Manager Frank Lampard was frustrated his side could not reach the heights of the last three games following defeat on the road against Bolton Wanderers.
Craig Noone scored the only goal early into the game as he headed home from close range. Derby did play some neat football but were unable to break down a stubborn Bolton Wanderers defence who were camped in their own half for large parts of the game.
The Rams’ best chance of the game came in the dying minutes as a long ball found Mason Mount at the back post but he was unable to steer it beyond Remi Matthews, who made the save with his feet.
“It’s frustrating to lose here after good performances in the last three games but we weren’t at it today,” Lampard told RamsTV following the game. “We weren’t at it with our passing, it wasn’t crisp enough or quick enough to get it into the areas that we usually do.
“When you concede early against a team that are pretty happy to sit back and accept pressure and defend well, like they did, then it makes the afternoon difficult.
“It was one of those days. Mason Mount’s chance at the end goes in or a deflected shot goes in when they have so many bodies in the box or a cross drops to you instead of them. On another day we could have been more sharper and get into better areas but you get the feeling later the game goes on it’s going to be difficult to score.”
Mason Mount was struggling in the build up but Lampard stuck with the same squad who had impressively beaten Manchester United and Brentford last week. “He had some sickness, not quite enough to take him out of the game,” he said.
“Maybe he wasn’t at his best because of that, naturally, but with Mason you feel like he’s going to make something happen for us so he was good enough for that and on another day he scores the goal to give us the point.”
Derby County have a chance to put it right on Wednesday night as Norwich City are the visitors to Pride Park Stadium.
“The beauty of the Championship is to move on quickly but I am a bit fed up saying that,” Lampard commented. “If we want to be as successful as we want to be then we can’t go up and go down and win some and lose some.
“We need to get some consistency and that’s up to the players to do. Consistency in the way that you approach it, the basics that you do in the game, they will be the fundamentals that win or lose and we got too many basics wrong today.”