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Bill's Take: A Season Summed Up In 90 Minutes
Friday, 31st Jan 2014 08:15 by Bill Riordan

It occurred to me while looking at the video of the Rams performance against Yeovil that the match had much about it, that summed up the the entirety of our season so far.

There was the start that did not do us justice, going two down at home against one of the weakest teams in the division.

There was the sight of the opposition scoring one bad goal and another really bad goal.

There was The Rams dominating possession with a neat passing game.

And finally there was the Rams taking the three points by scoring plenty of goals, with the names of Bryson and Martin appearing on the score sheet.

So after 90 minutes - our faith in the rightness of the world was restored.

But the question does need to be asked: with the players the club currently has, will we ever be able to stop gifting goals?

Are we doomed forever to concede goals by giving the ball away in midfield, or by not challenging the player in a scoring position with the ball at his feet?

I know that these days we are able to continually replay goals for ourselves, and that when we do that our strikers will look like heroes and the defenders look like cart horses.

But it does seem as though so many of the goals we concede will not - to say the least - be contenders for goal of the season. We don't seem to make opponents work hard enough to score.

Another thought that came to mind watching the match: Andre Wisdom and Patrick Bamford. They are among our best players, yet they are here because they can't get a game where they belong; they are just getting work experience. Man... that is a tough league we are trying to join.

But then there is Michael Keane, he is here for the same reason as the other two; at times he has looked another very good player, but at times he made us long for the return of Richard Keogh.

Notts County fans posting on their message board, seem to be happy with Kieran Freeman and Callum Ball, so to them the Championship must look like a tough league. It’s all relative, I suppose.

So, the Rams are in fourth place, with 51 points from 28 games. We are safe from relegation, and its not even February. If the playoffs began tomorrow, we would be playing Forest, with the first leg at the City Ground.

I don't wish to do any counting of chickens, but the playoffs - at least - seem almost assured: over the last three seasons, the sixth placed team has averaged 73 points. So another 22 points from 18 games could do it.

A minimum formula to achieve that total would read something like; six wins, four draws, eight defeats.

It would be enough but to finish the season so poorly would be a real downer.

And so to Birmingham. They look a much weaker team than us; they don't score many, but they don't let in all that many, either. Not many players have too many appearances for them this season, which suggests all kinds of problems.

The Brums recent results have been poor. But their manager is the fierce Lee Clark; I'd be afraid to play badly if he was my manager.

These are the sort of games that promotion challengers win. And if Bamford is looking to be in the Chelsea first team next season, he will need to stop being content with one goal per game.

COYR!




Photo: Action Images



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