3/1 To Win
Wayne Rooney has stressed that everyone in the Derby County camp will ‘give it their best shot’ to achieve something special this season.
Derby head into the final ten games of the 2021/22 Sky Bet Championship season still in with a shout of retaining their status in the second tier.
That is despite the Rams having 21 points deducted from their season’s total after entering administration and historically breaching the EFL’s profitability and sustainability rules.
Derby head to promotion-chasing AFC Bournemouth on Saturday five points adrift of safety following their 2-0 success at home to Barnsley last weekend.
That win addressed a run of three successive defeats and, entering the business end of the season, Rooney’s side have performed admirability to bring themselves into contention to avoid the drop.
“I say it every week, but the lads have been brilliant,” Rooney told RamsTV.
“It’s been an enormous challenge for everyone, myself, the coaches, the staff and the players, but what we have done is stuck together.
“We have kept our heads down, worked and believed we can stay in this division; so we have given ourselves a chance with ten games left.
“We are still in a close distance of teams above us so what we have to do is keep working, keep doing what we’ve been doing and hopefully we can get over that line.”
He added: “It's a challenge for the players. It’s on them to go and prove that they are good enough.
“We have got a lot of games to play and a lot of points to play for and give it our best shot.”
Bournemouth sit second in the Championship table and have three games in hand on the sides directly below them.
They were held to a 1-1 draw on home turf against Peterborough United in midweek and, despite not picking up all three points, it was a result to take them back into the automatic promotion spots.
Derby will make the journey south looking to do the double over the Cherries after they ran out 3-2 winners at Pride Park Stadium back in November, with Tom Lawrence’s second half double firing the Rams to victory.
Rooney said: “It’s an opportunity to go and show what a good team we are against one of the top teams in the division so we are ready and prepared and will do everything we can to get three points.
“I don’t see us as underdogs if I’m being honest as I think the way we set up and the way we play, it’s very difficult for teams to play against.
“We have had the odd couple of results this season where we haven’t been in the game so I’m confident we can go and get three points against Bournemouth.”
He added: “Bournemouth are in a position where they feel they have to win the game as well so it should make for an entertaining game.
“We are going there confident and believing we can win and we certainly have prepared and set up that way so we will go there and give it our best shot.”
