Jesse Lingard labelled Derby County’s team spirit and work rate as ‘unbelievable’ after making his Rams debut in the 2-1 defeat to Reading in the FA Cup.
Jesse Lingard labelled Derby County’s team spirit and work rate as ‘unbelievable’ after making his Rams debut in the 2-1 defeat to Reading in the FA Cup.
The 22-year-old, who is on loan with the Rams until the end of the season from Manchester United, played the full 90 minutes of the contest as Derby bowed out of the competition at the Fifth Round.
The Rams, though, had to play more than 50 minutes with 10 men after Stephen Warnock was shown a red card during the first half of the contest, but were undone with eight minutes remaining after Yakubu struck for the Royals.
With that, it proved to be a bitter-sweet afternoon for Lingard, but the wideman praised the rest of his team mates for how they dealt with the situation.
Speaking to Rams Player, he said: “I have been patient over the past few weeks and I have worked hard over the past week to get my chance in this team and I hope that I have repaid that with my performance.
“It was my first intense 90 minutes of the season, I have played a few reserve games at Manchester United, but today was a big test for me and I thought I did ok.
“Derby are a footballing side and even though we was down to 10 men for so long, we put them on the back foot in the last 15 minutes.
“We created so many chances and we really went for it and they have just caught us on the break.
“The team spirit and the work rate of the lads was unbelievable. You wouldn’t have thought we only had 10 men.
“We had a lot of players forward and we have just got caught out. Yakubu has been a great finisher all his career and he has scored a good goal at the end.”
Lingard thought he had marked his debut with Derby’s equaliser, but his first time shot inside the area took a deflection off Darren Bent that took it beyond Adam Federici.
Despite missing out on a debut strike, Lingard stated that it does not matter who gets on the score sheets and said that the Rams will now put all their focus into the 16 cup finals that lie before them and the end of the season.
He added: “I’ll take an assist for that! Darren (Bent) has just showed that striker’s instinct he has got and I am glad that the ball just went in and it gave us a good chance in the game.
“I was sure that it was going in before he got a touch on it, but even so, we need to move on from this game now because we have got 16 cup finals now until the end of the season.
“Every game is going to be so important now. We have got a lot of Saturday, Tuesday games and we are going to be fully focused to try and pick up as many points as possible over the remaining 16 games of the season.”
