Rowett: “We Have To Improve Fast”

Gary Rowett warned his Derby County side that they have to show rapid improvement as he reflected on the 4-1 defeat against Sunderland on Friday night.

The Rams were beaten by two goals in each half from Chris Coleman’s side as the winless run was extended to eight games under the lights.

Rowett admitted that the performance was one of his lowest moments at Pride Park Stadium.

He told RamsTV: “It was an awful, awful night and the crowd didn’t deserve that. I’ve been asking them to get behind the players all week and I think they really did that tonight, but the players didn’t deserve it.

“We have to take a long, hard look at ourselves and I’m not going to stand here and defend it.

“I’ve been coming to Pride Park for a long time as a supporter, manager and player, and I don’t think I have seen too many displays as poor as that.

“We have to improve and we have to improve fast.”

The boss couldn’t hide his disappointment with the goals that his side conceded on the night, with a deflection, misplaced pass and penalty concession resulting in the first three for the Black Cats.

He said: “I can accept it when a team comes and plays us off the park – Sunderland are fighting for their lives and we saw that tonight – but the goals that we conceded were woeful.

“With the first one, we can very easily clear it, I’m not sure why we have headed it into our own net and we then give the ball away under no pressure.

“We wanted to start the second half brightly and if we could start by putting them under pressure and getting the second goal, you might have seen a very different Sunderland.

“We give a penalty away inside the first five minutes of the first half, which was dreadful and our defensive display tonight was really poor.”

Despite the defeat, Derby still stand in fifth place in the Sky Bet Championship, level on points with Middlesbrough and Bristol City in sixth and seventh respectively.

Rowett reiterated that he needs his team to pick up their form as soon as possible to maintain their position in the top-six, starting with the trip to Deepdale to face Preston North End on Monday.

“We have to do something about it, and quickly because we know that results have not been good enough to keep us in there.

“I’ll have to have a good look at the team because I have got some big decisions to make.”