Head coach Scott Brown spoke to the media after his side battled valiantly throughout their narrow loss to Derby County on Saturday afternoon.
Brown admitted that he thought Town were the better of the two sides on the day, but a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal meant Martyn Waghorn’s first-half strike was enough to earn the Rams all three points at Pride Park.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say after the game:
On the narrow loss as a whole…
“I thought, throughout the game, we were the better team. They had one chance and they’ve taken it and that was the difference between both teams - we controlled the game for long periods and put a lot of crosses into the box, but they defended a bit better than we did.
“You need a bit of luck, but we can’t be letting teams go a goal up. I thought we were fine during the game, we weren’t going to lose that many chances – they had a couple of shots from range on target but they didn’t get in behind us too much.
“The back three – or four – were really good at times so, for us, we controlled the game for large periods of time, I’m happy with the performance levels and the work rate, but I’m not happy with the quality in the final third – you need to make the keepers work."
On needing to be ruthless in front of goal…
“We’re not ruthless enough in the final third; there’s not that bit of quality as the wingers and strikers don’t want to put their heads on the line and that was the difference. The goal was a bit lucky; it takes a deflection from when Josh Earl comes across, but it’s a good finish.
“For us, you can’t ever fault the lads’ effort or their performance levels because that was very good until we get to the final third, and that is what’s killing us at this moment in time because we lose one goal and we don’t look like we’re going to score at the other end.
“It’s only really Jayden [Stockley] who looks like they’re going to score a goal and he’s not fully fit. Recently, he’s been struggling with a couple of illnesses, but we had to put him on as he’s our main striker and you can see why.”