Skipper: Team has ‘special’ quality

SKIPPER Tom Lawrence believes Derby County’s squad is showing it has “something special” about it as the Rams fight to avoid relegation.

Derby have had a total of 21 points deducted this season for going into administration and for breaches of the League’s Profitability and Sustainability rules.

The punishment has left them bottom of the Championship but 10 points collected from a four-match unbeaten run has helped the Rams reach 11 points.

It means the gap between themselves and safety in the table is 11 points as they battle to beat the odds.

Three consecutive victories against Blackpool, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City were followed by a 2-2 draw at Reading on Monday.

The scoreline at Reading tells only half the story because the Rams scored twice in the closing minutes to recover from two down.

“I thought we played some tremendous stuff throughout the game,” Lawrence told RamsTV.

“I’ve said this before but this team has got something special about it and I think we showed that today.

“We will never give in, the fans that were in the corner with us, they spur us on every week and it’s a joy to play in front of them.

“We had won three on the bounce before this and to go 2-0 down, which was undeserved in my opinion, we had to dig in really deep and we showed what a team we are and how together we are. Especially the fans as well, we are all together in this.”

Lawrence was appointed captain ahead of this season and he is proud to lead the team.

“I’m proud of every single one of them,” Lawrence said of his team-mates.

“I couldn’t be in a better changing room to captain this team.

“It’s an honour for me and we will do everything in our power to keep this club in the Championship.

“We’ve shown that it’s us against everyone and we will keep it that way because it’s working for us at the minute.”