Shinnie: "It Is Simply Not Good Enough"

Graeme Shinnie described Derby County’s 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham City on Saturday as ‘simply not good enough’.

The Rams fell to defeat at Pride Park Stadium despite taking the lead in the first half through Colin Kazim-Richards’ eighth goal of the campaign.

However, in the second half, two long throw-ins undid all the Rams’ hard work as Birmingham striker Lucas Jutkiewicz capitalised twice to turn the game on its head.

The visitors held out to gain all three points and consign Derby to their fifth successive defeat, but they stay four points above the relegation places due to results elsewhere.

Speaking to RamsTV after the game, Shinnie gave an honest assessment of where the Rams find themselves with two games of the Sky Bet Championship season remaining.

“It is the position that we have put ourselves in and it is simply not good enough,” he admitted. “It is the position we are in and we have to fight on. There is nothing else we can do.

“It is the same as I have said before, we conceded two goals from long throw-ins today and have lost the game 2-1.

“I thought we dealt with their long throw-ins pretty well in general, but twice we switched off and twice they scored to win the game.

“From our point of view, that can’t happen. The least we should be coming away with is a point. It is frustrating.

“We knew they would be throwing the ball into our box and putting free kicks into the box. We knew that was what was coming and that’s why we played the way we did.

“In the first half we dealt with it brilliantly and in the second half we didn’t and that is why we lost the game.”

For the first 45 minutes in particular, Derby were on top. They were first to every ball and there was no denying that there was fight in the team, and they deservedly led at the break.

However, two set piece goals saw the game turned on its head in the second half.

“That is the way we felt like we could win the game and in the first half it worked well,” he said. “We got the goal to go in front and from there you are looking to try and get a clean sheet and the least we sould be doing is coming away with a 1-0 win.

“We haven’t done that. We are conceding too many goals, especially from set plays whether it be corners, throw-ins or whatever it is.

“The only positive we can take is that the other teams around us have lost today which is hard to say because it is not good enough.

“From our point of view, it is not good enough to be looking at other results and hoping they go our way.

“It is a frustrating situation, but it is us that have put ourselves in it. We go again and we have two games to go and we will fight on.”

Derby did not, however, lose any ground in their fight to stay in the division as all three teams directly below them lost this afternoon.

It was a missed opportunity for Derby to make clear daylight between themselves and the relegation places and Shinnie knows they can’t keep relying on results around them.

“We have to take care of our own business and we haven’t been doing it,” he said. “We should have had a point at Blackburn; we played well there and lost 2-1.The Preston performance and result, losing 3-0, was not acceptable – I think everyone knows that. It was just not acceptable.

“Today we wanted to come out fighting and I thought we did, but it is frustrating goals that we are giving away and it is just too easy for teams to come and win.