3/1 To Win
Midfielder Ben Osborn says the Derby County squad have got a platform to build on ahead of their Sky Bet Championship clash with Oxford United at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday (7:45pm kick-off).
The Rams stemmed an unwanted run without picking up points, suffering seven league losses in a row, when they took a hard-earned 1-1 draw against Norwich City on Saturday. Jerry Yates’ late penalty cancelled out Josh Sargent’s earlier goal for the Canaries at Carrow Road.
Derby will be hoping the point on the road can be a catalyst for a turnaround in fortunes, with the game against Oxford at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday evening coming around quickly.
Osborn sat down with RamsTV to preview their game under the lights.
On taking away a point after a late goal against Norwich…
It was nice - there was a lot of relief. I thought we'd put in a good performance. I was just thinking: “Is it just going to be one of them again where we don't get anything from a half-decent performance?” Luckily, after some good play from Marcus Harness winning the penalty, we got the chance and Jerry showed some confidence to put the penalty away.
On Marcus Harness putting his body on the line to earn the penalty…
It looked like a stonewall penalty from where I was sitting on the bench. He's cut all his head as well, so fair play to him. A point away at Norwich is not a bad result, but I think the performance, some of the football we were playing and the way we defended and looked solid got them on the counter-attack a few times. We stuck to the game plan really well. It was nice to not come away from that empty-handed and now we just need to build on it.
On Harrison Armstrong and Sondre Langas making their debuts against Norwich…
They’ve settled in really well. We've had a bit of an injury crisis over the last couple of weeks, so the squad's looking a lot healthier with every day that goes by. It's only going to be getting stronger looking to Tuesday, so I think once we get that back and everyone fighting for that starting spot, then we're only going to get stronger. The new lads have settled in very quickly.
On the stakes in Tuesday’s Championship fixture with Oxford…
The performance, first and foremost, is what we're really taking away from Norwich. If we can add to that and be a little bit more clinical, that would be great. We can take the performance as a lot of hope and also that the squad's getting stronger.
