Liam Rosenior was left incredibly frustrated as Derby County let a two-goal lead slip to go down 3-2 against Plymouth Argyle and taste defeat on home turf for the first time in the 2022/23 season.
First half strikes from James Collins and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing had the Rams on track for a sixth straight win on home turf in all competitions so far this season.
Collins’ first Rams goal lifted the roof off Pride Park Stadium after 26 minutes while Mendez-Laing’s fine individual effort before half-time provided Derby with breathing space against a strong Argyle side - but everything changed in the second half.
Plymouth pulled a goal back early in the second period through former Derby forward Morgan Whittaker and Rosenior’s side had to roll their sleeves up and dig in as Steven Schumacher’s side pushed on in search of an equaliser.
However, substitute Sam Cosgrove equalised shortly after coming off the bench with just over ten minutes remaining and he went on to net the winner in the final minute of normal time to leave the home faithful stunned.
Rosenior caught up with RamsTV after the final whistle to review the 90 minutes from his point of view.
On The Result…
It was promising at half-time in terms of the scoreline, but I didn’t think the performance was good in the first half. All credit to Plymouth, they were fearless and came here and performed to win; they were better than us today. I felt like they had that extra step and bit of energy today. That disappoints me because I didn’t see it coming with this group and up until today we had enjoyed a good start to the season. From minute one to minute 90, we were lethargic in our play and we didn’t play how we wanted to. Energy isn’t just physical; it is mental too to take the ball and be brave. We have to learn in this league, and quickly, that we are a scalp for teams and you could sense it beforehand with Plymouth’s fans singing in the warm-up that it was a big day. It has to be the same for us every week and in every match we play.
Not Matching Plymouth’s Energy…
They won pretty much every second ball in midfield and the ball was bouncing their way because they had more energy in their legs. They seemed to have more enthusiasm and that’s the first time I have said that. It is the first time we’ve deserved to lose the game this season. What we have to do now is go away, analyse the performance, be better and make sure we are much better than this next week. You cannot be complacent. Mistakes happen in football; I am more upset and annoyed with the performance and lack of energy in the team which I will rectify moving forwards.
Being 2-0 Up Making It Hard To Get Message Across To Players…
I was worried at half time and we needed to sense the press. Plymouth pressed us early on and we spoke beforehand about if they did that then we had to play the ball in behind them - and we didn’t when the space was there. We know we have quality players here and we saw that with our goals, but our overall performance wasn’t there today despite stressing that we needed to up our level. Plymouth kept pushing and deserved their three points.
On James Collins’ First Goal…
It’s great for him. All strikers want to score goals and he is no different. He has worked really hard for the team all season. I don’t have doubts about his quality in front of goal.
