Jewell: No time to feel sorry for ourselves
Monday 01 September 2008
Derby County manager Paul Jewell has warned: This is no time to start feeling sorry for ourselves.
One point from four matches has seen the Rams slip to the foot of the Championship but Jewell saw enough positives in Saturday’s defeat at Barnsley to believe the future will be brighter.
“It would be easy to say it was not our day and start feeling sorry for ourselves but you get nothing in football for that,” he said after the 2-0 reverse at Oakwell.
“It is about results but if we play as we did for the rest of the season we will win far more games than we lose.”
Barnsley goalkeeper Luke Steele was named man of the match after keeping Derby at bay with a number of saves.
He denied Rob Hulse, Kris Commons, Przemyslaw Kazmierczak and Emanuel Villa in a seven-minute spell in the second half as the Rams pressed forward in search of the goal their play deserved.
“That is as well as we have played all season,” said Jewell.
"Their keeper has got man of the match and that tells you everything. We probably didn’t have the cutting edge, or a little bit of fortune.
"We were the better side for 70 minutes and there was only one team who looked like winning the game until they scored a terrific goal out of nothing, and that’s the way it is going for us at the moment.
"The goal lifted their confidence and the second goal killed us.
"We just need a bit of good fortune in and around the box.
"If we keep playing like that, we’ll get it. If we play like we did against Southampton, we won’t. It is as simple as that.
“People will look at the result against Barnsley and think Derby lost again and have been beaten easily but we were by far the better team.”
Jewell says he is ready to take the flak as the struggling Rams head into the two-week international break propping up the Championship.
When asked about Derby’s rock-bottom position, Jewell added: "I’m disappointed.
"This is a huge club with huge expectations and I have got to be able to live with that. If you can’t deal with it, then don’t be the manager.
"Whatever comes along, I’ll take on the chin.
"I’m going to get some flak – I’m getting some flak. That’s life, there is nothing I can do about that. We [managers] get too much praise when things are going well and we get too much stick when they are going badly.
"For 70 minutes you wouldn’t have heard a murmur from our supporters behind the goal at Barnsley. I think they could see the players were playing well.
"The effort and determination was there, they just needed a goal.
"You are going to get people having a go at you, I understand that.
"Derby County is a huge club but Derby County fans are intelligent enough to see that we were unfortunte not to win [at Barnsley] and I haven’t said that on many occasions, in fact I don’t think I have said it since I have been here.
"We were well beaten in almost every game last season and Doncaster and Southampton both deserved to beat us this season while Bristol City was an even game.
"We have got nothing out of the Barnsley game except a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I thought some good points came out of it.
“I’d love to have got battered and won 1-0, then everybody would have gone home cheering our name and thinking the revival had started. We played better than losing the game 2-0. We should have won.”
Other stories on this day
- Rams defender mears is set to join marseille
- Best yet but still no win as the Rams sink to the basement
- Stewart has faith that Rams can still hit the heights
- Derby County connections that found the back of the net at the weekend