Waghorn Speaks Honestly Following Barnsley Defeat

Striker Martyn Waghorn gave an honest assessment of Derby County’s 2-0 loss against Barnsley by admitting the performance and result was not good enough.

It was a tough afternoon for the Rams, who are yet to taste victory on home soil this season, and Waghorn knows that the team's form needs to improve.

Conor Chaplin opened the scoring for Barnsley following an uncharacteristic error in defence from goalkeeper David Marshall, whilst substitute Victor Adeboyejo sealed the three points late in the second half.

Derby were thwarted twice in the first half as Tom Lawrence was denied on both occasions, whilst Waghorn himself saw a free kick go inches wide of the post early in the second half.

The striker knows performances need to improve if they are to climb the Sky Bet Championship standings, with the Rams sitting at the foot of the table after 11 matches.

“Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s not good enough and not acceptable,” Waghorn admitted when talking to RamsTV after the game.

“First and foremost, as footballers for this football club, we know as individuals and collectively as a team that we are not performing as well as we should be.

“It’s another difficult one to take today considering the situation we are in. We have got to see these games as an opportunity to get positive results and it’s not been good enough.

“If we can’t win games then you don’t get anywhere in the league and regardless of how you play, you need three points. Whether you play fantastically well and nick it, or you hang on and scrap points, it’s all part and parcel of this league.

“We have not been performing at the levels of what we need at to be climbing this league. We are alright saying we are a good team on paper, but we have got to go out on the pitch and do it out there but it’s not been at it.”

Waghorn continued: “We have a long and hard two weeks ahead of us with the international break so we’ve got to take a serious look at ourselves, myself included. This club deserves to be in a better position.

“The fans deserve better, everyone involved deserves better and the staff, who work tirelessly for us through the week to get us ready for games. What we are doing on a matchday isn’t good enough.

“On the flip side, what we have to do now is stick together. Nobody is going to pull out a magic hat and magic results for us.

“There are a group of lads in there that know what we can do and have ability so it’s about getting the best out of us now and we have two weeks to have a good period of time working on things, progressing and doing everything we can to turn things around because it’s only us as players who can do that.”

Asked whether the two-week international break has come at a good time, Waghorn responded: “Who knows at this minute.

“For me, you don’t want to go into a period of time off with two or three losses so ideally you want to bounce back straight away and get a positive result going into the break but only time will tell.

“We have to reflect, work on things and stick together as a team. It’s back to basics, doing things right and working hard in the time and try to turn things around.”