Lampard Praises Mentality Of His Players

Manager Frank Lampard praised the mentality of his players in their 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

The Rams fell behind in the opening 10 minutes of the game at Hillsborough as Adam Reach put the Owls ahead, however, two quick-fire goals turned the game on its head before half-time.

Firstly, Harry Wilson equalised on the half hour mark, sweetly-striking into the back of the net on the volley, whilst Jack Marriott clinically put the Rams ahead five minutes later.

Lampard’s side come under pressure towards the end of the game, but did enough to hold on and gain the valuable three points.

“It’s three points; it’s what we’re here for,” Lampard told RamsTV. “I was talking to the players before the game about mentality and mindset, making sure that we are back on our game.

“We all had a few days with our families but it’s important you focus, and we did but we can do better.

“It was good resilience but it was a poor start from us and It allowed them to score their goal. In the 20 minutes we were slow and it’s not what we want to be. Credit to us for turning it around but we weren’t at our best today for sure.

“We competed well in the second half, the ball came into our box and there was bravery and people ready to compete which is important. We can’t always play good football and these are games that we need to work hard at winning because successful teams do win them so I’m pleased on that note.”

The goals from Wilson and Marriott came at a good time for the Rams and Lampard praised both goalscorers, as well as Florian Jozefzoon who set up Marriott on his return to the team.

“Harry’s strike was great technique,” he said. “The ball bounced up and it’s not an easy one to hit but we know he’s got that. It was important for us because it gave us confidence.

“Jack’s ended up clean through, and it was great work from Jozefzoon, who was bright, and Jack takes it early which is a sign of his confidence.”

Central defender Fikayo Tomori picked up a booking in the first half and was coming under increased pressure from the home crowd to be sent off.

Lampard, as a result, elected to take the defender off at half time, bring on Curtis Davies, and he explained his decision.

“When the crowd are all on his case and you’re 2-1 up, and Curtis Davies is an option on the bench then I thought it made sense to do it,” he admitted.

“We had to be careful with the booking so he didn’t get a red card and I knew Curtis could defend against their big strikers. I had a feeling they would bring on an extra striker on at the end so I think Curtis did his job there.”

The win puts the Rams on 31 points, level with Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion ahead of Wednesday’s game at Stoke City.

“We need to keep trying to get results,” said Lampard. “There are some good teams up there, it’s a hard league. I’m pleased with where we are but I want more, I always want more.

“We are in a nice bunch of teams and there are a lot of games in this patch between now and March so it’s going to be make or break for us.”