Boss: A soft goal, a sloppy goal and a ridiculous goal

WAYNE Rooney pulled no punches after Derby County’s damaging 3-0 defeat by Preston North End at Deepdale.

The Rams trailed to Ben Whiteman’s goal at the break and, despite an improvement in the second half, they conceded further goals, scored by Ched Evans and Ryan Ledson.

Derby have lost their last four matches and have managed only one win in 12.

They remain one place above the relegation zone and four points above third-bottom Rotherham United, who have three games in hand, the first of which was at home to Middlesbrough last night.

“It wasn’t good enough,” Rooney said of his team’s performance.

“We started the game really brightly and on the front foot and then we gave away another sloppy goal, yet again, which means we were chasing the game.

“We started the second half brightly, looking to get the equaliser, but conceded another soft goal, from my point of view, and then it was very difficult to come back into the game.

“We conceded a ridiculous third goal and I don’t think we deserved anything out of the game.”

Rooney has been confident all along that Derby will avoid relegation but was a little more cautious when the question came again.

“We have to be realistic where we are at,” he said. “Do I believe we can win the last three games? Yes – but we have to rely on Rotherham losing games. It is out of our hands.

“We just have to focus on Saturday, a huge game for us aganst Birmingham. All our attention will go to that game and we will be watching with one eye closed the Rotherham game to see what the outcome of that is.”