‘We have to take this one on chin, not let it fester’
FRANK Lampard has urged his Derby County players to move on quickly from the defeat by Leeds United.
Derby lost 2-0 to Leeds at Elland Road on Friday and could have no complaints about the result.
They were second-best and are now 11 points behind leaders Leeds in the Championship.
The Rams have won only one of their last six League games and that was the remarkable comeback against Norwich City at Carrow Road, a match in which they trailed 2-0 and 3-2 before winning 4-3.
Lampard was disappointed with his team’s performance at Leeds but he says there is no point in dwelling on what happened.
“We have to take this one on the chin, not let it fester and go back to the drawing board and playing the way we were,” he added.
“They (Leeds) are a good team. They played better than us, they had more quality on the ball and they pressed us.
“My main thing was our quality on the ball wasn’t so great and not just the quality, it was the personality to keep playing. We went away from what we have done a lot all season, which is to keep playing in all circumstances.
“We didn’t perform from the first minute until the last.
“I would say it was our worst performance, albeit against a top team in the league.
“You can lose here (at Elland Road) but you can lose here playing better than how we played because we didn’t play well at all.
“That’s not been the norm for us. We have been playing good football for large portions of the season.”
Derby now face an FA Cup thirdround replay against Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday before Reading visit Pride Park Stadium in the League on Saturday.
“The lads are a really good bunch,” said Lampard.
“We had a bad night (at Leeds), that will happen in football, so we must now be big and brave and take the beating on our chin and move on.
“You can lose here (at Leeds) and there is no point dwelling on it forever.”