Derby County’s Under-18s will be aiming for a return to winning ways against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday as they look to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the Premier League North.
The Rams are currently third in the table but they go into the 11am kick-off at West Brom’s training ground without a win in three league games.
A home defeat by Manchester United was followed by contrasting draws against Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough, but there’s still plenty of positives that Derby can turn to from the season so far.
Rory Delap, the Rams' professional development phase coach, also found plus points in his side’s last game, the 3-3 draw at home to Middlesbrough.
Despite his disappointment at the goals that his side conceded, he praised the squad’s character, as they fought back from 3-2 down with 15 minutes remaining to earn a point.
After the game, he told RamsTV: “With only 10 or 15 minutes left of the game to go 3-2 behind, and I’m pleased with how they approached that and stayed quite calm and to get it back go to 3-3.”
It’s two weeks since the Under-18s played their last game and forward Morgan Whittaker admitted that the break between the fixtures could be the kick-start that Derby need to earn a positive result on Saturday.
He said: “It’s always good just to relax but very quickly you are keen to get back to training.
“Playing football every day is great, I do think, especially after a hectic period like we’ve just had, you need that time to recover and relax.
“We have trained very well this week so the key for me is to train as much as possible in the same vein to have the best possible chance of coming away from games with something.”
Read the full interview with Whittaker here.
Images by Harry Marshall
