3/1 To Win
Gary Rowett admits that his Derby County side must be ‘braver’ despite their 2-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday at Pride Park Stadium.
The Rams played against 10 men for most of the game after Wednesday captain Glenn Loovens was sent off with just four minutes gone, with goals from Matej Vydra and substitute Bradley Johnson securing the points.
Rowett wasn’t pleased with the way his team dealt with the man advantage, especially in the opening period.
He told RamsTV: “I certainly wasn’t happy with the first half, we were slightly better in the second half and we had a little bit more energy.
“We didn’t get out and put the pressure on, especially against 10 men when we need to be a little bit braver, and we were too slow to move the ball.
“We’ve got work to do, we know that we’ve got to be better, I had to give them a mini-hairdryer at half-time because I didn’t feel that it was good enough.”
Derby had chances to double the lead in the minutes after the opening goal, with Rowett’s disappointment coming from his side’s failure to add to the 1-0 scoreline in the first half.
He said: “We had a good chance with Tom Lawrence where we played it well, Richard Keogh ended up one-on-one with the goalkeeper and, I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing there, but I think that Kieren Westwood handballed it just outside the area.
“We got away with it at the other end, I think they should have had a penalty and they created too many opportunities for my liking.”
A five-game unbeaten run has lifted the Rams to 8th in the Sky Bet Championship table, and Rowett is pleased with the recent up-turn in results, even if he felt that today’s performance didn’t hit the heights.
He added: “We knew that we would grow as a team and that we would get better every time we played.
“It’s another clean sheet, they went down to 10 men because of our good play, we carved them open two or three times but then the game became a little bit tougher.
“I wasn’t happy with it, our standards have to be higher, but it’s a clean sheet and another win.”
