Wayne’s battle cry as Rams enter second half of their campaign
BOSS SAYS HIS SIDE WILL FIGHT ALL THE WAY, STARTING WITH TRIP TO STOKE
WAYNE Rooney has issued a defiant message with Derby County about to enter the second half of the Championship campaign.
The Rams face a mammoth task to stay in the division and not fall into League One.
They sit bottom of the table on seven points, having been deducted 21 points this season.
The gap between themselves and safety is 14 points after consecutive wins against Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion.
Next is a short trip down the A50 to take on Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium tonight (7.45pm) and Rams manager Rooney says he and his players will keep fighting in their battle to beat the drop.
He believes it will be mid-february when they will have a better idea of their chances of staying up.
Looking ahead to the game, Rooney told Ramstv: “We know it’s another difficult game.
“Stoke are a good team and they play good football, so we will prepare the best we can.
“We will be ready to play and battle again and it’s an important time of the season for everyone.
“If you can build some momentum now, it will be huge for us.
“We will keep fighting, keep putting in performances and trying to pick up points.
“Once we get to around mid-february we will have a better idea of whether we have a realistic chance of staying up or whether we are in League One – but we will keep going until the end.”
Monday’s victory over West Brom marked the halfway stage of Derby’s season.
Once we get to around mid-february we will have a better idea of whether we have a realistic chance of staying up or whether we are in League One – but we will keep going until the end.
Wayne Rooney
They have won six and drawn 10 of their 23 League fixtures. They have the fourth-best defensive record in the division – 21 goals conceded – but the second-worst scoring record, only 19.
“There is always room for improvement everywhere, right across the team,” said Rooney.
“We all want to get better and all want to learn as well but with the squad of players we have, if we went into the season with no points deduction and you told us we would stay in the league, we would be happy with that.
“We will keep fighting, keep trying to pick up points and chase the teams down that are ahead of us.”
Stoke City are Covid-free, the
Stoke Sentinel reports.
The Potters had nine first team players and one from the under-23s in self-isolation running up to Christmas but all have been able to train since Sunday.
That leaves Michael O’neill with pretty much the same squad as he had for Stoke’s last game, the goalless draw against Middlesbrough on December 11.
“The 10 Covid cases are all back. They were back training from Sunday afternoon and have trained since and there have been no additions to that,” said O’neill.
“The other players who trained in that period have been a shadow squad with, I think, eight senior players and a number of the under23s. We still have six or seven injuries still unavailable to us.
“The 19-day period has not really helped with injuries because, realistically, we will have played those two games more than likely in January before any of the injured players are available again.
“There was constant communication with the players and getting a gauge on how they are feeling.
“Some players had more severe symptoms than others, for example.
“Some players were asymptomatic but were still in a period of self-isolation and were limited in what they could do in that period.
“But there was constant dialogue
with the fitness, medical and sports science teams and when we brought the players back in we trained in two groups so we could get an indication of how the Covid players were and felt.
“It’s not easy to just come in and work with the intensity of players who had trained over that period. The players basically had little reaction.”
The Potters are still without a number of key players due to longterm injuries.
Harry Souttar (knee) is out for the season and Romaine Sawyers and Joe Bursik (both quad) are not expected back until March. Also out are Jordan Thompson (knee) and Nick Powell (leg).