Tue 25 Nov - Posted in Breaking News
Time to read: 4mins
Head Coach John Eustace and goalscorer Joe Ward shared their post-match reflections after Derby County secured a 2-1 victory away at Swansea City in the Sky Bet Championship on Tuesday evening.
The win was the ideal response to the weekend’s dramatic 3-2 defeat to Watford at Pride Park Stadium, putting the Rams back to winning ways at the first opportunity.
Derby opened the scoring in the 34th minute through Ward, who met Callum Elder’s inviting cross at the back post and guided a precise header into the net.
The Rams looked dangerous on the break throughout the night and extended their lead seven minutes into the second half.
Making his first start of the season, Lars-Jørgen Salvesen produced a composed finish, curling a superb effort into the top corner from inside the box for his second goal of the campaign.
Swansea set up a tense end to the match when Ethan Galbraith pulled one back late on, but disciplined defending in the closing stages ensured all three points returned to Derbyshire.
After the match, Eustace spoke to RamsTV to offer his thoughts on the performance and the team’s character.
It’s been a great evening, I thought it took us a while to get used to the game. We made a few changes with new players coming in, asking them to do roles that they're not really used to. I thought in the first half, their build-up and their half-shape kind of hurt us a little bit. They had a lot of balls going into our final third, but we defended the box fantastically well. We always looked a threat on the transition. We scored a great goal through Joe Ward to get ourselves ahead.
In the second half, we adjusted things and I thought we were really in control. We looked really dangerous going forward. We could have scored four or five goals. That's something that we really need to keep working on and getting more confidence in that final third. Overall, it's a great result, especially on the back of such a disappointing result on Saturday.
To concede three goals like we did on Saturday, it was always going to be a big test for us tonight to see how we bounced back, especially having Dion Sanderson and Carlton Morris out of the team. I think it just typifies this group. We never know when we're beaten. We never know when times are hard. We've got a fantastic squad who are determined to fight and scrap for everything. Tonight just typified what Derby County is all about.
As I've said from day one since I came here, it's about the squad. It's not about any individual. It's not about 11 players. It's about, over the course of 46 games, every single player in the squad being needed. Today, Danny Batth stepped in. He was top, top draw. He hasn't played for a number of weeks and it just shows the level of professionalism he's got. He trains as if he's playing, every day. He drives the standards as the group. When he came in, he was top.
RamsTV also caught up with goalscorer Joe Ward after he netted his first league goal of the season, having been on target in the Carabao Cup at West Bromwich Albion in August.
It was a really solid performance. It was always going to be a tough place to come to, but we were fully prepared. We did what we came here to do, got the win, bounced back from Saturday and it is a case of ‘on to the next’ now.
It's the end of the assist streak for me, but hopefully it's the start of a goal one now! I am pleased to score. It's always a great feeling, but I'm just happy to be contributing at the moment.
I saw Callum Elder with lots of space on the left-hand side and I know he's got that fizz across. It went round the back of the defence and bounced up nicely for me. I just luckily got away from the full-back and just powered it at goal and it went in.
They were putting us under a lot of pressure at the end and there's only so long you can hold out not having the ball. They got their goal, but we just had to hold out after that. I thought we were solid for most of the game and soaked up a lot of pressure. We’ve got the win and that is what we wanted.
Words: Ella Barber.
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