3/1 To Win
Pat Lyons highlighted the importance of tournament progression after Derby County’s Under-23s gave their Premier League Cup chances a boost with a 2-1 win against Middlesbrough at St George’s Park.
The Rams went behind but goals from Darren Bent and Luke Thomas secured a vital three points to move Darren Wassall’s side into the Group A qualification places.
Derby failed to qualify from the group stage in either of the cup competitions last season, and Lyons explained why it is so important for the development of the young players that it is a different story this time around.
After the win, he told RamsTV: “We knew it was important to win the game and put ourselves in a decent position, there’s still a long way to go but it was an important result.
“The program in March looks a bit bare, so we want to get through to give ourselves some more games to play, so it was a really important result for us tonight.”
Wassall fielded an experienced starting eleven, with Mason Bennett and Darren Bent continuing their return from injury, whilst Jason Shackell, Jamie Hanson and Max Lowe all started as well.
Lyons was pleased with the performance, especially in the second period, and he praised the experienced heads that came into the side.
He said: “It’s Darren’s second game and he looks a lot sharper, Jason came back in and did well, especially in the last 10 minutes when we needed to deal with the aerial threat.
“There was some great play and we created some great chances, especially in the second half, we wanted to be a little bit more patient when we were in the attacking third.
“We were looking for a reaction. We had a good week of training and the lads have really performed well.”
