POST-MATCH REACTION: Eustace and Morris reflect on Oxford defeat

Derby County Head Coach John Eustace and striker Carlton Morris gave honest reflections on a ‘disappointing’ 1-0 defeat on the road against Oxford United.

Derby fell to a 1-0 defeat at the Kassam Stadium, with a first-half finish from Oxford striker Stan Mills enough to see the hosts clinch all three points in the Sky Bet Championship.

Eustace spoke to RamsTV and expressed the importance of his side “putting things right quickly” with their two home games in quick succession next week at Pride Park Stadium against Norwich City and Queens Park Rangers.

On the loss against Oxford…

We are very disappointed with the result. We started quite well, but then as the game went on, we started to lose more tackles and more duels, which was really disappointing.

We got into some good positions on that left side, but the quality in the box wasn't good enough.

For their goal, we didn't lock in; we had two opportunities to win some tackles and we lost them, and then they countered.

In the second half we huffed and puffed, we had some half-decent chances, but still we were not good enough in the final third.

On needing to put the performance behind them and respond against Norwich City…

We need to put this right quickly. We pride ourselves on being difficult to play against and being well organised with and without the ball. At the moment, we’ve just let ourselves down a little bit.

I've said it has been a slow start and a frustrating start (to the season). Of course, it was frustrating today, too. There is no-one more frustrated than myself. I was really disappointed with the performance, but it's important that we don't get too disappointed.

We've got a huge game now on Tuesday against Norwich, which we'll all be really looking forward to. We've got to put things right.

Striker Carlton Morris also spoke with RamsTV following the loss, and admitted Derby needed to be ‘fiery’ if they were to get a result.

On needing to use a disappointing performance as the catalyst to bounce back on Tuesday night…

The performance was not like us in the first half at all. The boys won't mind me saying we weren't our usual fiery selves. We expected to come out of the international break with energy and a performance.

The game plan was there; we just didn't execute it well as players on the pitch. We have to accept a bit of accountability for that and bounce back Tuesday night.

It's a huge three-game week. We've got six points up to play for in the next week now.

It's all about how we react. Yes, today was poor and we'll learn from that. Now it's about us in that dressing room. I back my team-mates and the staff to show the character that we need to go and get a result on Tuesday.