John Eustace: Derby are lucky to have leader Carlton Morris

John Eustace believes Derby are “lucky” to have “leader” Carlton Morris after his 10th goal of the season set the Rams on their way to a gritty 2-1 win at Blackburn.

It was a happy return to Ewood Park for Eustace, who swapped clubs in February for a relegation battle, but his new charges are the ones looking most likely to challenge the top six, led by Morris who skilfully glanced the Rams into a 19th-minute lead.

Patrick Agyemang doubled their advantage with a powerful header just before the break and though Yuki Ohashi’s second-half penalty gave Blackburn hope, Derby dug in admirably to weather the Blackburn pressure.

Eustace praised the all-round contribution of skipper Morris, both on and off the pitch, saying: “We speak about Carlton every game now, and all I’d say is he’s a top professional.

“He’s a real leader and most importantly, he’s a top human being. We’re very lucky to have him here. He drives the standards every day in training and makes sure he’s helping the lads around him in Patrick, Rhian (Brewster) and Lars-Jorgen (Salvesen).

“Any senior player I bring to the football club have got a responsibility not just on the pitch but off it as well. His job is to develop the others and he’s doing it.

“Second half, he got a bit leggy which he did on Tuesday but we’re asking him to do a defensive role as well, as a striker, to drop into certain areas and he’s doing it to the best of his abilities.

“He took a really bad knock on Tuesday. He was touch and go today but he said ‘I can’t wait to get going and I’ll do every defensive bit of the work’ and that was good enough for me.

“I’m just glad he’s come off the pitch injury free and he can have a well-deserved rest for the next week or so.”

Defeat by their former manager soured Blackburn’s 150th anniversary celebrations and, despite their recent winning streak, the form at Ewood is a concern after a fifth home defeat in seven.

Valerien Ismael bemoaned his team’s first-half performance which he blamed for the loss.

He said: “Very frustrating especially the first half. I can’t understand it. I said to the boys why do we play like that? It’s not what I expected from us.

“We wanted to play on the front foot, wanted to be brave, we knew that we would have the ball and we end up 2-0 down without knowing why because Derby didn’t make a lot for the game. We know them, set pieces and defend.

“Especially the second goal, we were on the ball and just gave it away. We tried a special pass, just play a simple ball to move the opponent.

“We spoke about it at half-time and second half was exactly the game we wanted, play on front foot, calm on the ball, force them to move left and right, come with the crosses, score the goal, got momentum in the game but we lost the game in the first half.

“For me, it’s frustrating why we are not able to start the game like that, and the way we concede the goals.”