3/1 To Win
Wayne Rooney was understandably disappointed after Derby County tasted defeat against Blackburn Rovers in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Derby were beaten 2-1 by the visitors as two first-half goals at Pride Park Stadium brought their five-match unbeaten run to an end.
Blackburn took the lead inside the first ten minutes as their Chilean international forward Ben Brereton Díaz scored from close range after Kelle Roos had kept out his initial effort at point-blank range.
The visitors’ lead was doubled inside the opening 20 minutes as Brereton Díaz kept his cool inside the area to slot the ball beyond Roos in a difficult first half for the Rams.
Rooney’s side were improved after the break, with a double change at half-time seeing Sam Baldock and Colin Kazim-Richards coming off the bench, and Ravel Morrison came close to pulling a goal back before the hour from a free-kick.
Defender Curtis Davies netted his second goal of the season with a minute of normal time remaining but Derby were, however, unable to get back level late on, with Kazim-Richards hitting the post in added time, as they tasted defeat on home turf for the first time this season in all competitions.
Speaking to RamsTV after the match, Rooney said: “The first half was just not good enough.
“I think we were too deep, there were too many gaps in between the lines to pick balls up with nobody near them.
“We were losing first balls, losing second balls and were way too deep as a back four and we were punished with two sloppy goals to concede.
“It made it difficult for us to get something today. We can’t afford not to turn up for 45 minutes and I said to the players beforehand that there are moments in games whether that’s five or ten minutes that you have to dig in; but we threw 45 minutes away and that cost us.
“It was a good reaction from half time, at 2-0 down last season we wouldn’t have been able to come back, and on another day we maybe could have taken a point but we left ourselves with too much to do.”
He added: “We were trying to get messages on to get higher up the pitch and play with energy, to be aggressive and to be fair to the front guys, they were trying it but the back line was too deep and that was the problem.
“I was going to make changes after around 25 minutes because I could see the way the game was going but from a fitness point of view, I don’t think Colin Kazim-Richards or Sam Baldock were ready to play as long so I was hoping we would get in at half time at just 2-0 to be honest because we still had a possibility of getting something, but they both did well when they came on.”
Derby now face successive away fixtures in the Championship ahead of the November international break at Barnsley on Wednesday (7:45pm kick-off) and then Millwall next Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Looking ahead, Rooney said: “We have got two tough games coming up away from home.
“We will be prepared and be ready and we will go again on Wednesday at Barnsley.”
