Clough Furious With Side After Forest Defeat

Nigel Clough showed the frustration he felt at the thrashing handed out to his side by Nottingham Forest last night by criticising a number of his players and their desire and attitude after an embarrassing defeat. In particular he picked out three of the back four with only John Brayford emerging relatively unscathed and he also criticised midfielder Paul Green by saying he needed more from his experienced players on nights like this in order to boost a young side telling Radio Derby:

'We have a very young squad. You need those so-called experienced players to come through for you. We thought we were a little bit further down the road. This is a major setback and it's the most upset after I've been after a game of football.'

Two goals apiece from former Derby men Robbie Earnshaw and Marcus Tudgay saw The Rams concede five goals and suffer their fifth defeat in a row on a miserable evening. After conceding early goals in recent visits to the City Ground Clough had called for his side to make a fast start but they fell behind after only 92 seconds and weren`t in the running for the majority of the first half despite Luke Moore levelling the scores. Tudgay struck twice to give his side a 3-1 lead at the break and Earnshaw scored early in the second period to put the game out of reach. Kris Commons pulled one back almost immediately and although The Rams gained more of a foothold in the match the damage had been done and Earnshaw rubbed salt in the wounds with a fifth goal in injury time. Clough couldn`t defend his team`s performance and continued:

'They can't really hide. When you go over the white line, there's no hiding there, you either do it or you don't do it. Some can do it, some can't. We get to the stage where we give the players every opportunity but at some point you have to move on to the next group."

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