POST-MATCH INTERVIEW: ‘We set ourselves high standards and came close in a battling performance’- Phillips

Centre-back Nat Phillips says Derby County's fighting spirit and high standards can give them confidence going forward - despite falling to a 1-0 defeat against league leaders Leeds United to see out 2024.

Derby came second best in a tightly contested Sky Bet Championship match with Brendan Aaronson’s second-half strike the only thing to split the two teams at Pride Park Stadium.

Phillips spoke to RamsTV after the clash which was played before a season's best crowd of over 32,000 on home turf.

On falling to a narrow defeat against Leeds United…

We started the game a little bit slow and a little bit disorganised, and it took us 15 minutes to get to grips with that. Then we managed to get a bit of information on board and readjust things a little bit. Once we did that, it felt like we got a bit of grip of the game. From that moment on, certainly in the second half as well, it always felt like it was a good battle and we had a good chance of getting a goal. It is frustrating to have conceded a late one at the end.

On a disciplined defensive display…

We fought hard. If you're going to lose a match, that's the way to do it. It was a well-worked goal from them which undid us in the end. After a bit of time has gone by, we can probably look back at the game and take some positives from it. Leeds are a good side. There's a reason they are where they are in the table. We knew it was going to be a challenge, but we set ourselves high standards and we have a lot of belief in ourselves. We felt like we could certainly compete today, and we did just that.

On bouncing back in a few days to play Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough…

We just have to keep our heads down and keep working at it. The games come up very soon. There is a lot of responsibility on ourselves to make sure that we're in good nick and we recover well to be ready for the next fixture. When we played Sheffield Wednesday at home we performed well at the start of December but we didn't get the result that we feel we deserved. We'd certainly like to put that right.