“That’s UNACCEPTABLE, I guess we deserves\u2026”- John Eustace deliver honest verdict amid 4-2 defeat against Hull City<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Derby County F.C. fell to a 4-2 defeat against Hull City A.F.C. at the MKM Stadium after wasting a host of clear-cut opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Head coach John Eustace believed his side deserved at least a draw from an entertaining Championship encounter but admitted poor defending proved costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Derby twice came from behind before the break, with Craig Forsyth and Sam Szmodics cancelling out Hull\u2019s earlier goals to make it 2-2 at half-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rams had chances to seize control of the contest. Goalkeeper Ivor Pandur produced key saves to deny Bobby Clark and Szmodics, while Ben Brereton fired over when well placed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their inability to convert those openings ultimately punished them, as second-half strikes from John Egan and Lewis Koumas secured the points for the Tigers.
Reflecting on the performance, Eustace said he was proud of his team\u2019s effort and felt they created more than enough chances to score beyond their two goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he was frustrated by the way his side conceded, insisting they should have defended their penalty area far better for all four goals. After a flat display at Watford days earlier, he felt the response against one of the division\u2019s top sides merited at least a share of the spoils.
Derby\u2019s preparations were complicated by injury issues, forcing Eustace to field a back four made up entirely of left-footed players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dion Sanderson and Joe Ward had both undergone scans and were not fully fit, with Ward initially left out to avoid further risk. But Callum Elder, who had earlier scored an own goal, was forced off at half-time with what is feared to be a fractured toe, prompting Ward\u2019s introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eustace explained that Sanderson had barely trained the previous week and was already struggling after featuring against Watford. With Ward also nursing a thigh problem, the manager had hoped to manage their involvement carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspected injury to Elder could represent another setback in what Eustace described as the relentless nature of the Championship schedule, where matches come thick and fast and there is little time to recover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“That’s UNACCEPTABLE, I guess we deserves…”- John Eustace deliver honest verdict amid 4-2 defeat against Hull City\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[261,472,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-4043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-derby-county","9":"tag-hull-city","10":"tag-john-eustace"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1_GettyImages-2255199297.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}