Derby interim boss Liam Rosenior hails Conor Hourihane

Posted Sunday, July 31, 2022 by PA

Derby interim manager Liam Rosenior believes the international pedigree of Conor Hourihane can drive his team forward this season.

The Republic of Ireland midfielder scored a superb goal in front of a 31,000 crowd to give Derby a 1-0 victory over a spirited Oxford.

The visitors certainly impressed and will look back on a first half in which they more than matched Derby but could not take their chances.

Matty Taylor fired wide in the 19th minute under pressure from Curtis Davies and James Henry’s shot was too close to Joe Wildsmith to really test him in the 33rd.

Derby also had openings in the first half, the best falling to Nathaniel Mendez-Laing in the 38th minute when he raced through on the right only for Simon Eastwood to make a fine save.

Oxford went close again in the 58th minute when Billy Bodin’s drive was superbly tipped over but Eastwood made a brilliant save three minutes later to turn behind a James Collins volley.

Derby were starting to stretch Oxford and Eastwood was finally beaten in the 80th minute when substitute Louie Sibley came in from the right and found Hourihane who fired left-footed into the bottom right corner from just outside the box.

It was a goal appreciated by Rosenior, who wants him to figure regularly on the scoresheet this season.

“Conor is a goalscorer. In my first conversation with him about coming to the club I asked him because I’ve seen him play deeper for Sheffield United and sometimes for Swansea and he said ‘I want to get assists and score goals’

“I think he’s going to be a great fit for us and the way that we play. A lot of the work we’ve done is on getting him in the final third where he can show his real quality and today after his first touch everybody in the stadium knew what was going to happen.

“I did feel last season we lacked that little bit of quality, we relied heavily on Tom Lawrence. We need a certain amount of goals to get promoted, not just from strikers but from defenders and midfield players and Conor is going to be huge for us in that as well as his leadership and character and how he is as a professional.”

Oxford manager Karl Robinson said: “I’m just frustrated, it was a tactical error that led to that first goal and that was the one bit I was disappointed with.

“As a whole, I thought we looked a very good team. It’s a tremendous testament to this level of football to get 30,000 fans and two really good teams going toe to toe with only one game in it.

“Their keeper made probably the best save of the game in the second half (from Bodin). It was almost a Championship game at times, in that level of attention to detail.”