Mark Robins: Defeat at Derby tells me some players ‘aren’t bothered’ about Stoke

Stoke boss Mark Robins admitted their 2-0 Championship defeat to Derby told him some players did not want to be at the club following their fifth-straight away defeat.

Derby controlled the opening period but it took till the second half for them to make their supremacy count when Jaydon Banel climbed off the bench to notch his first goal for the club.

Stoke failed to register a single shot on target but Derby finally made the result safe in the 89th minute when Carlton Morris finished from close range to take them to within a point of the play-offs.

When the Stoke team went over to thank the fans for their support at the final whistle, the supporters made their feelings known to the players which ended with Sorba Thomas going over to speak to a group of them.

Robins admitted the performance was not good enough and the Stoke fans were right to boo.

He said: “Even if you get beaten, you can get beaten in a way that you’ve gone down fighting and that just wasn’t one of those performances, so that was a performance that tells me that one or two of them aren’t bothered about being here.

“I went over afterwards knowing there weren’t going to be flowers thrown. If you get criticised and you don’t like it, suck it up, get on with it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We weren’t able to compete, or we chose not to, whichever one. Going back to the unwritten contract with supporters, we’ve ripped it open, put it in the bin today and it’s unacceptable. Absolutely not.

“That’s not the performance that we need or want at any stage of a season so (we’ve) plenty of work to do.”

Stoke were once in the race for promotion but defeat leaves them 10 points behind the play-offs and Robins knows what needs to happen over summer for the club to progress.

He added: “They know how the supporters feel because they made it very, very clear.

“I’m determined to get this right and push the club closer to where we need to be and we want to get in the Premier League – it’s just miles away from that today.”

Derby boss John Eustace believed his side deserved the three points, saying: “We thoroughly deserved the win.

“From the first minute we were on the front foot, the football we played today was superb, the second goal was a top goal. Numerous chances in the first period we didn’t put away.

“We played against a really good team in Stoke and if you’re not at it, they will hurt you – they’ve got some fantastic players.”

United States international Patrick Agyemang was forced off on a stretcher in the first half which could end his dreams of playing in the upcoming World Cup.

Eustace added: “He’s gone for a scan so we’ll just have to wait and see. Obviously, it’s not good when a player comes off on a stretcher.”