Midfielder Korey Smith admitted Derby County's players are 'more gutted than anyone' following the 2-1 defeat to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday evening.
Defender Eiran Cashin gave the Rams the lead with a first half header. but two second half goals from the visitors from Alfie May and Karoy Anderson turned the game on its head and saw the Addicks take all three points in the Sky Bet League One clash.
Speaking to RamsTV after the match under the Pride Park Stadium floodlights, the midfielder gave his verdict on the night.
On his return to action in his first start since being injured in late November...
On a personal note, it was nice to get a start. But, at the end of the day, it's about the team and I'm gutted with the result. It's not what you dream of when you're out injured and you come back, but we've got to dust ourselves off and go again on Saturday against Port Vale.
On what went wrong in the second half...
I thought we played some good stuff in the first half, maybe some of the best stuff we've played in a while, but in the second half we seemed to go on the back foot a little bit. There's a lot to play for at the moment and it felt like we went into a protection mode when we took the lead. We can't be doing that so early in a match. To be fair to Charlton, they came out with a lot of energy and started getting balls in behind us which maybe got us playing deeper than we'd have liked. Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes but nobody means to make mistakes, we're a team and we take that together.
On how eager he was to return to action...
It's been hard being injured for a while and I've just tried to support the boys and give them motivation when I can. It has been nice to be back and getting on the pitch in the last couple of weeks. I just try and spread a bit of positive energy and get us going, but in the second half it didn't really work.
On it being the first time the team have lost back-to-back games in the league...
It's not the time to endure a blip and we know that. We're more gutted than anyone, the boys are devastated in the dressing room. We haven't got time to be sad. We've got to try and lift ourselves as a club. This club has been through a lot over the last years and we're still in a good position right now. A couple of results went our way, so we're kind of in a similar position to what we were before the game. It is frustrating in one breath, but in another breath we've got to take the positives and a couple of teams around us losing is one. It's on to the weekend now. This club has been through hard times, so I'm sure we'll stick together and go again.
