Ben Osborn says Derby County needed an improved first-half showing as they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
The midfielder returned to the starting line-up for his sixth start of the season in the Sky Bet Championship after signing from Sheffield United back in June.
The Potters got themselves in front from the penalty spot in the first half in a tight game. Derby's equaliser came through a Viktor Johansson own goal after the Rams made a bright start to the second period, before Potters Ben Gibson captain redeemed himself for his mistake leading to the Rams' goal and gave Stoke the lead from a corner late on.
Osborn spoke to RamsTV following the final whistle to give his take on the 90 minutes as Derby tasted defeat in the league for the first time in the month.
On the defeat in the Potteries…
We weren't good enough in the first half. We weren't really on the same page. We started well in the first five or ten minutes but then Stoke got out a few times, played some stuff and then we were caught in between and weren’t good enough on the ball.
In the second half we changed formation a little bit and came back into the game. We got after them a little bit. It was a bit better. I thought Callum Elder did well when he came on and he caused them a few problems down the left. To concede from a set-piece is not like us really so it’s disappointing in that respect.
On frustration not to back up good moments…
After that first-half performance, we needed to get after them a bit more and put it on them and I think we did that. It felt like probably we had momentum for a period. But then a few decisions allowed them to get back into it and then conceding in the way we did was disappointing.
On the positives to take into Wednesday’s trip to Coventry…
We can take the second half performance and our energy as a positive. I thought substitutes did well too. If we can start more positively and put some testing balls into the box, then we can cause teams problems. If we're a little bit off the pace like we were first half, then we can be picked apart.
