Post-Match Verdict: Conor Hourihane Vs Fleetwood Town (A)

Midfielder Conor Hourihane has admitted Derby County need to start turning their dominance and ability to create chances into goals sooner rather than later following Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Fleetwood Town.

The League One fixture at Highbury Stadium ended goalless despite the Rams having 27 shots across the 90 minutes.

Derby had a raft of chances to break the deadlock, but they were left frustrated and forced to settle for a second successive 0-0 draw on the road following the stalemate at Shrewsbury Town in midweek.

Hourihane, who joined the club as a free agent in July after leaving Aston Villa, caught up with RamsTV following the draw at Fleetwood to offer his immediate post-match reaction.

On The Result…

It’s really disappointing. We had so many chances, which is the same story as Tuesday night at Shrewsbury but with even more today. The performance isn’t the question, we’re dominating games – every single one since I’ve come to the club - and we need to start putting the ball in the net, there’s no getting away from that.

Draws are alright at times because you’re not losing. But when you’re dominating that much you need to be winning. It’s disappointing. I feel like we’ve dropped four points in the last two games because we should have won both.

On The Search For An Away Goal…

The longer it goes on the more frustrating it becomes. Everyone’s going to be saying the same thing and we can’t get away from it. There’s going to be pressure on us to win games. When you’re playing at this level for a club as big as Derby County, there’s pressure on you to win every single match so someone needs to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and knock one over the line for us. The rest, really, is taking care of itself.

We’re hoping someone will get a battering sooner rather than later and hopefully it will start next week. We’ve got a run of games at home now, starting with the Carabao Cup match on Tuesday against West Bromwich Albion and then on to Peterborough United in the league next Saturday. Our home form is pretty good so hopefully come Tuesday that is still the case.

On The Performance….

There’s no question about creating chances, the numbers speak for themselves. I might sound like a broken record, but someone needs to knock one in; one needs to deflect over the line and get us on our way. The manager has mentioned that our performances have been very good over the first five games, but we don’t have the points return we deserve. It’s staring us in the face and we’ve got to put it right.

On Another Clean Sheet…

It’s nice to be keeping clean sheets but the lads at the other end of the pitch need to contribute a bit more and start turning clean sheets into three points. The lads at the back have done great and defending from the front everyone has put in a great shift. No one has looked too threatening against us recently but it’s all down to the final third, the other end of the pitch and that’s why the people that get paid the most are those who score the most goals usually. Someone needs to start scoring some goals, we know that.

On The Week Ahead…

The home fans are always right behind us, as are the away fans who sell out everywhere. There are big demands on us to win matches all the time and I love that pressure, and so do other people in the dressing room. That’s what the fans demand; Derby in League One there’s a demand to be winning every game. Hopefully the performances that we’re putting in will start leading to the three points that we deserve.