How cruel! Rooney gets another kick in the teeth

Crisis club Derby hit by last-gasp penalty

AFTER administration and acrimony in one of Derby’s darkest weeks, the actual football ultimately offered no solace.

Wayne Rooney’s side showed remarkable spirit amid all the uncertainty swirling around a club sent plummeting to the bottom of the Championship table amid crippling financial trouble.

They came within a whisker of a morale-boosting point here, having played the final 33 minutes with 10 men. Sheffield United put them under unrelenting pressure but Derby’s defenders put bodies on the line, with Phil Jagielka and Curtis Davies — combined age 75 — clearing everything that came their way.

Derby were so nearly home but, not for the first time, they selfdestructed.

Just before the hour, goalkeeper Kelle Roos had brought down Billy Sharp as he broke clear, earning the red card that put his team under the cosh. And then in the 89th minute Davies inexplicably raised his arm to a Conor Hourihane cross and conceded the last-minute penalty that Sharp rammed home.

Rooney refused to blame Roos or Davies, but he must have felt some frustration because Derby could easily have emerged with three points.

Even after Sharp’s goal, Derby could have snatched an unlikely draw, when Tom Lawrence’s deflected shot struck the post in stoppage time.

‘It’s cruel to concede a penalty late on but that is football,’ Rooney said. ‘The players have to go out there and try and perform during this difficult period and their application has been first class.

‘It is easy to criticise players for not caring or being loyal, not putting extra effort in, but they are a good, honest group of lads and in this tough moment they have really shown their character.’

Roos clipped Sharp as the Blades striker ran on to Oliver Norwood’s ball over the top, forcing Rooney into a change of strategy.

‘To be honest, it looked a red card,’ the Derby boss said.

‘The plan was to try and nick a win in the last 10 to 15 minutes and we were on course. The red card changed the plans, but sometimes things happen for a reason. Going to 10 men means the players had to put extra effort in.’

Derby’ s backs-to-the-wall defending when down to 10 men led to increasing exasperation around Bramall Lane as attack after attack foundered.

Iliman Ndiaye and Morgan GibbsWhite came close, while Sharp had blazed over wastefully early on when set clear. But Derby enjoyed their spells of supremacy and good chances, too.

Jagielka, playing against a club for whom he made more than 300 appearances, had a looping header hit the crossbar in the first-half.

‘It wasn’t our best game but we showed some improvement of our personality and character. We must be happy with some kind of progress in a game that wasn’t easy for us,’ said Blades boss Slavisa Jokanovic.