3/1 To Win
Liam Rosenior felt there were plenty of positives to take away from Derby County’s emphatic 4-0 win over Stoke City on Friday night – but he has stressed the Rams can’t rest on their laurels.
Derby claimed a fourth successive home win at Pride Park Stadium in the Sky Bet Championship thanks to goals from Martyn Waghorn, Chris Martin, Wayne Rooney and Jayden Bogle.
Phillip Cocu’s side flew out of the traps and were two goals to the good up by the midway point of the first half, before adding further goals in the second period to round off a pleasing night’s work.
Rosenior, who holds the position of Specialist First Team Coach in Cocu’s backroom team, was thrilled to see plenty of Derby’s work on the training ground bearing fruit in the game.
The 35-year-old took satisfaction in Waghorn’s opener in particular, while he felt Derby’s overall display, which was arguably their best of the season so far, can be used as a benchmark.
Speaking to RamsTV ahead of Tuesday’s FA Cup Fourth Round replay at home to Northampton Town, Rosenior said: “The goals we scored were outstanding.
“The one that pleased me the most was the one that people probably talked about the least; Martyn Waghorn’s opener. It’s something we have worked on in training. We’ve got into crossing positions, especially at Luton in our previous game, but didn’t get people in the box to be clinical.
“The goal we scored was really pleasing. It was a great cross from Craig Forsyth and Waggy was in the right position in the box after coming inside from the right. There were so many pleasing aspects on Friday from the team that started to those that came off the bench.
“In terms of the way we want to play and what we have been working on with the players on over the last few months, Friday encapsulated that and we now need to use that as a tool.”
He added: “There was so much good in the game, four goals and a clean sheet was fantastic, but the manner in which we controlled the game and possession was a real benchmark and something which we need to do in every game.”
Derby went into the game determined to show a reaction to their 3-2 loss at Luton Town a few days earlier.
They went from a winning position at Kenilworth Road to returning home with nothing to show for their efforts, despite dominating for long spells.
Rosenior was of the opinion that the Rams delivered the perfect response in front of the Pride Park faithful.
He said: “This league is all about the reaction, which I’ve said before.
“We were hurting after Luton. It’s my job to analyse games and if you take poor mistakes from the Luton match, the way we controlled things until the first goal we were by far the better team.
“The thing which hurt us is that if you take the mistakes out, we really controlled the match and still came away with nothing.
“We knew that we had to really focus on our defensive aspect of the game on Friday, so the clean sheet was great but keeping the style of play that we want to implement at this football club was important and I think people are starting to see that.”
