Manager Frank Lampard again hailed the attitude of his players this evening as his Derby County side gracefully bowed out of the Carabao Cup at the Fourth Round stage.
Jack Marriott equalised early in the game following Fikayo Tomori’s fifth minute own goal. A Richard Keogh own goal put the hosts ahead, whilst just before the half hour mark, Martyn Waghorn once again levelled the scores in an entertaining opening period.
Controversy surrounded what turned out to be the winning goal for Chelsea. Tom Lawrence was appeared to be fouled, however, play continued and Cesc Fabregas fired home to put Chelsea ahead.
However, following the game, Lampard had nothing but love for his players who put in a shift for the Rams but unfortunately came up short.
“I’m proud of the players because they deserved more and they were brilliant,” he told RamsTV. “We worked our socks off from the first minute until the last. Even though we gave poor goals away, we earned goals through our character and we got back into the game.
“It was a good occasion for me on a personal note but what the players did on the pitch, it was outstanding.
“The difference today was inches. Chelsea put out a strong team today and that was a fair respect to our boys and we were unlucky.”
It was a special night for the manager who returned to Stamford Bridge for the first time tonight as a manager.
After spending 13 years as a player at Chelsea, he explained it was humbling to return and paid tribute to both sets of supporters for the reception he received.
“I thank the Chelsea fans because it’s rare an opposition manager gets that, hence why I went there first because I wanted to finish with the Derby fans,” Lampard commented.
“I thought they were amazing and absolutely incredible, not just with me but for the team. To travel down in numbers, support the team in a difficult game, I thank them. My present is Derby and I want to be successful here and we thank them for their support now.”
Summing up the Carabao Cup run this season, Lampard said: “It was good from the beginning to the end; Oldham, Hull, obviously Old Trafford, and then to perform like that here tonight, people are watching that so we have set our standards.
“We can’t accept that those standards don’t remain. Not every game is at Stamford Bridge in front of this and on TV but every game is as important for us now so we must focus on the league.”
Attention now turns back to league action this weekend and the manager wants his side to continue the good form built up.
“There is a lot of work put in there tonight so we will have to recover and we will see where we are squad wise come Saturday,” Lampard added.
“We have two massive games coming up but we can never relax. Our good stuff is to do with our work rate and the work we do off the ball. If we relax that then we are not the team we want to be.”