3/1 To Win
Harry Wilson fired in the equaliser to help turn Derby County’s fortunes around against Sheffield Wednesday to earn a ‘deserved’ three points despite an admittedly slow start.
The Rams found themselves a goal behind to the Owls early on as they struggled to jump straight back into action following the two-week long international break.
Wilson, having returned from international duty with Wales, scored his fifth goal of the season to prompt the comeback. Jack Marriott then went head-to-head with the home ‘keeper to take the lead in the first-half.
Despite chances from either side that followed, including both hitting the post, the score remained the same. Wilson praised his teammates’ ability to be resilient to the slow start and the strong defending to see the game out.
“It was [a battle] from the team,” Wilson told RamsTV. “We were disappointed in the way we started the game, we felt that we were off both on the ball and off it.
“Whenever we go a goal down or we aren’t playing great, we know that if we do click we can always go up a gear or two.
“I think the first goal from me calmed us down a bit then Jack, when he got his chance, obviously he scored because that’s what he does, so I think that settled us down towards the end of the first-half.
“We started to play a lot better then, although they put us under a bit of pressure and hit the post, I think we defended well as a team and in the end deserved the win.”
The 21-year-old, cool and composed as always, struck from the left of the area across goal and into the top corner after his teammates put in the work down the right.
The goal was the result of a short throw that passed through the feet of a several of the Rams players, including a deflected shot by Marriott that fell to the wideman to control a difficult bounce and convert.
Explaining his goal, Wilson said: “They did really well down the right. I think it was Flo was involved and Duane as well. Jack is trying to claim the assist, but I think it was more of a scuffed shot!
“It fell to me and it was a bit high, so I was just concentrating on keeping it down and thankfully it went in.”
Several minutes later and there was no way Marriott was scuffing his shot when he took on Owls’ ‘keeper Cameron Dawson. Florian Jozefzoon fed the ball through to him and Wilson had high praise for what Marriott did next.
“You always know with Jack when he is one-on-one with the keeper. Nine times out of ten he is going to bury it.
“I thought he took it a bit early and I was screaming at him to take it forward, but he is confident in his ability, hit it hard and low to go in.”
The victory at Hillsborough was the first for the Rams since 2014 and extended their league unbeaten run on the road to four games.
I also retained Derby’s position inside the top six and Wilson is urging the team to keep the focus for another opportunity to pick up points on the road when they face Stoke City on Wednesday evening.
“Everyone knows what a tough, competitive league it is and we have just got to keep doing our job, keep winning, grinding out results to hopefully stay at the top end of the table,” he said.
“That’s what we want, the big games away from home at tough places. We will recover right and make sure we are ready.”
