Defender Callum Elder felt a ‘defensively assured’ performance secured Derby County their second point in as many matches in the Sky Bet Championship as they played out a 0-0 draw at home to Oxford United on Tuesday evening.
Derby got another point on the board after a battling stalemate with Oxford at Pride Park Stadium, which backed up a 1-1 draw at Norwich City on Saturday.
Chances for Lars-Jørgen Salvesen, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Marcus Harness saw the Rams go near in the game but neither team could find the move to break the deadlock in a close-run contest.
RamsTV caught up with Elder after the final whistle to reflect on a point against Gary Rowett's side.
On taking a point against Oxford…
It was a tough battle. We knew coming off the back of the Norwich game, we had something to build on. I thought we started the game well and we competed really well. Defensively, we looked really assured. If we're being really critical, we probably lacked a bit of quality in the final third. In saying that, we did create some good chances in the second half. It's another result that we can build on. We move on to Queens Park Rangers on Friday now, hoping to get another positive result away from home.
On earning a clean sheet in the Championship…
It’s important. We've got new lads coming into the back line, so relationships are being formed between them. I thought the back three were very confident and assured in our defence. It's something we can build on. I thought Sondre Langås had a great game today and it was pleasing to see him out in front of a home crowd. We need to build a bit more quality in that final third as we move through the lines and progress our play.
On the dressing room pulling together...
We've always stuck together and we saw it last season. It's important in good and bad times that you stick together as a group because no matter what the outside noise, ultimately, it's down to the players to produce performances and results to get this football club out of the position that we're in at the minute. We were looking for three points tonight, but two points from our last two matches is certainly something we can build on as we move forward.
