Nathaniel Mendez-Laing admitted Derby County’s 1-1 draw against Norwich City will give a much-needed ‘confidence and morale boost’ to the squad as they look to put vital points on the board in the Sky Bet Championship.
Derby netted a late equaliser through Jerry Yates’ accomplished penalty after Marcus Harness won the spot-kick that cancelled out Josh Sargent’s strike for Norwich midway through the second period.
The Rams’ late fightback ended a run of seven defeats in a row in the league and saw them claim a point at Carrow Road, under the tutelage of First Team Coach Matt Hamshaw, who is in interim charge of the team following Paul Warne's departure on Friday.
Derby hope to build on the point when they face Oxford United at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday night under the floodlights.
Mendez-Laing spoke to RamsTV after the match to reflect on a crucial result on the road.
On getting a much-needed result and a point on the board at Carrow Road…
I think it's a great point on the road. The boys dug in, we didn't put our heads down and we kept going. Especially under the circumstances, it's a good point and something that we can now build on. It's massive. I know the celebrations might have been a little over the top today, but I think sometimes you just need that point on the board to just get your confidence going again and it just boosts the morale of the squad. Moving forward to Tuesday, it's something that we can build on.
On Jerry Yates’ composed penalty…
It's a massive moment. We just said to him in the dressing room, it was a big pressure moment and he was ice-cold in the moment, to be fair to him - it was never in doubt for me.
On the character and togetherness of the squad coming to the fore…
This is what we needed, and now we need to get our heads down and build on it as we focus on Tuesday. It will be another tough game and a big one, too, against Oxford. We just need to start picking up points now and I think we showed glimpses today of what we are capable of doing and it's something to carry into Tuesday.
