Louie Sibley is convinced there’s plenty to be encouraged about despite Derby County’s exit from the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
Derby bowed out of the competition at the Round Two stage following a 2-1 reverse at fellow Sky Bet Championship side Sheffield United, but they did so with their heads held high.
Sibley, who was one of eight players aged 23 or under in the starting line-up as manager Wayne Rooney shuffled his pack, deservedly fired Derby ahead just before half-time to round off a dominant first-half showing.
The hosts, however, turned the game on its head with Luke Freeman and Billy Sharp on target in the second period.
Athough the game ended in defeat for the youthful Rams, Sibley felt the side stepped up and produced a strong display against a side that was in the Premier League last season.
Talking to RamsTV after the final whistle, Sibley said: “We are all gutted as a team to lose, as we thought we had done well enough to win the game.
“I think in the first half we showed how good we are as players. We got on the ball and played some fantastic football, so we are gutted not to win but we will learn from it.
“Hopefully we will brush that aside and there is a massive game on Saturday to look forward to against Forest at Pride Park.”
He added: “The football we played was brilliant, in the first half especially. We were all over them and created so many chances - so it’s just about being more clinical.”
Sibley’s goal just before the break at Bramall Lane was his first of the campaign.
Despite being pleased to get off the mark in the early stages of the season, he knows he should be getting his name on the scoresheet on a more regular basis.
“It was nice to get my first goal of the season so far, but I need to be more clinical,” Sibley said.
“I had a couple of chances, and some of the lads had a couple of chances too, so we felt like we could see the game out.
“If we could have taken more of our chances in the first half then we felt like we could easily have won the match.
“There are a lot of positives tonight, but we will learn from the mistakes as well. It was a young team our there, but we feel there were a lot of positives.”
Derby will welcome local rivals Nottingham Forest to Pride Park Stadium on Saturday (12:30pm kick-off) in their final Sky Bet Championship fixture before the September international break comes into play.
Sibley is a lifelong Rams fan and he’s relishing the prospect of facing the Reds with supporters back in stadiums, following three successive behind-closed-doors matches between the clubs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We know how much it means to the fans and we feel like we owe them for the last couple of times we haven’t beaten Forest, so we are looking forward to Saturday to try and put that right,” the Academy graduate said.
“We need to make sure we are ready on Saturday. For me personally, I am looking forward to getting the fans back in for a massive game.
“As a group, we will prepare well and we are really looking forward to it. We know how big it is and know how much it means to the fans. It’s massive for the club and we know that.”
He added: “I grew up watching these games so it is good to be a part of it now, but the whole team knows what it means to the fans and what it means to the whole club.
“We know it’s a big game. We aren’t going to get carried away, we are going to prepare properly and hopefully on Saturday we can make a lot of Derby fans happy.”