Wayne Rooney sends warning to Derby County players amid survival hopes

Derby County boss Wayne Rooney has warned his players they are at a crucial stage in the season where they need to start turning draws into wins, speaking to his club’s media team after their 1-0 loss against Luton Town.

This latest result was a real blow for the Rams, with fellow relegation battlers Barnsley taking advantage as they won 3-2 against Middlesbrough and leapfrogged the Rams in the Championship table after previously looking doomed.

Rooney’s men remain eight points behind 21st-placed side Reading after this weekend’s round of the results, a particularly annoying fact for the former considering the Royals suffered a 4-1 loss away at Blackpool yesterday afternoon.

Derby’s clash at Kenilworth Road was their second consecutive defeat since overcoming Peterborough United with a stoppage-time winner last weekend, losing out 2-1 to Millwall at Pride Park in midweek in what was seen as a winnable game, before failing to make amends against Nathan Jones’ side.

With the Tykes threatening to pull away from Rooney’s outfit, they are in danger of being cut adrift unless they can turn their fortunes around quickly, something that can’t be ruled out with the East Midlands club performing bravely against adversity throughout the entire 2021/22 campaign thus far.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done and that was reinforced by yesterday’s results, with the relegation battler’s boss sending out a firm warning to his men in their quest to remain afloat in the second tier.

He said: “It was an okay performance but a disappointing result. We are at the point of the season where we need to turn draws into wins, but we have got another very difficult game on Tuesday at Cardiff.

“We have to dust ourselves down, forget about