3/1 To Win
Alex Babos says Derby County Under-23s’ eye-catching style of play will bring more rewards in the coming weeks and months ahead of this evening’s meeting with Everton.
The Rams take on the reigning Premier League 2 Division 1 champions looking for a return to winning ways, kick-off: 7pm.
Last week, Darren Wassall’s side fell to a 5-2 defeat at Swansea City, but the scoreline doesn’t give a true reflection on the match itself.
The Rams found themselves three goals down at the Liberty Stadium, before they responded to pull the score back to 3-2 – thanks to goals from Luke Thomas and Joe Bateman.
The former, Thomas, saw a shot saved and Babos, himself, hit the woodwork as Derby pushed for a deserved equaliser after that, before two sucker punch late goals added gloss to the scoreline for the hosts and condemned the Rams to a third defeat from four matches.
You will not find anyone in the Under-23s camp panicking, though, and Babos believes the squad will get their rewards by adding a ruthless touch to the creative football they are playing.
Speaking to RamsTV, he explained: “I think everyone in the team knows that our performances have probably merited better results than we’ve got.
“Having said that, it has been a good learning curve for the team to get to that next level, we just need to be a bit more ruthless in both boxes to finish the games off when we have a chance.
“With the Swansea game, they had a strong line-up and we could have easily gone under at 3-0 down in half-an-hour but, to get a couple of goals back and push them right until the very end was pleasing for us.”
He added: “From the back end of last year, we’ve always believed in the way we play. A high tempo works at this level and we showed that we can get results from it.
“Swansea had one chance at the beginning and scored from it, whereas, we were probably guilty of missing a few equally as good opportunities.
“On a different night, we might have nicked it and got back at 3-3 to take a point or even go on to win the game. In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be and we paid the price for it.”
Babos also took time out to look ahead to a tough week that begins with a home clash with Everton.
He added: “We know what Everton are about. We know that they are a good team, but I feel as though we are more than ready for the challenge and we’ll be there to put a fight against them to win the game.
“If you look at the games that we’ve had recently against the bigger teams, we’ve had a large amount of possession then we did last year. It is just about turning that possession into purpose.
“The message from everyone has been that if we keep playing the way that we are then we will get results and we do know that because we’ve been so close.
“I feel in a couple of weeks’ time with a bit of fine tuning, we’ll be ready to finish teams off and get some points on the board.”
