Rory Delap was very pleased with Derby County Under-18s after their 1-0 victory in a must-win game against Everton in the Premier League Cup.
The Rams beat Everton 1-0 in Group A of the Premier League Cup courtesy of a Jayden Mitchell-Lawson penalty and excellent defending throughout.
Victory guaranteed Derby a second-placed finish in the group, however the Rams will have to wait until the completion of other fixtures to see if they progress into the knock-out stages of the competition.
Speaking to dcfc.co.uk, Delap expressed his delight with his team: “It was a good challenge for the lads today, it was a must-win game as Everton had already won the group so to give us a chance of progressing we had to win the game.
“We put that to the lads and I’m really pleased with the performance overall. We were much better defensively, their front three are a real handful who have hurt a lot of teams this season and we coped quite well.
“We were much better in terms of organisation, so that was really pleasing today to come away with the clean sheet.”
Everton are second in Premier League - North and had won their last five consecutive matches going into this tie, alongside a current 100% record in the cup so the test was always going to be difficult.
But with the excellent victory Derby themselves have now extended their unbeaten run to nine matches, dating back to early September.
Delap also gave his thoughts on how important cup runs are to the side: “It’s massive, we are only involved in this and Youth Cup in terms of Cup games. In the league sometimes, you’ve got to take it in with the development side and by giving players a challenge.
“We all want to win all the games, (and whilst) sometimes it is more about the development, you can see the lads get up for it when it comes to the cup.
“You always want to progress in any competition you are in so the more games you are involved in the better. And now it goes to the quarters, semis and final from here. I can’t ask any more from them than today.”
After a few draws on the bounce, this result gets the Rams back to winning ways heading into the last period of football in the calendar year.
Currently fifth in the league and just five points away from league leaders Manchester City, Derby can reflect on a solid first half of the campaign.
Delap spoke about whether he was looking forward to the end of the year, and moving forward: “Absolutely, couple of really good games to finish off with Manchester City in the league and Manchester United in the cup.
“We got lads who haven’t got much game time in minutes who came on and gave us a headache in terms of team selection because I thought they did well today.
“I thought all 16 players were on it today, the dressing room was lively before the game so that is a big part of what we need to bring in the next week or two.”
Words by Jools Jordan-Probert
Images by Harry Marshall
