Joey, it was a long second half in terms of not getting what you wanted until the very end, but do you feel you got what you deserved?
I think so. I think we were much the better side. Obviously, they have got some good players and they are a good team, but I thought we made them look distinctly average, certainly from a pressing perspective today.
The fact we’ve managed to get a draw is good because of the state of play and their goal and them trying to see the game out and run the clock down, but I think when I watch it back tonight, I’ll be disappointed we haven’t won the game.
I thought we were much the better side and that is really pleasing. I think we have made huge progress since we went to Pride Park earlier in the season and I think that was evident today.
How much patience did your players have to show because Derby were sat so deep that there was very little room?
They are tough, you’ve got experienced campaigners and loading the back end of the game with even more experience, putting Curtis Davies in there, a former Premier League centre-half.
We had to be patient and keep plugging away. You are frustrated coming off that game and losing 1-0 due to how much control and ball we’ve had, but again those final bits are what we’ve got to work on, that final delivery into the box or the composure and calmness when we get in there.
But there is so much as a coach to be pleased with in terms of moving it between the phases against a really good team, but I will be disappointed we haven’t won that game.
If you landed here from Mars today and said ‘Who’s going for promotion and who is just happy to stay in the division?’, I think even the most ardent Derby fan today would accept we were light years ahead of them in terms of control of the football.
What did you make of the penalty decision?
I see two players coming together and I’m not sure. I think we’ve had penalties this season that haven’t been given when there has been more contact than that.
Antony thinks the boy goes down early and pulls him down and ultimately the referee and the linesman have given us a decision.
I’m not going to say we didn’t deserve it because on the balance of play, if Derby had won the game 1-0, that was a smash-and-grab raid from them because they weren’t the better team here today.
Warney knows and accepts that coming off the pitch. We’ve given them a little bit of a footballing lesson.
From our perspective, it’s nice to draw and not get beaten, but also we have got to a bit more clinical if we want to challenge and compete with those types of teams on a consistent basis.
They always say if you don’t play well – and I don’t think we allowed Derby to play well today – don’t lose the game and that’s the sign of a good team. That’s why they are still there with seven or eight games to go and they have a chance of promotion and we haven’t.
A nice moment for Antony Evans, who probably hasn’t had the season he would have liked, but a very well-taken penalty.
He’s a big player and he grows into that pressure. You fancy Antony with the ball in his hands to do whatever he wants with it.
John’s got the ball and not letting the keeper prepare. The keeper thinks John’s going to take it because he scored the penalty last time out against Charlton.
I’m worried who’s going to take it and I’m like ‘Is John going to grab this’ because I’d prefer Antony to take it, with no disrespect to John, because you know his quality.
Antony sticks it away with aplomb and the keeper Wildsmith has got no chance because of the velocity and accuracy of that penalty and that’s what Ant’s capable of.
His first season properly in League One and he will go from strength to strength. He’s been OK this year, he hasn’t lit it up like he did last year, but this is a big step up for some of those boys, especially in the defensive area, and I think they are growing week by week.
I think it was a really good team performance, but we’ve spoken about individuals in recent matches and Lamare in midfield was very quietly very good today.
Yeah, he’s a real talent and he’s a strange one in terms of he’s not the most vocal and he goes by his own rhythm, his own frequency, but then the moment the game kicks off you just feel him come alive.
It’s like he does most of his communication in the way he plays and that is ultimately what it’s about. I think as he grows and becomes a bit more composed and he starts to settle into the role, I think he will become a real leadership type.
He’s smart footballer and he really understands the game and I think your voice as a player starts to come through as you get into your mid-20s.
He’s only 19 and he’s been first class since he came into our football team and he showed again today just what a good player he is.
We’re really pleased with him, but as a group we’re really pleased with the lads. They kept chugging away and the fans stayed with them and I think we got our just rewards.
So Joey, that penalty situation was not orchestrated with John?
No.
That was John showing his experience?
Yeah.
That must really please you.
Yeah, I said to you last time that you never know what’s going on because people have got hold of the ball and I’m like ‘I hope Antony is taking this because he is the taker’, but also if John decided to take it, he slotted it last time out.
From us, you are never sure what they are doing and you are hoping they are being really sensible with their thinking. As it transpired, John’s in control and he hands the ball to Antony and he sticks it away.
Really pleased with the lads. You do see some teams where players are squabbling, but thankfully we’ve not got that type of group and, fair play to the lads, they sorted it out and put the ball in the back of the net.
You said to us the other day that you saw these final seven games as a chance to see how you measure up to the top six or seven in the league. You must be delighted, forgetting the scoreline, from just watching the game thinking you can really mix it?
Yeah, we’ve got to build it and the most frustrating thing for me is we haven’t managed to maintain that level of consistency all season.
January was tricky because teams went and spent four, five and 600 grand on players and as a newly-promoted team, we were not capable of doing that.
It’s frustrating because I always want to get promoted and be in and around the end-of-season honours, but you accept we’ve got to build the football club sustainably and inch by inch.
I think back to the game at Pride Park when we were 3-0 down after 20 minutes and a little bit higgledy-piggledy that day due to the Sheffield Wednesday game on the Wednesday and then going to Pride Park on the Saturday, we had 24 hours less of a recovery window, we lost Lewis Gibson and Ryan Loft so we were a little bit undermanned.
They blew us out of the water. We weren’t able to play at their intensity. Today, I think we’ve shown the strides we’ve made as a group, albeit with slightly different personnel.
I thought we controlled their ability to press us and in the end they were forced to sit back on the ropes and hang on to what they’ve got because they couldn’t consistently get pressure on us.
The number of times we stepped through their press or beat their press, got down the side out it, it nullified the threat of McGoldrick and Collins because they were in a defensive mindset rather than being on the front foot and full of energy because they are on the back foot.
We’ve made good strides, but we’ve got to do it more consistently to make sure next season we’re challenging at this time of year for the play-off positions or the automatic positions if we’re good enough.
Joey, it was a really good performance from Lewis Gordon today. He seems to thrive against the bigger teams.
Yeah, I think the back four are settling in and Jarrell serves his last game of his suspension today. Ellery Balcombe is about to come back into the group, Josh Grant is back in there, Harry Anderson gets 45 minutes today. The lads are coming slowly but surely.
For us to finish as strongly as we can is key and that puts us on that 52-point mark, which is important but also, if we get it right like we did today, we feel we can take the game to the bigger teams and we can do it with an element of control.
We have to be better in certain regards today, but I have to be really pleased with the level of performance.
Also, if we keep building and growing, you can see the Gasheads are starting to get with it now and they are sticking with the team now because these players have earned the right for the fans to stick with them to the 90th minute.
When we get an equaliser like that, it goes some way to building those connections with the fanbase, which is going to be important as we try to push out of this division and into the one above.
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