Rowett Finds Positives In ‘Disappointing’ Stalemate

Gary Rowett admitted that he wasn’t pleased with Derby County’s performance in the goalless draw against Hull City, but he still saw some positives from the stalemate.

Nigel Adkins’ side arguably had the better chances on the day but the Rams stood firm to make it eight games unbeaten away from home and recorded their fifth clean sheet in a row.

Rowett was understandably unhappy with the result, but he highlighted some key traits that his side showed on a difficult afternoon.

He told RamsTV: “I thought we were poor, we didn’t get going at all. I think the pitch made it difficult for both teams, you could see that Hull were struggling as well.

“It was a disappointing performance in some ways, but what I’ll say about this team is that when we play badly and don’t really get going, we can still see games out.

“Honestly, we probably deserved to lose today, but we were still winning headers in the 94th minute and throwing bodies in to stop the opposition from scoring.

“We’ve played really well for the last four, we didn’t play so well today but it’s a point and a clean sheet so there are some positives in there.”

The Derby boss felt that his side were missing the creative influence that has been a vital part of their overall game in recent weeks, as well as conceding too many chances to a Hull side that have improved since the appointment of Adkins.

He said: “We allowed too many opportunities and if you continue to do that, then it’s possible to lose the game.

“At half time, I could’ve brought on anyone that was on the bench because the reality is that we were poor.

“We broke and found some good positions but we couldn’t quite find that attacking spark to get us into any true goalscoring positions.

“We had three or four chances, but frankly it wasn’t enough.”