Fri 10 Nov - Posted in Breaking News
Time to read: 3mins
Gary Rowett has received his first ever Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month award after leading Derby County to a perfect October.
The Rams won all four of their games as Rowett’s side climbed to within touching distance of the top-six going into the final international break of 2017.
Here at dcfc.co.uk, we sat down with the boss to discuss and review the four fixtures that saw Derby take the maximum 12 points from October…
“I don’t think we envisaged being 1-0 up after 24 seconds, it was fantastic play from Matej Vydra, he let Joe Ledley’s pass run across his body and when he gets into those positions, we know that he’s deadly with both feet.
“We managed the game fantastically well, I think we managed the pressure and showed our experience to get the second goal early in the second half to see the game out fairly comfortably, and it was a very good start to the month.”
“Again, we started really well. The penalty and the sending off came early, it was excellent play between Vydra and David Nugent that created the opportunity.
“It was a difficult game from that point, but we knew that the two home games would be very tough, we could have been more fluent but we opened up some very good chances.
“Four goals in two games, two wins and two clean sheets against two very good sides was a really good way to start.”
“It was the first time that I’ve been there as a manager, I think it was around nine years since we got a result there, so I think it shows how far this group has moved forward.
“We talk about playing out from the back, and Richard Keogh whipped a fantastic ball into Tom Huddlestone’s path.
“Nuge says that he told Tom to take a touch but he said that he couldn’t understand his Scouse accent!
“I think it fooled the defender because he slid in and Nuge took it in his stride and just curled it around the defender and into the top corner.
“Norwich brought it back to 1-1, but we finished much stronger. It looked like we were the only team that were going to win it in those dying minutes and Sam popped up with a goal off the bench, which is something that we were extremely grateful of on the day.”
“It was a massive game, we put in some good performances but there was a lot of energy expended on the road so you did worry if it would be a step too far for us.
“To respond the way we did to a poor start and a poor first half with bags of character and some really good play, particularly for the first goal.
“Huddlestone bounced the ball off Tom Lawrence, Craig Forsyth made a fantastic overlapping run and a wonderful cross for Sam to finish off.
“It was another fantastic win, when you look at the games: Forest, Wednesday, Norwich and Leeds, they were all teams in relatively good runs of form, so to get four wins and finish it off at Leeds, it was a really good month.”
