3/1 To Win
Curtis Davies felt there were plenty of positive aspects to take away from Derby County’s 0-0 draw at high-flying Cardiff City.
The Rams produced a solid defensive showing to keep their first clean sheet away from home since the end of January and very well could have nicked all three points in the second half.
Craig Forsyth hit the far post with a deep cross, whilst Neil Etheridge produced two fine saves in added time to deny substitute David Nugent – the first a superb instinctive block to palm away the forward’s half volley.
In that sense, Davies says the fact that the Rams came off the pitch ‘disappointed’ with a draw against the Sky Bet Championship’s early pace-setters is a measure of how well they played, but the 32-year-old also kept perspective in his post-match interview with RamsTV.
He said: “We could say we’re disappointed that we aren’t coming away with all three points, especially with the chances that we had at the end.
“Coming here, though, you can’t be greedy, especially with the way we have been playing away from home recently.
“To come here and not only be solid and keep the clean sheet, but play some decent football when we had the possession and create some good chances was also pleasing to see.
“We needed a little more quality in that final third and maybe we would have deserved to win the game.”
Davies felt Derby built on Gary Rowett’s messages following Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Brentford at Griffin Park.
For the majority of the aforementioned game, the Rams were penned inside their own half, struggled to make the most of possession when they had it and ultimately were punished as the Bees struck a late leveller through Ollie Watkins.
Davies felt Derby were far better in and out of possession to ensure they weren’t put under the same amount of pressure by Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds.
He added: “Brentford may have bombarded us for the whole game on Tuesday, but Scotty (Carson) wasn’t tested too many times.
“That was the case again today, but ultimately, we have come away with the clean sheet, which we knew was important.
“Against Brentford, we weren’t tough to play against, but we were resilient and that’s a good side to have.
“You don’t, though, want to have to be resilient for 70 minutes in a game. We said that today. We didn’t want to be a team that comes to Cardiff, who are top of the League, and have to defend.
“We wanted to win those second balls, because we knew they would be quite direct.
“We took a bit of a risk at times when we had the ball; we tried to get our foot on the ball and make a pass and we could have nicked it at the end.”
