Wayne Rooney felt Derby County’s game management was not good enough as they were beaten 1-0 at Coventry City on Saturday afternoon.
Maxime Biamou’s goal after 11 minutes proved to be the difference in the Sky Bet Championship fixture at Birmingham City’s St. Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.
Derby found it difficult to create clear-cut chances against a stubborn Sky Blues backline as sought to find a way back into the contest.
Matt Clarke was denied by Ben Wilson in the Coventry goal and Patrick Roberts had an effort deflected wide in the first half, while in the second period Colin Kazim-Richards glanced a header wide.
Rooney felt his side didn’t perform to their potential and with 12 matches left to play he is keen to ensure the Rams return to form quickly and edge further away from the division’s bottom three.
Speaking to RamsTV after the match, Rooney said: “We are a good team, we know we can perform better than we have done today.
“I thought the game management wasn’t good enough and we have to improve if we want to keep picking up points.
“I don’t think we played well enough in the first half, but we were better in the second half. It is a disappointing result, a sloppy goal to give away and we must move on and get ready for the next game.”
He added: “When you lose two games in a row of course the players will be disappointed, and I have to make sure I lift the players for another difficult game on Wednesday at Barnsley.”
Coventry’s goal came from a misplaced pass by Nathan Byrne, which allowed Biamou to run through the Derby defence and calmly slot the ball past Kelle Roos.
Rooney admitted the goal his side conceded was a poor one, but he was equally disappointed with the Rams' lack of a cutting edge going forward.
Rooney said: “That happens in football. Nathan has been fantastic and he knows it is a mistake that has cost us the goal.
“The most disappointing thing is after that we didn’t really look like scoring.
“We didn’t look like opening them up, we didn’t get enough shots off, we didn’t get enough crosses into the box with quality. It is something we need to look at over the next few days.”
Derby return to action in what will be their third successive away fixture in the Championship on Wednesday evening when they travel to Barnsley (7pm kick-off).