Steve McClaren was left scratching his head as to how Derby County came away from Wolverhampton Wanderers with nothing on Friday evening.

Steve McClaren was left scratching his head as to how Derby County came away from Wolverhampton Wanderers with nothing on Friday evening.

Derby fell to a 2-0 defeat at Molineux to extend their run to six matches without a win in the Sky Bet Championship.

The Rams enjoyed long spells of controlled possession in the game and created a number of goalscoring opportunities, with Tom Ince and Craig Bryson both hitting the woodwork.

However - for all their pressure - a strike from Nouha Dicko and an own goal by goalkeeper Lee Grant in the second half inflicted defeat on McClaren’s side.

 

He told Rams Player afterwards: “It was great to watch at times with how much control we had over the game, but we've come away with nothing.


“The lads were brilliant and the only frustration that we have got coming back into the dressing room is that we have lost the game.


“I couldn’t fault the players at all. Their attitude, their work rate and the football they played was outstanding but things aren't going our way right now.


"When we get players back after the two week break, we are very capable of turning this around.”


McClaren says Derby, who have maintained a promotion challenge for the majority of the campaign, must return to winning ways as quickly as possible.

He has absolute faith in his squad that they will return to form in the final seven games of the league campaign.


One of the key areas that he is targeting an improvement in is dealing with certain situations in matches.

“We will start winning games again and finish the season strong, that’s what we have to do,” he said.

“I am not going to criticise individuals, things like this happen.


“There is a still a long way to go in the season.


“We are not dealing with situations and it is costing us.


“When we look back on this, whether we go up or not, we will look at this spell and know that it can define things.


“I’m still very confident that we will turn this around, get back to winning ways and finish the season strongly.”


McClaren says in the dressing room at Molineux, when delivering his post-match debrief, he saw a determination in the eyes of his players to bounce back.

They return to action in just under a fortnight’s time, against high-flying Watford at the iPro Stadium following the final two week international break of the season.

He said: “There are still seven games to go and a lot of football still to play and we want to get stronger now.


“There is a great determination in the squad and it is something that we have just spoken about in the dressing room.


“Let’s start playing, let’s start getting results. The performances have been okay, we just haven’t had the results to match them.”



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