Defender Sonny Bradley praised Dwight Gayle’s ‘killer’ first goal for Derby County following the side's 3-0 win over Port Vale on Saturday afternoon.
An early goal from Louie Sibley saw Derby ahead in the first half. But after pressure from the opposition - a headed goal from Gayle in his second start for the club couldn’t have been more crucial. Joe Ward found Sibley at the back post in the second period to finish the game off with a ripping strike.
Bradley took the captain’s armband for Paul Warne’s side, with Conor Hourihane starting on the bench and, speaking to Rams TV after the win, the centre-back gave his verdict on an important result in Sky Bet League One.
On the result…
Every time you get a clean sheet and score three goals, you’re going to be happy.
On the importance of bouncing back after the last two matches…
Getting back-to-back defeats before this game stung. The Barnsley game really hurt us, if I’m honest with the manner of the second goal - and the Charlton goals too, were from mistakes. So, we’ve had a pretty difficult week leading into this game. But we’ve got mature players, who are old enough and big enough and have been in these positions before during seasons with ups and downs. To get to our goal we know there are going to be bumps in the road, we spoke about that and expected it. It’s all about how we react. Today was a really professional performance, and I’m most happy with the clean sheet.
On the impact of Dwight Gayle’s first Rams strike…
It’s a killer, an absolute killer for the opposition. We started the game well, but we had a 20 minute spell where we allowed them to get on top. If they were going to score today, I feel it would have maybe happened to make it 1-1 from a long throw, a corner or free-kick. But in those 20 minutes, it was important that we defended well and we did. Dwight’s goal put a real negative spin on their plans going into the half-time break. We came out after that and Sibs got the third. After that it felt like, pretty much, the game was done.
On the importance of the second goal and being patient…
I feel like there was a calm feeling out there today. I know it’s easy when you’ve won 3-0 to say that. Sometimes you may get impatient and want things to fall for you straight away. For me especially, the game plan was to get my foot on the ball, wait for the press in front of me and then find our spare man. It was a basic pattern of play for us and if we found the wing-backs in space, which we did, then it opened up the game. There was a lot of nice play too, but the ball down the sides, and into the channel was really effective, especially with Barks (Barkhuizen), Nat (Mendez-Laing) and Dwight (Gayle) up front.
On the league table fight going down to the wire…
I think between the five teams, there isn’t much in it. It’s probably about who can put a run together now. I’m not sure how many games we need to win, it may be eight or nine – who knows? But we’ll do our best and put as many points on the board as we can.
Words: Alfie Dickin
