Friends and family up north have already said they’re not bothering with a season ticket next season. Today’s genuinely the first time I’ve considered not watching anymore since about 2011-12. I entirely stopped engaging for about 18 months or so, living abroad. Today has been a bit of an eye-opener, on a personal level. Was a little nervous this morning, wondering about the lineup, wondering what Eustace would be trying to capitalise on, while trying to look at it rationally, that Derby are relegation fodder and a mid-table league one side in a championship stadium. Essentially put off a bunch of important stuff due to fretting about this. Did the odd bit, here and there but it’s taken about 9 hours of my day so far. And I’ll get up now and dawdle about a bit, maybe have SNF on in the background and do something else in the flat, but it’ll still be there. And tomorrow, just as it was yesterday, Thursday and Wednesday before. And that’s me as a relative armchair fan. Think about the 2700 that travelled. Maybe a handful live locally or local-enough that the journey isn’t hours each way. But they all turned up, prioritised it over other things. For what? We turn up, we tune in and the people in charge cop out. There are people that have made millions out of this club while achieving nothing. The decision makers haven’t watched a game in a decade. And we’re still turning up every week, buying the shirts, the tickets, the poorly-poured pints, the hospitality, the pies, the Bovril and all the bullshit they spout. And they’re laughing at us. They’re laughing at us not being able to get a protest together for over ten years (25 tennis balls, aside). Laughing at us arguing with each other that no other person in the world would buy and finance us as the current owners do. Laughing at us when they’ve sold our best assets for medium-sized bucks and invested virtually nothing, before telling us they’ve “made significant investment.” Laughing at us when they say that if we want safe standing, we’ll need to crowdfund it. Laughing at us when they’ve talked about how impressive it was to have paid all our bills. Post-match, we’re all prone to hyperbole, but I think - for the rest of this season, at least - that’s me done.

This is a deeply uninspiring second half performance. So little imagination. We get trapped on the corner of the box and don’t know what to do with it. Running the risk of “being the better team between the boxes” again, which is how you wind up in trouble. Some big lads on the pitch and nobody getting enough decent balls into them. Whatever Ismael tried today, I don’t want to see it again.

Who’s the fucking ref? Looks like he’s on work experience.

We look weak across the park.

There’s a fairly compelling netball game on Sky Sports Main Event

He’ll have to do it with less than zero budget.

Looked like his calf, but hadn’t seen an impact.

You and me both, but the opening 7 minutes of this game makes me wonder how bad it would be. Sounds like Derby fans have turned up the volume and we are overwhelmed. Feel for the many that made their way down.

Could you imagine how badly we’d fold in the playoffs? Almost makes it look like we’re being done a favour being kept out of it.

For the best.

This is fucking embarrassing

Everything I said earlier about getting an early one also applies to us, so we know how this is going

That’s the lineup I’d have picked, but - ironically - that fills me with no extra confidence, as it’s become clear this season that I don’t know as much about football as I thought I did. Despite being a general fan of Cantwell, I’m glad he’s not starting today, as we need to be at it early and he doesn’t instigate early on. Nothing better than getting an early one against a side that will have very little belief at the minute. Getting two and there’s every chance they crumble. I do wonder how many defeats in the bounce Eustace will be allowed before the crowd eventually turns. They’ve not looked too bad apart from the QPR game, but what little belief there is will be fragile and Eustace is currently experiencing a new manager splat that could become terminal with a heavy defeat at some point. Hopefully that’s today.

Sure, I just think the balance of play would have been very different with the red card. They had the better opportunities (marginally). Draw flattered us ever so slightly, but the fight to equalise was a big statement. Even still, I think they’d be rightly pissed off and so would we, in their shoes.

Gonna suggest that the obvious elbow from Hyam and Dennis’ studs up challenge should have had us at 9 men is the basis for my assessment.