3/1 To Win
Before Luke Thomas became the latest player to graduate through the Rams’ Academy, Gary Rowett revealed that the wideman will be around the first team ‘all the time’ now… even after his first action as a senior player resulted in some dressing room banter!
The 18-year-old, who signed from Cheltenham Town in January 2016, came on in the 89th minute in the 2-0 win against Queens Park Rangers – just reward for some outstanding displays for the club’s Under-23s side.
Rowett said ahead of the game that Thomas had done everything possible to warrant his opportunity.
“Luke was on the bench against Leeds United and I think that he has done everything that he needed to with the Under-23s to warrant a chance on the pitch,” the 43-year-old said.
“He is training with the first-team all the time now, but the next test for him is can he break into the team and add more minutes on the pitch to his game.”
His big moment came in the last few minutes when he replaced Tom Lawrence.
Rowett revealed to RamsTV afterwards that he gave Thomas one instruction – to play out on the right wing.
Instead, he made his way out to the left – a move that was met humorously when the Derby boss delivered his full-time team talk!
“I had a go at Luke in front of all of the lads because the one piece of information I gave him was to play on the right and he ran on over to the left,” Rowett explained.
“I think he got a bit carried away but there was some banter in there!
“It was nice to get him on the pitch. I would have like to have thought that I’m brave enough to get him on for 20 minutes but when it’s 2-0, it’s a funny scoreline and I think we allowed them a chance.
“He has deserved his opportunity and I think he will be all the better for it.”
