3/1 To Win
Wayne Rooney wants Derby County to put their full focus on building on their first league win of the 2021/22 Sky Bet Championship season in midweek.
Derby picked up maximum points for the first time this term on Wednesday night as they ran out 1-0 winners at Hull City.
Debutant Sam Baldock scored the only goal of the game to hand Rooney’s side a deserved victory.
After picking up a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town on the opening day of the season and tasting a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at Peterborough United last weekend, Rooney knew the importance of picking up a win quickly.
Derby return to action at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon against Middlesbrough (3pm kick-off) and Rooney wants the Rams to be ready and raring to go again.
Speaking to RamsTV, Rooney said: “Neil Warnock sets his teams up to be very difficult to beat so we know tomorrow will be more of a more physical game that the one in midweek.
“They challenge you physically, so we have to be ready for that.
“We have to be ready for the fight and the battle and then to play our football on the other side of that, so we will be ready either way.”
He added: “There was some relief to get the win on Wednesday, because you want that first win as soon as possible.
“We know that if we keep playing in that way and with that confidence then we will win a lot of games so there is a relief but we have to put that game to bed now and we have a tough game coming up tomorrow.”
Rooney delegated post-match media duties to assistant manager Liam Rosenior after the win at Hull.
Offering his assessment on the game for the first team, the 35-year-old was left satisfied with several aspects of his side’s performance - but he knows there’s room for improvement too.
“It was a good victory,” Rooney said. “It was well deserved, we were the better team and played some good stuff at times and deserved the three points so I think it was a big win for us.
“It was one we needed and the lads deserved it for the hard work that they put in.
“We were trying to improve as a team, trying to play in a certain way and I thought the lads did that really well.
“We created some very good chances but we need to be more clinical. We can make the games easier for ourselves by taking those chances, but I thought from start to finish we played in a way that I wanted us to and we managed the game in the last 10 minutes.”
