After seeing Derby County grab a deserved injury-time equaliser to draw 1-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers this afternoon, Nigel Clough admitted it would have been a travesty had his side not taken anything from the game.
Theo Robinson came off the bench to curl home a superb 93rd minute strike to cancel out Republic of Ireland international Kevin Doyle’s first-half opener at Molineux.
Derby created an abundance of chances throughout, with Jamie Ward, Richard Keogh and recent signing Conor Sammon all having opportunities to get their names on the scoresheet - especially in the first half.
With time running out it looked as if it wasn’t going to be the Rams’ day, until Robinson struck from Jeff Hendrick’s pass to send the 1,400 travelling fans wild.
Clough labelled his side’s performance as ‘magnificent’ and believes Robinson’s strike was the least Derby deserved.
Clough told Rams Player: “It would have been a travesty had we not equalised, but even with that late goal we’re still a bit frustrated we didn’t get all three points today.
“We could, quite easily, be standing here now talking about being in the next round of the Captial One Cup and having seven, or even nine points, on the board – and I don’t think we are being unrealistic saying that.
“It’s little things costing us that at the moment, but it’ll come if we keep performing like we did today because the manner of the performance was magnificent against a side who were in the Premier League last season.
“To create as many as chances as we did, especially in the first half; we really need to start taking them when we’re on top because we’re making it hard for ourselves at the moment, and we need to stop conceding such soft goals as well.”
Clough was also quick to praise the composure of his side, and he believes the performances and character within the camp so far have provided plenty to build on for the remaining 43 games of the season.
He said: “We’ll encourage the players to keep playing as they are, with the belief that we have complete faith in them.
“The players showed great composure. We know people have been banging on before today about only having one point and we were in the bottom three, but with 40-odd games to go we’ve been looking for performances, character and something to build on – and it was all there in abundance today.
“Even in the 93rd minute, we weren’t banging the ball forwards. The players have been superb and to get a goal in injury time and will give us a real lift in preparing for Watford next weekend now.”
Robinson’s strike, his second of the season, came just days after he was left out of the squad to face Bolton Wanderers in midweek and the Rams boss is pleased with how the Birmingham-born frontman has responded.
He said: “Theo worked hard and he is always likely to pop up with a goal, which is why we stuck him on.
“He was left out in the week but he’s responded well and he took his goal very well indeed.”
Watch Nigel Clough’s full post-match interview on Rams Player.