Derby County head coach Gary Rowett has told the Derby Telegraph that their 2-1 victory over Norwich City was a big win for the team.

The Rams were expecting a tough game as they traveled to Carrow Road yesterday. They have struggled away from home this season, not picking up a win on the road since August, while Norwich have been on a good run of form themselves as they hadn’t lost in nine league games, though they did lose in extra time to Arsenal during the week. But despite that, Derby were able to get a 2-1 win over the Canaries.

For a while, the game was going to the form book as Derby didn’t have much action up front. But with their first shot on goal just before half time, David Nugent fired them ahead with a great effort. Timm Klose would equalise for Norwich but Sam Winnall responded quickest to a rebound to win the game for Derby.

Rowett was understandably delighted after the win, saying: “Although I never like to use that phrase, I think in some ways you could say it was a key game because had we lost it would be another away game that people would start to point to the away form and build up a problem more externally than it is internally,”

“For us it’s about trying to stay level-headed. Every game we look at what we do well when we win or lose, and look at what we didn’t do well, and try to improve all the time.”

“But I think it was a big win on the back of two excellent performances.