Derby County 0-1 Millwall: Rams fail to score for fourth successive match
- Published
Shaun Hutchinson's second goal of the season was enough to beat Derby County
Derby failed to score for the fourth successive match as Millwall inflicted a third defeat in four games on Wayne Rooney's side.
Shaun Hutchinson headed Millwall ahead just before half-time after the defender was left unmarked at a corner.
Derby turned up the pressure after the break but struggled to create clear-cut chances and they almost went 2-0 down when Graeme Shinnie gave the ball away to Jed Wallace, but the Rams defender did well to recover.
The hosts came closest to equalising 12 minutes from full-time when substitute Louie Sibley's shot at the back post hit the crossbar following a corner.
A 17th loss of the season sees Derby drop to 19th in the Championship, seven points above the relegation zone, while Millwall move up to 10th.
With uncertainty off the pitch surrounding Derby's future owners, supporters will also be concerned about their lack of cutting edge on the field.
A quiet first half saw Craig Forsyth have two headers for the Rams while Kamil Jozwiak forced a decent save from Bartosz Bialkowski before Millwall scored with their first effort on target.
Despite a lot of attacking intent after the break Derby had little to show for it - Millwall did well to block crosses while the Rams forwards struggled to create any chances.
Their best efforts came in the final seven minutes - Shinnie flashed an effort wide before Colin Kazim-Richards failed to find the target with a header as former Derby boss Gary Rowett saw his side take all three points back to the capital.
Derby County manager Wayne Rooney told BBC Radio Derby:
"I thought we played well in terms of we got the ball into very good areas, we controlled the game and didn't concede chances.
"I think the problem today was we didn't have the hunger to score goals.
"Up until we got to their penalty box I thought we played quite well. As soon as the ball went into the box if you're not prepared to get your body across players and want to go and score then you're not going to."
Millwall manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio London:
"It was a tight game, I just felt as though we'd watched a lot of Derby, they matched up our formation and we've seen them score a lot of set-piece goals but not that many from open play.
"It's getting to a point now where virtually anyone who's fit usually starts for us.
"We've just got to do what we've got to do and sometimes we have to be a little bit gritty away from home.
"When you go 1-0 up it really was there for us to just protect it and see if we could see the game out in a comfortable way, and I thought we did, I didn't think Derby really caused us any problems, they had one shot that hit the bar, but that's the only one I can really remember."