Lyons: "We Were Excellent All Over The Pitch"

Pat Lyons praised the quality of Derby County’s Under-23’s second half performance after they fought back from a goal down to take a point against Manchester United.

A penalty sent the visitors in front during the first period but Lewis Walker continued his strong run of goalscoring form to level the scores at St George’s Park.

Lyons was pleased with how the side reacted to losing a late goal at Liverpool last time out, as well as a difficult first half against the Red Devils.

He told RamsTV: “I thought we were excellent, we came back from the disappointment of conceding late last weekend [against Liverpool] against another top club.

“We showed great qualities, we won our duels and second balls, I thought we were excellent all over the pitch, especially in the second half.”

The Rams were in the ascendancy for much of the second period and after the equaliser, they looked most likely to go on and grab the winner.

However, that changed when the referee dismissed Cameron Cresswell after he judged the winger to have handled inside the United penalty area, although replays showed that wasn’t the case.

Lyons believes it was a moment that altered the potential outcome…

He said: “The referee has changed the game, we thought we could go on and win it once we equalised so we were disappointed with that decision.

“We were on the up and we created a good chance just after we scored with Luke Thomas and we could have gone ahead.”

Walker scored four when Derby took on Birmingham City at St George’s Park, and he enjoyed his return to the National Football Centre.

His equaliser was a moment of great quality, and Lyons believes that the Under-23s have a striker that they can depend on.

“Lewis won all of his headers and I thought he was excellent again today, along with the two centre-backs and the goalkeeper,” he said.

“It was a great ball in and what a header. It flew into the bottom corner and we’re really pleased for him, in the last few games he’s really started to show his worth.

“He holds the ball up and he wins his headers, we can play off him and he’s enjoying his run in the side.”