3/1 To Win
Wayne Rooney believes Derby County’s focus will have to be spot on when they welcome Millwall to Pride Park Stadium on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
After three successive away fixtures in the Sky Bet Championship, Derby are back in action on home turf for the first time in March as they look to build on the 0-0 draw at in-form Barnsley on Wednesday night.
Millwall, managed by former Rams boss and manager Gary Rowett, occupy 11th place in the table and sit seven points ahead of Rooney’s side.
Derby will go into the game against the Lions looking to return to winning ways, after drawing two and losing two of their last four matches.
“We know tomorrow will be a tough game,” Rooney told RamsTV on Friday afternoon.
“Millwall mix it up a bit more, previously they were a bit more direct but now they try to play a bit more as well.
“It is a game where we will have to have real focus in to win it.”
“I don’t think we have to look back; we have to look forward,” he explained.
“I think you can sit here and say: ‘this is where we were and this is where we are now’. The big question is where do we want to go and how do we want to move forward?
“The next step in that is the game tomorrow. The real time to reflect is at the end of the season and see what we did well and what we can improve on. For the time being our focus is all on the game tomorrow.”
There has been little time for Rooney and his staff to work on the training ground with the players since Wednesday evening’s hard-fought draw against Barnsley.
The Rams had to dig deep in testing conditions to pick up a point and could have come away with more had Graeme Shinnie’s long-range strike not hit the post in the second half.
While time cannot always be spent on the grass, especially when recovery sessions are so important, Rooney says there are several other ways to prepare his side.
He said: “It is important that we try to prepare the players in the best way we can.
“There isn’t much time between games, so it is important when we do show the players videos or do work on the training pitch that they are engaged to make sure they take the information in.”
