Tonight

[I BELIEVE]

No player above a 4/10 in match rating. Only players to come out of the game with any dignity are Elliott and Anderson.

Defence was awful, first goal was embarrasing, all turned away from the ball like it was a grenade.

Players had no idea what to do with the ball when they had it bar lumping it up to Baldock.

Davies seemed scared to score against his former club too. Had a few shooting opportunities outside the box but instead sprayed the ball wide.

On a more positive note, supporters were superb and far more than the players deserve.

[Son of Fred]

normal away form then..have seen three away under SOD and was glad to be working tonight!..just dire on the road.

[kit]

just back

that was my first away game since sod took over, and if that is an indication of how we will play away under him then I won't go to many more.

all of the back four made numerous basic mistakes, nothing to do with a lack of protection from midfield, it was amateur at times and derby should have probably had at least another couple of goals.

that for me was every bit as bad as the leicester game that got mcinnes sacked. we offered nothing whatsoever going forwards, aimless punts up to little forwards didn't really cut it.

[Andy082005]

Said it once, I'll say it again...this season, we got what we deserved.

Lansdown, the board, the players, the managers....all of them, deserve to be where we are. As a club, we deserve to be relegated. It would be an injustice if we didn't.

The board have royally screwed up, and I have absolutely no faith in them what so ever. They never learnt from any of their mistakes and we eeked out of it the last two years.....we still didn't learn.

Our club is a joke. People make out the Lansdowns are messiahs....are they hell. Fair enough, they right off the clubs debts...but it's only the debts they have incurred from their own mis-management. I got £2k on a credit card through poor money management...its only right i pay it off!!

Only the other day, I read on here someone saying that they had faith Lansdown would take us on to bigger and better things?!?....on what grounds? He isn't a new chairman, how long has been chairman now? Over a decade isn't it? he has failed massively.

Their hearts are in the right place and I admire that....but their arrogance and pride, and failure to seek proper help on how to run a football club, has now left us heading back to league 1, whilst losing money hand over fist.

I just can't believe what an amateur set up we are

[WolfOfWestStreet]

Just got back to BS3. Most painful drive home.

4/10 to Elliott & Baldock & Heaton

Rest garbage. Supporters brilliant, derby fans applauding for singing from start to finish was a nice touch.

Got to stop going away not seen a result for a long time now.

And for those thinking we might just escape. We won't, we're bottom for a reason. Tonight's performance proved that. Start getting your league1 away schedule sorted now, if you still have faith by then.

[bearded_red]

We were absolutely atrocious tonight. I've been to every game of this hellish season and I'm not sure we have been outplayed to the extent that we were tonight in previous games, the two that spring to mind are the Leicester games, but I think we were actually more out of our depth tonight than we were on either of those occasions.

It is worth noting that when Derby won the penalty in the sixth minute it was the third time in the match that they had broken through our defence and bore down on our goal. Six minutes! When Hendrick scored for them after 36 minutes there would have been more justice had he been scoring their fourth or fifth rather than their first. We had been so lucky prior to the opening goal that I was almost beginning to believe we could get a result as surely Derby would pay for all of the times they had failed to open the scoring? Oh no, it just stopped it being a Cricket score.

Before the Wolves game I didn't think it was as crucial as many seemed to believe, in fact when I did the BBC Predictor a couple of months ago I had us losing to Wolves, but staying up. However seeing the players' body language at Molineux at the final whistle and losing the game in the manner that we did made me think it could have been the knock out blow. I posted on here that O'Driscoll had a very tough job picking them up again for the final 8 games and tonight it is clear he didn't manage it. We simply never started and have been flattered by the scoreline only reading 3.

I would say that Marv is the only player who put in anything close to a reasonable performance. Heaton deserves credit for the penalty save, but I think he probably could/should have done better for the second and third goals. (Although I would need to see the goals on TV before being too critical). The defence was back to looking like it was being coached by McInnes at times tonight and I would say that both centre halves put in their worst perfromance under SO'D while the two fullbacks, who are both very good players, probably put in their worst performances in a City shirt.

The omission of Kelly shocked me when I heard it and bearing in mind how the game went tonight I would be surprised if O'Driscoll isn't regretting the midfield he picked. If you're going to play 5 in the middle then maybe Kelly's absence can be explained, but to go away from home with a 442 that consisted of Kilkenny in the middle and Skuse on the right wing is nothing short of baffling, especially when you are having to play without a physical presence up front. Personally I would say that if you want to play with only two in the middle of the park then Kelly's industry would make him the first name on the teamsheet?

It is of course harsh to criticise either of the forwards in a game such as tonights, but I think it has to be said that neither of them offered us an outlet. We can talk till we're blue in the face about how much better in front of goal Davies and Baldock are than Stead and Taylor, but for them to show their quality you need to get yourself in the game. In a team such as ours, playing the way we were tonight, you need an option to hit to help you get up the pitch when you're under long spells of pressure. Tonight we just didn't have one. I'm usually the last person you will ever hear suggesting forays into the loan market in an attempt to cure all of your problems, but to me it was obvious after the Wolves game that we needed to bring in a centre forward, and tonight it is even more obvious. Of course you need the right player to be available, and Wednesday signing Steve Howard of course looks ridiculous, but we do not have a centre forward that is capable of offering us a physical presence or providing us with an out ball.

Any neutral observer would probably say that tonight is the final nail in the coffin, and unfortunately I agree, but results going for us tomorrow and a win on Monday could keep our slim hopes alive for a week or two more.

Lastly, I thought that in the main the support was excellent tonight and really something to be proud of. Although some people abusing the players for coming over, while others abused them for not coming over, was quite amusing.

[Son of Fred]

quite agree-Wolves away was the killer punch..am working but listened on radio and the fans were great tonight-good on ya,great support not deserved..looking forward to a good clear out now of underachieving good talkers that have to go.completely blame the board for this-so many laughable decisions from people with massive acumen in their field,but that doesent mean it extends to football.goodbye Championship,been good,very good knowing you and hope we meet again sometime in the not too distant.

[Andy082005]

They might have taken their eye of the ball over the last few years due to AV etc, but they now have their 5 Pillar strategy in place and as far as I can see they are implementing it piece by piece, e.g. beefing-up the scouting by hiring Keith Burt, the overhaul of the youth, etc. You can't turn around a club overnight, it takes a couple of years to put the changes into place and then more time to see the benefits of those changes. I think the next few years will see City turn it around right throughout the club as the Board gains experience and their investments and changes bear fruit, and also on the pitch because imo SOD will be a great manager in the medium term.

We should never have found ourselves in this position, its unforgivable.

Granted they may be trying to implement change, but its come to late and I have zero faith that they have the ability to make these changes successful.

I need to take a deep breath and remember its only football, and there are more important things, but when I start thinking about how this club has performed on and off the pitch, with all the money people are earning within the club...it makes me so angry

[bemmyredjeff]

They might have taken their eye of the ball over the last few years due to AV etc, but they now have their 5 Pillar strategy in place and as far as I can see they are implementing it piece by piece, e.g. beefing-up the scouting by hiring Keith Burt, the overhaul of the youth, etc. You can't turn around a club overnight, it takes a couple of years to put the changes into place and then more time to see the benefits of those changes. I think the next few years will see City turn it around right throughout the club as the Board gains experience and their investments and changes bear fruit, and also on the pitch because imo SOD will be a great manager in the medium term.

Charlton did in one go to get back to the championship.

What was it, 18 players out and 19 in.

Thats the way to do it, but regrettably I still don't see our club being any where near as ruthless as that and I fear we will still be left with too much dead wood again next season.