Manager Graham Kavanagh with reaction to the Monday night fixture
Manager Graham Kavanagh spoke to us about the Capital One Cup first round fixture against Derby County on Monday night."I thought we were magnificent," he said. "On another night we probably could have taken it all the way but, in the end, Derby showed what a good side they are.
"I thought we showed some great resilience and we were a very good match for them. We played well, created ourselves some chances and we made life difficult for them."
"They had more possession of the ball during the second half but I'm very pleased with the performance overall," he added. "We're obviously disappointed with the result but we have plenty we can take away from it.
"We had a few contenders for man of the match and Mark [Gillespie] had a bit of a nightmare with his injury towards the end of last season. He's come back with the bit between his teeth. He was disappointed to be out for so long and I think he'll know that he probably couldn't afford to be out any longer.
"He was magnificent tonight and he's in great physical shape. He's still only young but he's got a great mindset and he's determined to do well. We're really pleased to have him but that's the same for all of the young lads who performed well tonight."
"We need that sort of performance every week," he continued. "We talked about the way we started on Saturday and the lads know it wasn't good enough. We looked a lot brighter at the start of this game and some of our bravery and commitment to get the ball forward was very good.
"We could have had a goal with Dave Symington's free kick but Granty [Lee Grant] made a great save. It wasn't to be for us on the night and we know we still have things to work on.
"We had a few contenders for man of the match and Mark [Gillespie] had a bit of a nightmare with his injury towards the end of last season. He's come back with the bit between his teeth. He was disappointed to be out for so long and I think he'll know that he probably couldn't afford to be out any longer.
"He was magnificent tonight and he's in great physical shape. He's still only young but he's got a great mindset and he's determined to do well. We're really pleased to have him but that's the same for all of the young lads who performed well tonight."
"We need that sort of performance every week," he continued. "We talked about the way we started on Saturday and the lads know it wasn't good enough. We looked a lot brighter at the start of this game and some of our bravery and commitment to get the ball forward was very good.
"We could have had a goal with Dave Symington's free kick but Granty [Lee Grant] made a great save. It wasn't to be for us on the night and we know we still have things to work on.
"They were all sat in the dressing room disappointed about losing to a very good Derby side after the game but that's a good sign. They know they've competed well and the challenge for them now is to take it into the weekend."
