NEW ROO CRUITS
Rams raid for fresh faces to help Wayne in his battle to beat the drop
WAYNE ROONEY is confident of making at least a couple of signings in the next 24 hours for resurgent Derby County.
Rooney claims he has been given the green light to move before tomorrow’s 11pm deadline and spent last night trying to finalise a number of deals.
“There will be players coming in, in the next 48 hours,” said the Derby boss.
“I’m hoping to have players in tomorrow morning and I’m fairly confident there will be.
“We are quite far down the line with a few players.
“I’ve got the ability to bring more than one player in. I can bring two, three, four players in if I want.”
Rooney also revealed Derby have accepted an offer from Millwall for George Evans and will let him decide if he wants to leave.
Derby’s third successive 1-0 win, courtesy of Colin KazimRichards’ fifth goal of the season, has lifted them five points clear of the drop zone.
But the victory was marred by another knee injury for Krystian Bielik, the midfielder only returning in November after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligaments a year ago.
Bielik went off on a stretcher after damaging the same right knee and Rooney claimed it is too early to tell how bad the injury is.
“He’s obviously not great,” said Rooney (right).
“We will assess it in the next couple of days and we just hope it’s not serious because he’s been great for us.”
The defeat dented Bristol City’s promotion hopes and boss Dean
Holden pulled no punches about their lacklustre display.
“That was nowhere near the level we expect,” said Holden.“
“They were the better team, no doubt about it.
“We’ve had performances like that this season and we have to respond if we’re going to maintain our promotion push.” Bielik helped Derby boss the first halfan-hour, and they scored on four minutes when Lee Buchanan whipped over a cross from the left and Kazim-Richards shot home off the underside of the bar.
Max Bird was denied a second by the woodwork when his half-volley hit the post.
Graeme Shinnie then crossed to the back post from the left and Kamil Jozwiak dallied before getting his shot off, which allowed keeper Daniel Bentley to close him down.
The Robins improved after Bielik went off and Derby had a let-off when Famara Diedhiou just failed to connect with Jack Hunt’s cross from six yards out.
But they failed to create enough and the only real save David Marshall made was from Alfie Mawson’s shot late on.
Instead Derby went closer to a second and Diedhiou cleared Matthew Clarke’s header off the line before Bentley tipped Martyn Waghorn’s deflected volley over the bar.
Marshall 6; Byrne 6, Wisdom 6, Clarke 7, Buchanan 8; Bielik 7 (Waghorn 36, 6), Shinnie 7; Jozwiak 6 (McDonald 87), Bird 7, Knight 6; Kazim-Richards 7 (Hector-Ingram 90).
Roos, Forsyth, Sibley, Watson, Mitchell-Lawson,
Brown.
Bentley 7; Hunt 7, Kalas 6, Mawson 7, Rowe 5 (Mariappa 34, 6); Semenyo 5 (Martin 67, 6), Nagy 6, Vyner 6 (Bakinson 67, 6), Palmer 6 (Massengo 79); Wells 5 (Edwards 79), Diedhiou 6.
O’Leary, Moore, Pearson, Bell.
Lee Buchanan. Excellent in defence and delivered a perfect cross for Kazim-Richards’ goal.
Darren England 6.