At first glance, beleaguered Derby County might not have too much in common with Manchester United right now.
But Rams' boss Wayne Rooney says he is trying to bring about a similar mentality to the one he experienced under legendary Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson. United scored countless crucial goals in so-called 'Fergie Time' down the years and it is something Rooney has been trying to add to Derby's game as they chase down Championship survival against the odds.
Derby are fighting for safety amid a backdrop of a mammoth 21-point deduction, but they remain right in the battle to stay up. To that end, Rooney has been impressed with how his players keep going until the end. Late goals this season have been crucial to them keeping up with their drop rivals. Recent months have seen County seal an injury time win over Peterborough and come from 2-0 down to post precious points against Birmingham and Reading.
Last week's vital win over Preston was also achieved thanks to a goal inside the last ten minutes. Speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football , Rooney says the trait of scoring late in games is one he has been pleased to see from his side. "I say to the players every week that we could win in the last minute, in injury time, the 85th minute, we have to keep going," said United's all-time leading goalscorer.
"The way we play, we like to play with the ball, make the pitch big and work the opposition so there is a possibility of in the last ten minutes of the opposition becoming tired and making a mistake and we have to take advantage of that. That is the desire and the mentality of what I am trying to build amongst those players.
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"Last season when we stayed up, I was adapting to the opposition every game and I didn’t like it, it wasn’t me and how I would like to see my team playing. On the first day of pre-season, I have sat down with the coaches and spelled out how I want my team to play, how I want to coach it and then from that moment we have changed once this season, and played the way we want to play and those principles don’t change."
Rooney also opened up on the challenge of Derby's predicament amid plenty of uncertainty. He added: "It is a big challenge but I am a fighter and will fight right till the end whether we go down or not. There is still a possibility that we can stay up, and we will keep going until we go down, or stay up, but at the end of the season we need to reassess. At the minute, we don’t know what the future of the club is, we really have to sit down and I am desperate for a prefered bidder to come in and discuss their ambitions and about how they are going to take the club forward."
With regards a preferred bidder, Monday night saw a fresh development with the news that American businessman Glenn Kirchner is reportedly set to be named as the administrators' preferred bidder imminently. Kirchner withdrew his bid for the Rams in December when he became frustrated at not being able to agree a takeover deal, but is now set for a u-turn. Derby are six points adrift of safety with six matches remaining.
