3/1 To Win
Captain Tom Lawrence believes Derby County will learn from the 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday.
The Rams’ skipper put his side ahead in the opening 11 minutes of the game as he met a Craig Forsyth long ball and fired into the bottom corner.
It was his first goal of the campaign and he also had chances to extend Derby’s advantage in either half, and on both occasions he was denied by Forest goalkeeper Brice Samba.
He was forced off just after the hour mark with cramp as Forest found an equaliser through Brennan Johnson late on.
But Lawrence believes his side can learn a lot as the local derby clash ended in a draw.
“I thought we had chances to win it overall,” he told RamsTV. “We were better in the first half and they probably edged it in the second half but we are gutted to concede that late on. The manner of the goal shouldn’t happen, but we learn from it.
“We were playing free-flowing stuff, but that's football. It sometimes goes like this but one thing for sure, we will work on it.
“Maybe they went more aggressive in the second half, but we need to figure that out. We will have a look at it because we’ve been ahead in a few games now. We will look at it, learn from it and we will be ready for the next one.”
The Welsh forward’s first goal of the season was his first-ever against Forest, and it was a great way to open his account for the season.
“Fozzy has got that in his locker all day,” he said. “Hopefully he can keep giving me more. I was hoping I wasn’t offside, fortunately I wasn’t, I was waiting for it to drop and then hit it so luckily it went in.”
The noise when the ball hit the back of the net was indescribable and he admitted it was great to have supporters back in the stadium.
“You can’t beat it,” he explained. “To have them back in the stadium, cheering us on, was great. They were magnificent today and gutted we couldn’t get the win for them.”
Lawrence was forced off in the second half after suffering heavily with cramp, whilst he assured supporters he was fine, and it was down to a lack of training last week, he is looking forward to a little bit of time off over the international break to recover.
“We get a little break now and we will reassess this, put this one to bed and look forward to Birmingham,” he commented. “Every game is a tough game in this league. We all know that by now but I look forward to them.”
