3/1 To Win
Chris Baird praised the ‘instant impact’ that Derby County’s substitutes made in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City at Pride Park Stadium.
Chris Martin, Sam Winnall and Mason Bennett all stepped off bench as the Rams recovered from a goal down to draw with the Blues.
The latter two combined as Winnall scored his first goal for Derby since joining on a season-long loan from Sheffield Wednesday to cancel out Lukas Jutkiewicz’s header just two minutes prior.
Baird, the 35-year-old former Northern Ireland international, felt the trio turned the tide of the contest in Derby’s favour at a crucial point.
He told RamsTV: “We’ve got fresh legs in the squad and we’ve got good quality that can come on. That can always change a game and it did today.
“We’re obviously disappointed with the draw and disappointed not to take three points, especially at home.
“We could have crumbled after they scored, but I’m delighted that the boys could make an instant impact when they came on.
“I was delighted for Sam Winnall to get his first goal for us too; I’m sure he will be buzzing to get into the team. We have to continue and we have to keep going.”
After levelling, the Rams were well in the ascendancy and despite crafting a couple more openings – again through Winnall and Bennett – Derby were unable to find a winner.
Assessing the game as a whole, Baird felt a draw was a fair result.
He added: “It was just one of those games where there weren’t that many chances for both teams. I think we had the best of them, but there were a few good saves from Tomasz Kuszczak.
“I think it’s a fair result in the end. I just felt that we needed to up the tempo a bit more and it didn’t happen for us.
“It was disappointing to go 1-0 down, but we showed good character to come back and get the equaliser. All in all, I think a point is the right result.”
