John Eustace urges Derby to be ‘braver’ after ‘frustrating’ draw with Portsmouth

Derby head coach John Eustace wants his team to be “braver” on the ball after they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Portsmouth.

Eustace saw his side have plenty of possession, but failed to create enough chances to win at Pride Park for the first time since early November.

Pompey made a great start by taking the lead in the sixth minute with Josh Murphy releasing Callum Lang, who held off two challenges before scoring with a firm left-footed shot.

But they created little for the rest of the game and their lead was cancelled out in the 45th minute when Joe Ward’s cross was put into his own net by Hayden Matthews under pressure from Patrick Agyemang.

The second half was low on quality with both teams lacking creativity until stoppage time when Ward again delivered a good cross and Agyemang’s header brought a good save from Nicolas Schmid.

Eustace said: “It was a frustrating game, I thought we started really well so going a goal down was disappointing.

“We scored a good equaliser and then it was just frustrating in the second half, we just lacked that bit of composure and bit of quality to go and score a second.

“The team’s attitude is different class, they keep going, they fight and scrap for everything and then in that final third and in the build-up play we need to be braver on the ball and make better decisions.

“I think 31 points is a good return up to now. We’ve had to rebuild the team and had to be patient with players coming in and getting fit.

“We are still missing four or five key players who could come in to the group and they’re not going to be back in a short period of time, but the effort of the boys who are playing is outstanding.”

For Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho, it was a performance that delivered plenty of positives.

He said: “I think it’s a decent point. First of all we had to stop the rot away from home which was really important, having not picked up results recently on the road.

“Backing up the performance last week I thought was really positive and overall it was a really positive performance. We had to dig in towards the back end, but we were good value for the point.

“Certainly today, against a side that are excellent from set-pieces and are much bigger than us, I thought we stood up well to it.

“We have got a lot of positives from showing that grit and digging in, but what pleased me most was the way we played football. The goal itself was probably the best goal we’ve scored this season.

“I thought Derby’s goal came against the run of play, but we came out and showed a huge amount of composure, probably in three-quarters of the pitch, it was just in that final quarter we didn’t have it. And that’s something we really need to work on because footballing-wise I thought it was a really good performance.”