3/1 To Win
Liam Rosenior has stressed the need for everyone associated with Derby County to focus on the positives after Saturday’s narrow 1-0 defeat at Bristol City.
The hosts took all three points when substitute Famara Diedhiou smashed the ball low past goalkeeper David Marshall with 12 minutes remaining.
Rosenior, Shay Given, Justin Walker and Wayne Rooney, as a coaching quartet, led the Rams into action in their first game since Phillip Cocu’s departure last weekend.
Derby’s performance at Ashton Gate did not warrant nothing to show for their efforts and Rosenior felt there were aspects to build on over the course of the 90 minutes.
The result leaves Derby with six points to their name from 12 Sky Bet Championship games so far this season but Rosenior believes there were enough signs against the Robins that the Rams aren’t far from turning their form around
Speaking to RamsTV after the game, Derby’s Specialist First Team Coach said: “We win as a team and we lose as a team and right now we are losing games.
“I don’t think the players hid at all today. Every single player wanted the ball and had the courage to take the ball and that is a really difficult thing to do when you are in our situation.
“It hurts that we lost the game, but there are a lot of positives. I would be the first one accepting it if the players didn’t reach the levels of effort, determination, quality and desire, but today I cannot fault any single player for what they did out there.
“The players in the dressing room are hurting and myself, Wayne, Justin and Shay are hurting too. We said today about scoring the first goal and we played positive football. I think anyone can see what we tried to do today.
“We were not defensive, we tried to give the lads confidence in terms of believing in themselves and playing forwards.
“At times we were playing with five players up the pitch and that is what myself, Shay, Wayne and Justin believe in. The amount of crossing opportunities, balls across the box and shooting opportunities were really clear to see and it is just a matter now of confidence.
“We worked on getting numbers into the box, we got into some outstanding positions, and it is just sometimes that final bit and sometimes that is a lack of confidence when you are not winning games and scoring goals. But it will turn.”
He added: “The points total from the amount of games we have got isn’t good enough. That is why we are in the situation we are in, but what we cannot do as a football club is start thinking that everything is against us and luck is against us. We need to make our own luck.
“The players need to get home, rest and come in on Monday fresh ready to go to Middlesbrough and put in the same sort of performance. I think if we put the same performance in, the outcome and result will be different.”
Rosenior was aggrevied that two penalty shouts went against Derby at Ashton Gate.
Jamie Paterson was booked for pulling back Duane Holmes in the box in the first half, although a penalty wasn’t awarded and instead the Rams were given a corner.
That particular decision left Rosenior very frustrated, while he also felt Matt Clarke was brought down in the City penalty area late on as Derby chased an equaliser.
The 36-year-old said: “When you ask your players to go and perform and do what you instruct them to do to the letter, you expect referees to perform as well.
“I have never seen in my career a player get booked for a foul and the foul not be given, I have never seen that. I need to understand how that is possible.
“Right at the end I thought we had a clear penalty when Matt Clarke went down. You need to rely on your players to do their jobs, but you also must rely on officials to do theirs and unfortunately for us that didn’t happen today.”
He added: “We cannot get into the mindset that we start thinking that everything is against us. That is the most important thing because we have got outstanding footballers in this squad; we still believe that.”
Derby return to Sky Bet Championship action on Wednesday night with a trip north to take on Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium (7pm kick-off).
