‘We Didn’t Deserve To Lose’ Declares Derby County Boss

Derby County suffered a nightmare start to the new League One campaign which kicked off today, losing at home to freshly-relegated Wigan Athletic.

Former Sunderland striker Charlie Wyke scored the first goal of the season for the visitors as the Rams went in 1-0 down at the break.

Nevertheless, after the interval, veteran Craig Forsyth levelled for the hosts, the Scotland international’s first goal in two seasons.

Unfortunately for the Pride Park faithful, the score didn’t remain the same for too long as Wyke bagged his brace to take all three points back to the DW Stadium.

It was certainly a frustrating day for Derby fans, seeing their side have 21 attempts on goal compared to the Latics’ seven but score just once.

Warne’s comments

There was a lot of criticism from fans afterwards, with a general consensus that far too many aimless crosses were being played in from the flanks without hitting their intended targets. Merely 21 percent of Derby’s crosses reached a white shirt.

In an interview with BBC Sport Derby after the game, the Rams’ head coach Paul Warne admitted that his side were not at their best against Wigan but deserved at least a point from proceedings:

“I can’t say we played at our best today. There were some parts of our play which were really good, and there were some parts [that were] a little bit frustrating.

“Over the whole ninety minutes…I don’t think we deserved to lose.

“I thought it was a pretty even game against two pretty good sides and it just comes down to a couple of errors that we got punished on and Wigan are a good side.”

Derby must quickly put the defeat behind them and prepare for Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup clash at home against Blackpool who picked up a cushty 2-0 victory at Bloomfield Road today against Burton Albion.

Writer’s View

No player had more shots on goal today during the game than Forsyth which is a little unsettling given his positioning on the wings.

While the former Premier League side conceded twice in front of their own crowd, the lack of end product from the team was perhaps more worrying overall.

Derby registered 274 passes in Wigan’s half throughout the game, compared to their opponent’s 85, yet were defeated.

More needs to be done with such quantities of possession and maybe the incoming Martyn Waghorn is the answer to Warne’s problems. Let’s wait with bated breath.