Andre Wisdom felt Derby County’s error-ridden start to their meeting with Sheffield United cost them the game.
The Rams fell to a 3-1 at Bramall Lane as their three-match winning streak in all competitions came to an end with their first defeat on the road of the 2017/18 Sky Bet Championship season.
The Blades delivered the first blow inside the opening five minutes as Billy Sharp seized on a miss-kicked clearance from Scott Carson to place the ball into the back of the net.
It got worse shortly before the interval as Johnny Russell put through his own net, just as the Rams were starting to get back on top in the match.
Assessing the game, Wisdom felt Derby started ‘on the wrong foot’ and made errors as a team to gift Sheffield United a platform to build on and hold on to.
“I thought that we started the game on the wrong foot and I think I can say the same for all of the lads,” the 24-year-old full back told RamsTV.
“We lost the game in the first 20 minutes. They came out the traps and caught us out with some of our errors to capitalise on them.
“That’s what won them the game. We were second to a lot of things, they won a lot of battles collectively all over the pitch and that ended up costing us. It wasn’t the best performance at all.
“The less goals we concede, the easier it is to come back and try and get yourself into the game, but we just made so many errors across the team.”
Whilst they were better in the second half, Derby very rarely threatened to breach Jamal Blackman’s goal and force themselves back into the contest until seven minutes of added time was shown at the end of the 90 minutes.
Craig Bryson, on as a substitute, halved the deficit on 91 minutes, but Sharp killed any late jitters with his second of the match – capitalising on the visitors throwing every man, including Scott Carson, into the Blades’ penalty area as they desperately tried to salvage a point.
“If we had got the goal earlier then it could have been a different game, but it’s just the way things pan out,” Wisdom added.
“It was a good header from Brys (Craig Bryson) and we’ve had to go for it at the end and that’s why what happened with Scotty (Scott Carson) coming up for the last free-kick.
“It’s the first half performance that myself and all the lads aren’t happy with. We created more in the second but just fell short in the end.”
The trip to Bramall Lane was Derby’s last before the first international break of the season commences.
With two wins, two defeats and a draw on the board so far, Wisdom accepts the Rams have had an indifferent start to the campaign and says they will only improve if they can cut out the basic errors over the next two weeks ahead of their return to action next month.
He added: “We have seen some good and some bad in August. I think it’s obviously been an average start to the season.
“We are disappointed because we know that we can do better and some of the things that let us down are basics.
“All we can do is keep our heads high because it’s a long season.
“During training, everyone needs to be 100 per cent because during Monday to Friday, that’s where you can win 90 per cent of the game.
“The games come thick and fast. It’s the international break now but it gives us time to reflect on our weaknesses and the things that we didn’t do well.”