Rowett: “We Have To Move On”

Gary Rowett has urged his Derby County side not to dwell on their 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Wednesday night.

The Rams battled but goals from Diogo Jota and Ruben Neves at the start of each half secured victory for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on the night.

Rowett admitted that he was less than pleased with certain aspects of the display, but he wants his players to move on quickly from the defeat against the Sky Bet Championship’s outstanding team.

He told RamsTV: “I was disappointed with the performance, I told them at half-time that for 25 minutes, they were far too respectful. We didn’t get close to them and we hadn’t made a tackle by that point.

“We hadn’t closed down with any real intensity and if you stand off too far, they will just drag you out of areas and they are really good at exploiting it.

“Our two midfielders didn’t know when to press and when they did, there was space behind them.

“We had some periods of the game where we were reasonably comfortable, we had some good possession and made some good passes.

“Whenever we got into a good possession, they seemed to be able to make a foul, and the referee allowed that to happen one or two times.

“We have to move on very quickly from this game, as many teams have done after they’ve played Wolves this season.”

Most disappointing for the Derby boss was the manner of the first goal that his side conceded inside just six minutes, when Jota found himself with space in-behind before finishing clinically past Scott Carson.

Rowett said: “When you work on something for three days and your plan is to limit space in the right areas and then concede a goal after six minutes, it’s really poor and unforgivable really.

“You can assume that Wolves will play through you at some points with their quality, because they have the players to do that.

“You don’t expect [Willy] Boly to lift the ball between our back-three, and they just allowed him to run through, so it’s disappointing to concede a goal in that manner away from home.

“It then affects the way that you have to play for the rest of the game.”