3/1 To Win
Phillip Cocu was proud of the way his Derby County side performed on what proved to be difficult afternoon in the Sky Bet Championship as they fell to a 3-0 defeat at Reading.
But the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story.
Derby were handed a double setback inside the first five minutes of the game at the Madejski Stadium after left-back Scott Malone was sent-off for a professional foul on Yakou Meite inside the penalty area.
Charlie Adam scored the resultant penalty for the Royals by sending goalkeeper Ben Hamer the wrong way from 12 yards.
So, for the remaining 85 minutes, the Rams were forced to play with ten men.
They battled hard and had chances to equalise before the break; Tom Lawrence hit the woodwork and both Jason Knight and Martyn Waghorn had shots saved.
Knight also had a reasonable shout for a penalty waved away before the first-half was out.
However, Lucas Joao doubled Reading's lead early in the second half from close range before Meite also scored from the spot late on after a foul by Craig Forsyth.
Derby continued to battle away in the second period too and Knight hit the woodwork from distance and Forsyth was denied from close-range following a corner.
Cocu, while disappointed with the final score, was keen to praise his players for the way they stood up to the challenge in testing circumstances.
Speaking to RamsTV after the final whistle, Cocu commented: “I can’t let it go by without mentioning how important the referee was today. I thought there were some very bad decisions by killing the game after four or five minutes.
“I don’t like talking about the referee, because we always have to look at ourselves, so it is better I don’t say any more on that.
“I am proud of the team and how we played. After four minutes the game plan was out of the window and how the team performed, we did well with one less.
“We had bad luck and didn’t score.”
He added: “The way the players played today, they showed what has to be done and what is different from other away games. That is a very important step forward.
“They are more united, the common idea of what we stand for. We want to see it in every game. We just have to make sure as staff, as a team and as individual players, that we stay on this track.”
Cocu felt his side, on and off the ball, showed their identity.
While the scoreline wasn’t what anyone with a Derby County affiliation hoped for, the Dutchman did see positives to build on.
Now, the challenge is to take those good moments into the Boxing Day trip to Wigan Athletic as the Rams look to address a six-game losing run away from home.
Cocu clearly has faith that his side are close to turning their disappointing run of form around in order to climb the Championship table.
He said: “I think until the second goal, we created the best chances on goal with one player less.
“We played with courage and with bravery from the back with really good dynamics. There was great spirit and we won our battles one-on-one.
“We talked all week about what we stand for and how we play and the players showed it. At the end of the game by maybe a bad pass or an unfortunate second goal and a third, on a very tough pitch it was slippery and muddy, they can score once or twice.
“I don’t care about that fact because what I care about is the first 60 minutes. We conceded a penalty, Scott Malone was sent off and we played with ten men - but what an hour of football I saw from our side."
A determined Cocu added: “I saw the reaction of our fans after the game, they were applauding because they see the players did everything and they were proud to wear the shirt of our club.
“That is what we need to see, not only today but from now on we will see it every game.
“We will go to Wigan with the same goal, courage and bravery to play football with this mentality. Things will change because you cannot hit the woodwork for the whole season and have bad luck in your finishing, so I have all the confidence that we will get the results.”
