Wayne Rooney is confident Derby County can quickly bounce back from seeing their recent unbeaten run in the Sky Bet Championship come to an end on Boxing Day when they head to Birmingham City.
Derby will head across the Midlands for their final fixture of 2020 on Tuesday evening to take on the Blues (5:30pm kick-off) at St. Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.
A last-gasp 1-0 reverse at home to Preston North End on Boxing Day, with the visitors scoring deep into added time, ended the Rams’ six-game unbeaten run since Rooney stepped up to lead the side while they wait to appoint a new permanent manager.
The defeat did not tell the whole story as Derby played most of the game with ten men, after Martyn Waghorn’s early red card, and they dug deep to defend resiliently for over 70 minutes.
Despite the disappointment of a loss for the first time in over a month, and the fact a point would have taken the side out of the bottom three, Rooney was more than satisfied with the performance he saw and is confident the Rams can bounce back against the Blues.
“If we perform like we did against Preston then I have no worries whatsoever,” Rooney told RamsTV.
“We are where we are in the table because of a bad start to the season, but I am very confident that we will be able to get out of that.
“We will see how all the players are and how they recover; our preparations started as soon as the game ended against Preston.
“I will pick our strongest team to try and get us the three points. “
Rooney says forward Tom Lawrence will have his fitness assessed closely after missing the last two matches with an ankle problem.
With Waghorn starting a three match-ban, Rooney is hopeful that the Welshman - and young forward Jack Stretton who missed out against Preston with a knock - could return to the squad.
Rooney said: “Tom wasn’t right for Preston, so he missed the game.
“We will see how he is for the Birmingham match.”
