Mon 24 Nov - Posted in Breaking News
Time to read: 4mins
Jacob Widell Zetterström says Derby County must quickly learn from Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat against Watford as they prepare to make the long trip to Swansea City on Tuesday evening (7:45pm kick-off).
Derby went into the clash with the Hornets off the back of five successive wins in the Sky Bet Championship and found themselves 2-0 to the good early in the second half at Pride Park Stadium.
However, the Hornets stormed back into the contest and scored two late goals to secure a 3-2 victory and inflict a rare defeat on John Eustace’s side in recent weeks.
The game was Derby’s first after the November international break and followed a positive few days for Zetterström who, during the two-week gap between fixtures, was nominated for the Championship’s Player of the Month accolade for October and also made his competitive debut for Sweden in their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovenia in Stockholm.
The goalkeeper sat down with RamsTV on Monday morning to assess the ‘wake-up call’ against Watford, while he also reviewed his recent international commitments with Sweden and looked ahead to the clash with the Swans.
When you go in 1-0 up at half-time and then go out and score more or less straight away in the second half, sometimes it is easy to get comfortable. Despite actually performing so well, that is what we got. In a league like this, against any opposition, you cannot switch off. That is sort of what we did and conceded not long after scoring our second goal. We defended quite well and then they got the penalty and scored again quickly after that. It was a bit of a shock for everyone, but maybe it is a good wake-up call as well. Five wins in a row is brilliant, but you can never get comfortable in this division. Maybe, in a weird way, this is a good thing and we can learn from this and realise we cannot take wins for granted.
I was very happy with that. There is so much talent in this league, so to be recognised for a month’s performances, as one of four players, was huge. I have to say, though, it was a big team effort.
It was up there as one of my best moments and it was emotional too. It was very, very special to stand there and sing the national anthem and have my friends and family there. To share it with them all was huge. I knew the day before that I would be playing, and I got some hints during the week with what they were happy with during the training sessions. We didn’t have much to play for, as our play-off place is confirmed for the World Cup, so it was a good opportunity to the coach to see new players.
I think I speak for every goalkeeper here when I say that I believe he has done a great job since he came here earlier this year. He spoke to me when he arrived and showed me some areas where I could improve. From there, we’ve been working very hard every single day. I’ve improved as a goalkeeper since he joined, and I am very grateful. Whether it is me or Josh Vickers playing, even Richard O’Donnell on loan at Grimsby this week or the Academy goalkeepers, you can tell with what we do on the pitch that we’ve worked on it during the training sessions.
It is the beauty of this league, I would say. Whether you have a good performance or a bad one, you have the chance to focus on the next match. There were some very, very good bits in our play at the weekend. It is important we look at look at those and then learn from the bits that cost us the points. If we can do that, we will be set for the game.
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