Graeme Shinnie reveals Derby County disappointment ahead of Bristol City tie | OneFootball

Derby County midfielder Graeme Shinnie believes his side are drawing too many matches in their quest to remain afloat in the Championship, making this admission to his side’s media team.

His comments come after the Rams’ 2-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers on Monday night, a real blow for their survival hopes after initially taking the lead in the 10th minute through Tom Lawrence.

A second-half comeback from the R’s consigned them to a desperately disappointing loss in a game they would have hoped to have won at Pride Park, even with Mark Warburton’s side currently flying high in the second-tier table.

Quiz: Has Tom Lawrence ever scored a goal for Derby County at each of these 26 stadiums?

With the East Midlands outfit currently 19 points adrift of safety after their points deductions and 26 games to go, it’s now or never for Wayne Rooney’s men who desperately need to get as many points on the board as possible if they want to have any chance of competing for survival in the final few games of the 2021/22 campaign.

Going unbeaten in 14 of their opening 20 league matches this term, they have fought bravely despite a clear lack of squad depth and their current off-field situation causing major disruption.

On the pitch though, he believes his side need to do more to retain their leads and avoid as many draws as possible, as he detailed those two key areas for improvement going into tomorrow afternoon’s away clash at Ashton Gate as they face Bristol City.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s tie against Nigel Pearson’s men, the Scotland international said: “It is a strange situation for us but, like I keep saying, it’s about trying to take three points in every game we can.

“We’ve drawn too many matches which we felt we should have done better in.

“There have been a few where we’ve been in good positions and we’ve let it slip which has been disappointing.

“We want to turn draws into wins if we can and try and march on and do the best we can.”

In normal circumstances, their form would be good enough to stay up and that in itself would have been a great achievement considering how thin their squad is and the problems they have had to deal with off the pitch.

But their nine-point deduction last month to add to their initial 12 has probably made this task a little too steep for a young Derby side to complete, even though they have performed admirably under a reasonably inexperienced coach in Rooney.

The only way they will be able to steer themselves clear of the drop zone this term is if they can get the perfect balance between their defence and attack. They were one of the best defensive sides in the division in the early stages of this campaign but weren’t scoring enough goals.

But now they’re scoring, they have become leaky in defence and have only kept one clean sheet in their last eight league matches, a disappointing record for the likes of Phil Jagielka and Curtis Davies who had formed such a solid partnership.

Captain Lawrence needs to continue stepping up to the plate in attack though as well, in what will continue to be a courageous team effort to get as many points on the board as possible in their remaining 26 second-tier games.