3/1 To Win
Gary Rowett told RamsTV he was particularly pleased with the last 25 minutes of Derby County’s performance in their 1-0 win over Port Vale.
Sure, the better football was played in the first half and more chances were created – all before Darren Bent’s penalty in the early stages of the second half sealed the win at Vale Park.
But the Rams’ manager was keen to highlight what he saw from his players when they were naturally fatigued.
Nine of his first team squad, with the exception of Bent, who departed prematurely injured, and Tom Huddlestone, who was substituted on 66 minutes, played the entire match in Staffordshire.
It represented their first 90 minutes since early May as pre-season preparations were cranked up another notch and Rowett was pleased with the concentration his players displayed, especially after Port Vale introduced several fresher legs and adopted a far more direct approach.
The 43-year-old said: “I think the most pleasing part was that last 20 or 25 minutes.
“When you’re asking the players to play that first 90 minutes, you’re asking them to really dig in at the end when they are fatigued.
“We had a few young players on the pitch as well and I thought it was those moments of concentration that we have to make sure we take forward with us.
“We got that extra bit of strength, that extra little bit of resolve, and I was quite pleased with the way we dealt with that spell.
“I thought we were fairly comfortable on the evening. We moved the ball quite well, it was difficult to move it as fast as we would like to and we were a tad wasteful at times, but that’s what these games are for and I felt as though we did play with a little bit of tempo.
“We got into some good positions when we played some more incisive passes. We saw in the first half that we had four one-against-one situations with the ‘keeper and we had a couple in the second half where the only negative for me was not finishing those chances off.
“We are getting into good positions, though, and that’s kind of all you ask the players to do at this stage.”
Rowett also reserved praise for Huddlestone.
The 30-year-old midfielder only re-joined the Rams, from Hull City, last weekend and his outing at Port Vale was his first match action since May.
You wouldn’t be able to tell that was the case, though, as the Derby Academy graduate produced an impressive and assured display in the holding midfield role.
Rowett added: “I thought we saw some excellent stuff from Tom.
“He has a real element of control and an aura about him to dictate the pace of the game and when you have that range of passing, you saw him early on go long, short, intercept things and he can start you off.
“So, we are really pleased with his contribution and he will only get better.”
