Jason Knight felt Derby County displayed plenty of positive characteristics despite falling to a late 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night.
Huddersfield scored twice in the final 15 minutes to deny Wayne Rooney’s dogged side what would have been a deserved point after the Rams were forced to play virtually the entire game with 10 men.
Defender Richard Stearman was sent off after only three minutes for a challenge on Terriers midfielder Lewis O'Brien, leaving the Rams facing an uphill battle in West Yorkshire.
But Derby, seven points from safety in the Sky Bet Championship’s relegation zone after having 21 points deducted from their season’s total, gave as good as they got.
Former Rams midfielder Duane Holmes broke the deadlock with a heavily deflected opener with 15 minutes left and Jordan Rhodes' close range finish sealed the points for the home side.
Despite the defeat, Knight felt the Rams put in a good shift and were unfortunate to come away with nothing to show for their efforts.
“It is disappointing,” Knight told RamsTV after the match.
“The result isn’t what we wanted but we stuck at it as a team. Going down to ten men was always going to be difficult but collectively we stuck at it.
“We put in a really good shift that we can be positive about. That’s a testament to the team, the squad and the lads that came off the bench.
“We stuck it out for a long period in that game and felt comfortable for the majority of it but a really bad deflection took the wind out of it and killed it really.”
He added: “I think we had one or two decent opportunities where we maybe could have done better with. We will take our medicine and go again next week for the game against Hull.”
Derby were backed by over 1,700 supporters in the away end at the John Smith’s Stadium and they made their voices heard all evening.
The Rams’ faithful have been inspirational all season, which included a 32,000 sell-out at Pride Park Stadium against Birmingham City last weekend, in getting behind the side in testing circumstances.
Knight was full of praise for the backing the side have received both at home and on the road.
“The fans have been excellent, not just tonight but all season,” Knight said.
“You see them after the game in full voice and that really spurs us on.
“They won’t know that, but all the way it really does keep us going throughout the game and we need them for the rest of the season.”
Derby have just under a week until they return to Championship action when they welcome Hull City to Pride Park Stadium next Tuesday (7:45pm kick-off).
The Rams picked up all three points against the Tigers when they met at the MKM Stadium in a 1-0 victory as the look to do the double over their opponents.
“Next week is an opportunity for us and something we need to take,” he said.
“We need to take results off teams around us in the table and get ourselves out of this situation that we are in.
“We need to take it game by game and that starts next Tuesday against Hull.”
