Archive for the ‘Nottingham Forest’ tag
Forest Vs Derby Media Round-Up
We love him because he's mental
As usual Ramballs has scoured the internet for the match reports and coverage of the weekends game. Having seen the highlights on The Football League Show, I now think Connolly’s reaction to Tyson’s run for the third goal were poor. He steps up with his arm in the air when Tyson was already on the ball. Also, I still have no idea what Hulse’s goal was disallowed for given the ease with which Morgan (I think) went down.
If you missed it, check out Bywater laughing amongst the post-match nonsense. It’s on the Iplayer around the 15m 16s mark and it’s just another reason to love Bywater.
If you haven’t done so already, check out the RamBalls report here.
Here are the match reports from around the net.
Red Dogs 3 - 2 Derby County
The City Ground was the scene of yet another exciting, but ultimately disappointing, East Midlands derby game which saw the red dogs collect the Brian Clough trophy for the first time. The Rams learnt today that you can’t win them all, especially when you concede three goals in the first half.
Within one minute of kick off, 58 seconds to be precise, Derby were one goal down through an excellent strike from Radoslaw Majewski which left Bywater with no chance. This was not the start that the Rams had anticipated and things weren’t going to be getting better in a hurry.
The referee put his mark on the game very early on by dishing out three yellow cards within the first 12 minutes. For a game which is clearly going to be a tough, physical contest, this was disappointing as it prevented the game from flowing as you might expect in these circumstances.
The Rams still looked dangerous going forward and the ball managed to find its way to Gary Teale who has demonstrated a cool finishing ability this season. Not so today. He received the ball on the edge of the area and struck a shot wide of the left post.
The reds second goal came from a set piece after Kris Commons conceded a free kick. The ball was played in deep and Dexter Blackstock managed to squeeze himself in between Rob Hulse and Miles Addison to put the ball beyond Stephen Bywater.
Rob Hulse looked to have pulled us back into the game only for the referee to disallow the goal for no apparent reason. Would this be a repeat of the Atwell show last season? It would appear so.
The referee can’t be blamed for the goals conceded though and the third goal was a good example of pace beating our defence. Kris Commons lost possession and Forest burst forward. Dexter Blackstock played a good ball to Nathan Tyson ran behind the defence and slotted beneath the oncoming Bywater.
The half time whistle blew and Derby left the pitch with a mountain to climb in the second half.
If the Rams had to climb a mountain, they must have had some Kendal Mint cake at half time as they came flying out of the traps. Kris Commons was replaced by Lee Croft which gave the Rams more balance as Crofty on the right caused problems for Forest for the rest of the afternoon.
The Rams soon clawed their way back into the game through Miles Addison. His overhead kick came off Cohen and Lee Camp was staring at the ball as it rolled into the bottom corner of the net. Game on!
It was clear that the lads believed they could still get something from this game as the passing became more precise, the movement was better and the tempo increased and on 61 minutes, Jake Livermore found the back of the net from just outside the area.
The rest of the game was frantic with several opportunities for the Rams, the best of which fell to Rob Hulse. Hulse came close to getting on the end of a Teale cross which would certainly have pulled the Rams level if only he’d got just the slightest of touches.
Lee Croft continued to cause problems down the right but he failed to put the ball into the dangerous areas when he got into good positions.
As the final moments of the game drew close, the action became more frenetic and tempers began fray. Savage was involved in an exchange of verbals with one of the Forest unknowns and Stephen Pearson picked up a booking late in the game despite not doing anything other than walk away from a heated situation. This was just one of many moments of poor refereeing in this game.
The final whistle blew and the scum scored their first victory of the Rams for six and half years. You might have thought this would be satisfaction enough for the red dogs but that wasn’t true for Nathan Tyson who plucked the corner flag out of the ground and started waving it around right in front of the 4000+ Derby fans. Before long all the players had come together for a round of handbags at dawn which included the coaching staff of both sides. No doubt the FA will be looking into this matter but I doubt they have the power to enforce a full frontal lobotomy on Tyson which may well be the only thing to cure his supreme idiocy.
Check out this footage from after the game.
The Sound Of A Collective Sigh Of Relief
Yesterday we all breathed a sigh of relief as Shaun Barker was officially unveiled as a Derby County player. The weeks of speculation as to whether he would sign for us or the red dogs had been doing the blood pressure of some fans no favours at all. Browsing the forums didn’t help either as they produced new updates every twenty minutes confirming he’d signed for us, or them, or us, or them. I even saw one dreamer declaring it’s was a done deal for Forest: they outbid us and were paying wages of £30k per week.
Capturing Barker was a always going to be a significant move for which ever club secured his signature; the Rams had made it pretty clear for a long while that he was a key target and it was no secret that Forest were in for him also so the following bidding war, ending with a Derby victory, was sweet. It’s nice to beat Forest at everything; on the pitch, on attendances and now to signing players. We should just be glad that Stuart Atwell wasn’t brokering the deal.
Across the forums you can almost feel the shift in confidence now that we have the man who describes himself as an “old fashioned defender”. I’ve seen messageboard contributors who had all but written us off suddenly believing the club are pushing forward and are heading in the right direction. Others are just glad that we’ve spent some money. Popside.com’s DSBean Leacock announced that this signature had “alleviated some of his fears” and appeared to be glad that we’d paid a fee, going on to say “I might have a choc ice later to celebrate”.
Some fans are never satisfied though. While browsing Come On You Rams, I noticed an distinct air of discontent coming from New England Ram who said “Wow so Nigel had noticed the need for a centre back after all. I just want to know why this was not his first signing. This signing should have been made weeks ago.” I’m no expert but I’d guess the hold up in the transfer probably had something to do with the the reluctance of Blackpool to just let their better players leave without a fight, the fact that we weren’t the only club intereted and the negotiation of personal terms. After all, this is real life, not sensible world of soccer.
Over at dcfcfans.co.uk there were reminders of what people thought of Barker when he played for Blackpool against Derby. JoeMadRam reminds us that many people had sour grapes and said Barker was a dirty player but those same people are now delighted that he’s our dirty player.
David, a dcfcfans administrator, agreed, saying ” when we play the likes of Forest which will be a dirty game you want Barker in your team to bully the forwards”, going on to say “every one loves a dirty bugger and thats why I’m still with the missus”. Ok David, there is no need to rub it in.
Over at ramzone.net there was talk of the rams having a more solid defence this season. Hemingway thinks that if the Rams signs Patrick Kisnorbo, things will be looking good for the coming year.
I agree. Against Burton, Kisnorbo put in a solid showing. He looked mobile, strong and he did well from set pieces, so a few goals throughout the season could probably be expected. Genuine competition for places is what Cloughie will be after and having filled his squad with hungry players with a point to prove, he’ll have competition in abundance.
One final thing before I go. If you haven’t checked out this article on Wee Billy down the A52, I recommend you have a gander. It may bring back some memories.
Rams Land Summer Target Barker
The Rams have today captured their main summer target in Shaun Barker.
Barker joins from Blackpool on a three year deal and he revealed that Nigel Clough was a massive factor when deciding to join the rams over local rivals Nottingham Forest.
The chase for Barker has been going on for a number of weeks with the Rams reportedly having two bids turned down before the tangerines finally accepted the deal. Barker said “I remember coming to Pride Park and their was 30,000 people there and I wished that maybe I could play for a club like that and luckily I am going to be able to this season.
Amazingly, Barker has missed only a handful of games in the past four seasons, a statistic that is quite staggering given how many injuries the Derby fans have been witness to in the past season alone.
While the fee is officially undisclosed, the Derby Evening Telegraph is reporting a figure of around £900,000 has been paid.
If you want to see Barker in action, you can catch him in action against Chesterfield this Saturday.
Check out a profile of the Rams latest signing here.
Transfer Target: Shaun Barker
So the Rams have landed their main target of the closed season. Shaun Barker has signed a three year deal with the club. RamBalls has provided you with a short profile of the former Blackpool defender.
Shaun Barker challenges Krissy Commons. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Shaun Barker, 27, (DOB: 19/09/1981) began his professional career at Rotherham where he started out as in the youth team back in 2000. Shaun broke into the Rotherham first team in March 2003 and collected the young player of the year award at the end of the season. Throughout his time at Rotherham, Shaun played at right back, a position he is comfortable playing, but his preferred position is in central defence. Barker played 140 games for the Millers before moving on a free transfer to Blackpool in 2006.
Barkers first season with the tangerines was a successful one as they clinched promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship after beating Yeovil 2-0 in the play off final at Wembley. In the following season Barker missed only one game for the seasiders (due to suspension) as the tangerines maintained their Championship status. This season also saw Barker given the vice-captaincy.
The 2008/09 season saw Reggie, as he is known by the Blackpool faithful, promoted to club captain as well as retaining the on-field vice captain status. Reggie also moved from the right back position, where he had been playing for Blackpool until this time, into the centre of defence. After another successful season, which saw him start 42 league games, Barker won the accolade of players’ player of the year.
Sunday Round Up: The news, the forums and more.
How time flies? Ramballs was born one week ago today and already I’ve had some fanastic feedback, plus an amazing number of hits, so first of all I’d like to say thank you for reading the blog. It’s pretty time consuming, even though I haven’t added any huge articles or created a stunning design, but it’s good to see you guys coming back to check my updates. We even made it into the top 100 wordpress blogs of the day on July 4th.
DCFC News
This week saw the completion of two outgoings from Pride Park as Tito Villa and Tyrone Mears finally said goodbye.
After a season on the bench at Marseille, Tye struggled to assume any other position.
News had been circulating for a number of weeks regarding Mears’ move away from the East Midlands. Portsmouth, Marseilles and Burnley were all touted as possible destinations for the right-back with the Turf Moor outfit finally sealing the deal on Wednesday. Derby fans were not surprised by the sale given the previous allegations made against Tye regarding his dash through a window to escape to France during Paul Jewells ill-fated reign. Burnley are reported to have paid £500,000 plus add-ons for the energetic defender.
Tito Villa has been sold to Cruz Azul, a Mexican club, for £1.7m. This represents a loss of £300,000 on the striker but most fans think this is a fantastic piece of business by Adam Pearson and the club. While Tito may have been a fan favourite, it was clear that he was not going to feature regularly for the rams and it was in the interests of both parties for him to move on.
Regarding his time at Derby County, Tito said “The most beautiful thing I’ll take with me is the love of the fans, I’ll remember how wonderful they have been to me and how well they treated me all the time.” I’m sure you’ll join Ramballs in wishing Villa the best of luck in the future.
The first batch of Coca-Cola Championship television dates were announced by Sky and BBC. You can find the details here and here. Derby County V QPR on October 24th will be shown live on BBC 2 at 5:30pm. Newcastle, on the other hand, have six of their first nine games being screened on either Sky or the Beeb.
The official DCFC site this week announced the continuation of the black and white half season ticket scheme. All tickets include 12 home league fixtures including a guaranteed ticket for the home tie against Forest. Prices start from £220 for adults and £84 for juveniles.
The 2009/10 home strip has been launchd. Ramballs was at the event in Derby market place and managed to bring you a exclusive photos along with some pictures from the event being held in Quad afterwards. The day was glorious, the entertainment was good, Rammie has had a revamp and the kit is, well, the kit is exactly the same design as most other Adidas strips for this coming season.Find Ramballs coverage here.
From the forums…
www.dcfcfans.co.uk has had a lot of discussion regarding the kit launch. DerbyDan seemed to enjoy one picture in particular, so much so that he made it his avatar. The picture in question was the model from the kit launch. In case you missed it, I’ve stuck her in again.
www.popside.com have been discussing their drinking habits on the “I’m so p*ssed I can’t actually speak” thread which has clocked up a rather impressive 1800 posts. DSB this week announced “I got utterly utterly tw*tmonged last night had a cracking time, was GREAT”. Keep up the good work DSB.
Ramzone featured news this week that Martin Albrechtsen has been told he can find a new club. The forum also discussed the recent closure by Sky of the rivals.net website which came out of the blue after the huge corporation realised that it wasn’t likely to turn a profit unless they paid it some attention and listened to it’s member.
And finally, there was much deliberation on the TheRams.co.uk forum about the design of the latest kit. The best mock up that I saw was from Cliffy who clearly put a lot of effort into his designs and managed to churn out quite a number of them, including the one below, my favourite.
Cliffys mock up of the latest kit.
If he hadn’t put the collar on it he’d have had it pretty much nailed on. Well done Cliffy.
Derby County Fixture Changes
Sheffield United at home has been moved to a 1pm kick off. The date remains 12th September
Swansea away will now be a Friday night (November 20th) 7:45pm kick off
Forests trip to Pride Park has been moved to a 1pm kick off but remains on the 30th January