Gary Rowett pulled no punches when offering his assessment of Derby County’s 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United this afternoon.
Derby, off the back of three wins in all competitions, arrived at Bramall Lane looking to go into the first international break of the Sky Bet Championship season on a high note.
However, those hopes were quickly dispelled as they Rams tasted their first away defeat of the campaign in South Yorkshire.
Blades skipper and chief marksman Billy Sharp opened the scoring inside the opening five minutes after latching onto a scuffed clearance by goalkeeper Scott Carson, before forward Johnny Russell turned the ball into his own net shortly before half-time to double the hosts’ lead.
Substitute Craig Bryson pulled a goal back for the Rams in added time to set up a grandstand finish but, as Derby chased an equaliser, they were hit on the break and Sharp added his second and United’s third with the last kick of the game.
Rowett, the Derby manager, conceded that his side deserved nothing from the match and only had themselves to blame.
He was particularly disappointed with the first half performance of his side at Bramall Lane and, despite fighting back in the second half, he felt it was a case of it being too little too late.
During that first half Rowett felt Derby showed no real intensity or endeavour, particularly when it came to the ugly side of the game.
He told RamsTV: “We spoke beforehand about building on the last three wins so we are disappointed that we didn’t do that.
“We said to the lads that when you come to a place like this, it matters not what you’ve done before; you have to have the right mentality to go again and that starts with working hard enough.
“I just felt that the first ten minutes really summed our first half performance up. We didn’t show enough intensity and we didn’t do the ugly side of the game well enough when we didn’t have the ball.
“When we got into some attacking positions, even though we didn’t pass the ball anywhere near good enough, we actually got into some good positions in the first half – we just couldn’t find any real quality and I’m not sure why.”
He added: “We didn’t deserve anything today. We’ve only got ourselves to blame, we can’t turn around and blame anyone else. There was not enough quality first half and not enough endeavour.
“It was better in the second half but that’s not enough when you’re 2-0 down. It’s a really disappointing afternoon and really disappointing on the back of an impressive three games.”
The goals that Derby conceded, by his own admission, will not make good viewing when Rowett and his backroom team do their regular analysis of matches.
Rowett also admitted he feels that the mindset within the squad still needs to change towards not just being a side that can defeat teams by playing good football.
He also spoke about needing mental character to get on the ball in difficult situations.
He said: “The big thing for me is that with the mistake that we made for the first goal, Scott Carson has held his hands up for it, causes us a problem because we’re 1-0 down. Then we end up committing football suicide by conceding a second one with an own goal.
“Sheffield United were much better than us in the first half and they looked like they wanted to win the game more than we did. In the second half, as I said, I was pleased in some ways with the reaction but it is always easier to do when you’re 2-0 down.
“The disappointing bit for me is that I don’t think in the first half that Sheffield United have cut us open, we just made it really difficult for ourselves with the two goals and we didn’t show enough mental character to get on the ball.”
“Until we change this mindset of feeling like we can always outplay teams, we are going to keep being inconsistent unfortunately.”
On how he can change the mindset he referenced, Rowett says working hard and repetition of messages to his players will continue.
Derby suffered with inconsistent away form last season and while keen not to over-react, he says the Rams’ form on the road must improve in the long-term.
He said: “We’ve just got to keep working hard, keep telling the players that being Derby County in this division is not going to mean an awful lot. It doesn’t just mean that you can rock up and win the game.
“There has been a problem with the away form for a while and these are the types of places where it comes to show. As a collective, things have to be much, much better.”