Three points but standards crucial, too, for Roo as Rams climb
ECSTASY AFTER LAST-GASP WINNER BUT BOSS FRUSTRATED WITH DISPLAY
FEW things in sport spark euphoria quite like a last-gasp winning goal.
Derby County’s players savoured that moment against Wycombe Wanderers when defender Andre Wisdom guided the ball into the net in the fourth minute of added time.
The Rams had dug in, and hung on at times, as Wycombe pushed for what would have been a deserved winner.
Instead, Derby emerged from a hard-fought Championship contest at Adams Park with a 2-1 victory that eased concerns at the wrong end of the table.
The players celebrated, understandably but manager Wayne Rooney wrestled with mixed feelings. Delighted with the three points, Rooney was disappointed with his team’s performance.
Angry, even, and he told the players.
It is such demands, such standards, such hunger to keep improving that is dragging Derby’s season up by its boot laces after a torrid opening three months, after which the Rams sat bottom with only six points from 13 games.
Derby have played 15 League fixtures since they were held at home by Wycombe at the end of November and have collected 27 points from eight wins and three draws. They have kept eight clean sheets in those 15 matches.
Huge credit goes to the players and to Rooney and his coaching team.
Together they have climbed to their highest league placing of the season before last night’s fixtures.
It has not been pretty at times, nor hugely convincing on occasions, as was the case against Wycombe, and the Championship’s bottom club will rightly feel gutted at finishing the contest empty-handed.
Rooney has shown in his two-anda-half months in sole charge he is a manager who says it as he sees it. There is no papering over cracks.
He has shown a refusal to accept below-par performances and a willingness to highlight the team’s shortcomings as part of the drive for improvement. Standards, regardless of result.
As the first question was being delivered in the round of aftermatch interviews you could see in Rooney’s face the performance was on his mind.
“I am delighted with the three points but really disappointed and angry at the performance,” he said.
“It is not good enough, we have to perform better.
“We have to believe in ourselves that we are a better team than that. We have to play better football.”
Rooney has said all along he feels ready for management and believes he can be a success.
He is certainly embracing the role. His calmness before, during and after games has caught the eye but the edge that made him a top player, the edge players need to reach the level he did, is very much still there and comes out when he dissects games and performances. He is drawing on a wealth of experience he had at club and international level.
He will know, on cutting through the disappointment, that the win against Wycombe is another massive three points.
Winning games when below par is a good sign because there will always be games a team deserve to win but fail to do so. Home games against Wycombe, Coventry City and Preston North End spring to mind, as does the defeat by Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
Level of performance is important because that often provides a more rigid platform on which progress can be possible but Derby’s plight this season means that the bottom line remains results and points.
Derby have improved on both.