrence has been made captain and is their leading performer this season with 8 goals and 4 assists. The attacker was subject to interest from money bags Bournemouth in the January window but the administrators at Derby rejected the offer.

Curtis Davies- Despite seeming to be about 50, the centre half is still playing. Having really made his name whilst at Birmingham back in 2011 and would later become somewhat of a hero whilst they were in the Premier League. He joined Derby in 2017, and was impressive in that campaign, but saw his second season curtailed through first a hamstring injury and then a ruptured achillies tendon, limiting him to just 5 appearances. He regained his place in the side thanks to Keoghs serious knee injury from the car crash. He was due to be released at the end of last season but was allowed to sign a new one year deal by the FA due to Derbys lack of players. Whilst beginning to lack pace, he has the experience to read the game and be in the right place at the right time.

Festy Ebosele- From one end of the spectrum to the other. The Irish under 21 international made his debut for the Rams last season when they played Chorley and had to use a full set of juniors due to a COVID outbreak in the first team, he would go on to make his debut as a sub against Norwich. He has made 13 appearances in all this season for the Rams mainly down the right hand side and is blessed with a fair bit of pace and trickery. He was subject to interest from Nottingham Forest and a heap of European clubs during the transfer window, but Derby managed to keep hold of him this time.



The two sides have met quite a lot over the years beginning back in 1910 with a 1-1 draw. It would be a further 10 years before Town would register their first win over Derby. Our visitors have had the better of the head to head winning 41 times with the two sides drawing 28 times and Town winning 30 times. The most recent victory for Town back during the COVID lockout (October 20th 2020) when a sole Bacuna goal was enough to see off the Rams. During Towns play off winning season, a 90th minute Elias Kachunga goal sparked wild celebrations including then manager David Wagner running down the touchline to join in with the pile on. He would do it later in the season against Leeds which would spark a touchline brawl. The return fixture at Pride Park saw future balon d'or winning* forward Colin Quaner give Town the lead before former Town midfielder Jacob Butterfield scored a late equaliser.
Arguably the most memorable game between the two sides in recent memory is the 4-4 draw they played out at the John Smiths back in April 2015. Future Town winger Tom Ince opened the scoring for the visitors before goals Oscar Gobern, Reece James and Mark Hudson sent Town in 3-1 up at half time. Simon Dawkins and wasted talent Jesse Lingard pulled the Rams back level before Nahki Wells scored Towns 4th of the afternoon, the lead was short lived as Ince bagged his second of the game 7 minutes later.


*decision still awaiting confirmation

A foot in both camps

A nice easy set of anagrams for you here

1- Rejoiced Butt Flab
2- Smarter Arachnid
3- Tamest Colon
4- Slick In Domain
5- Free Colt
6- Hollower In Satin
7- Joiners Tea Map
8- A Leaky Sperm
9- Snoot Hire Nob
10- Enviable Kink

So the transfer window shut last night, so what business did the two sides do? well this bit is going to be rather short considering Derby are under an embargo that prevents them signing anyone, pretty much, they did loan Luke Plange from Crystal Palace, but that came after they sold him to Palace in the first place. Should he have been allowed to rejoin on loan after being sold is a question for the powers that be, but it would seem that they say yes. In terms of outgoings, former West Ham forward Sam Baldock was released and is still without a club, experienced pair David Marshall and Phil Jagielka both left to join fellow Championship clubs QPR and Stoke respectively, whilst Graeme Shinnie was allowed to join Wigan for around 40k. Young defender Dylan Williams left in order to join the set up at Premier League Chelsea.

As for Town, they left their business until the final day in regards to incomings, with former Chelsea graduate Jamal Blackman joined on a deal until the end of the season. He left LA FC at the end of the MLS season. Blackman has history of playing under Corberan as he had a loan spell at Leeds whilst Carlos was their under 23 manager, he suffered a bad leg injury whilst there. He then had a loan in Holland to Vitesse before coming back to England for loans at Bristol Rovers and Rotherham. He will act as back up to Lee Nicholls and will be aiming to get a longer deal at the end of the season. Next through the door on deadline day was Faustino Anjorin, who joined on loan from Chelsea, we seem to do a lot of business with Chelsea, although not a bad team to have close ties to is it? Anjorin spent the first half of the season on loan at Lokomotiv Moscow, who had Ralf Rangnick as head of Football before he joined Manchester United. The highly rated youngster played 7 times in Russia before getting injured, he is still currently injured but the hope is that he will be back in training in the next few weeks. The final incoming on deadline day was that of Carel Eiting, the dutch midfielder spent last season on loan at Town from Ajax before moving to Genk in Belgium in the summer window on a 4 year deal. He played 12 times in the league for Genk this season but had his contract torn up on deadline day in order to move back to West Yorkshire on a 6 month deal. One would presume that it was in order to just get the deal through in time and a longer deal will be sorted in the future.



In regards to players leaving Town, it was mainly young players going out on loan to other clubs to further their footballing development. Kieran Phillips saw his loan at Walsall ended and moved to fellow League 2 side Exeter, Romony Crichlow left Swindon in order to move up a division to Plymouth Argyle and Matty Daly finished his loan at Hartlepool and moved to Bradford. Brahima Diarra and Josh Austerfield both joined Harrogate Town, whilst young striker Kian Harratt joined Port Vale on loan, young keeper Nicholas Bilokapic is getting his first taste of loan football at Hartlepool, whilst missing player Reece Brown went back to Peterborough on loan, which will likely see him through to the end of his contract here.



Manager talk

Carlos Corberán: "Ryan Schofield will have surgery next week, so his recovery will take more time than we expected. Jamal Blackman is a player with a lot of experience in both English Football and the Championship. Unfortunately, Jamal had an injury in a Leeds Under-23 game I was managing, but he's been out in America and comes in with a lot of guarantees as a good goalkeeper."

"Tino Anjorin can play as a no.7, 10 or 11, so across the attack; and he has a lot of talent and can be a big help to the squad. First, we need to get him recovered and let him start to get to know his teammates and the training ground. He's a very good player."

"After we lost Álex Vallejo, we needed another player who can help the team from the back, and that's exactly why Carel Eiting is here with us. Last time he was here he had a high contribution to the positive dynamic of the squad."

"As soon as you bring in someone from overseas, you need a period of adaptation, but with Eiting, it's the opposite - he knows about everything here. Tomorrow, he will be with the team if everything goes well. He's immediately an improvement to the squad."

"As a Club I can only see that we have grown. For me, the recruitment by the recruitment team headed by Leigh Bromby is excellent. The relationship he has with players is high and made it so that players want to come back. Pipa has trained today and could be available for the game. Levi Colwill continues with the longer-term recovery."

"The work Derby are doing with Wayne Rooney and his staff is excellent. They've faced a very difficult situation with a high level of respect for what they have to do. It's hard to keep fighting for the target you have and they've done that. Without the points deduction Derby's situation in the table would be totally different and in adversity they're doing a very good job. They have experience and are using their resources well."

"In the transfer market there's always a possibility of players leaving, but we have kept the players we had and even added new players, which is very positive for me. "Eiting's main position for me is as a no.8. He can go to the opponent's box and make the last pass, or even finish the action. He has scored goals for us before, even heading the ball, and he's a player who can work to help us playing out."

"Against Stoke City, we managed really well the balance between attack and defence, but as soon as you lose the ball in your half you need to be ready to defend and being aggressive is more of a challenge."

"I could not be happier with my fullbacks - Pipa, Ollie Turton, Harry Toffolo + Josh Ruffels. They're all different, but have a good balance between attack and defence. Any of them can be in the first XI and they're all amazing fullbacks to play at this level."



Wayne Rooney

“I believe in these players,” Rooney told RamsTV. “I think they have been incredible all season. I said after the 2-2 draw against Birmingham on Sunday that the performance certainly wasn’t good enough, but we got a point with two brilliant late goals and now we go again on Wednesday night."

“Huddersfield are having a good season. They’re a very energetic team, so we know we need to at least match that and play our way. I think if we play our way then we can cause them problems, but we need to make sure we match their energy. If we do that then I think we’ll have a good chance of taking something from the game.”

Krystian’s issue isn’t as bad as first feared,” he explained. “He is probably 50/50 at this stage for the Huddersfield game so we might have to give him a little bit more time and wait to see where he’s at. You could see that during the minutes he was on the pitch. It was great to get him back out there. We all know how hard he has worked to get back fit and ready to be involved."

“I don’t think it is a great one for Kamil Jozwiak,” Rooney said. “He went over on his ankle and is seeing a specialist to see if he requires any surgery or not.”

On Luke Plange- "As we have seen already in the few games he has played, I think he is improving in every game,” Rooney said.

“He is a goalscorer and I have no worries whatsoever about his attitude and his commitment to the team and he will do everything he can to help us get out of this situation.”



In terms of further team news, Rooney was referring to Jozwiak injuring his ankle last time out, whilst Bielik injured his shoulder during the overhead kick on Sunday. Otherwise it would seem that Derby don't have too many knocks in their squad at this time. It seems likely that Kazim Richards will continue to sit on the bench whilst Plange leads the line, although Jozwiak's injury may lead to Plange moving out wide. Ravel Morrison will miss out through suspension after picking up a red card against Nottingham Forest.

As for Town, they may welcome back Pipa from an ankle knock and it seems as though it will be as you were with Vallejo, Aarons and Colwill all out injured along with Anjorin. Josh Koroma has avoided any retrospective punishment for his tackle on Harwood-Bellis, so will be available, whilst Holmes will be pressing for a starting berth. Aaron Rowe will be hoping for a return to the bench whilst Eiting looks likely to replace Russell on the bench seeing as Scott High is ingrained into Carlos' mind.


A final set of Derby anagrams

1- Toughened Bar Balls
2- An Iron Hall
3- Cove Thinker
4- Boot Me Levers
5- Unbent Odor
6- Go Jeer Bogey
7- Hard Choir Bungalow

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, jjamez.

Jacob Butterfield is Rejoiced Butt Flab.

[ritchiebaby]

Next one is Richard Stearman and No1 in the final set is The Baseball Ground.

[Lord Snooty]

Enviable Kink is Kevin Kilbane

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Free Colt is Lee Croft

[WakeyTerrier]

6Hollower In Satin- Lionel Ainsworth

[Lord Snooty]

6Hollower In Satin-  Lionel Ainsworth

I'd never have got that one.

[jjamez]

All correct so far

There is one in the last set I've been very cruel with. I wouldn't say it's impossible, I think you'd get it when you got one of the words.

[Lord Snooty]

Hard Choir Bungalow - Brian Howard Clough

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A Leaky Sperm - Kasey Palmer

[theo_luddite]

Good write up that jjamez

Once I've worked out how many Anti-grams Snoots has left us to shoot at I might have a go.

[Lord Snooty]

Loads to get yet, theo.

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Holmes in for Koroma.

Sweet Carel Eiting is on the bench.