John Eustace pulled no punches over Derby County’s defending following their 4-1 defeat at Millwall and hopes he will get enough time as head coach to transform their fortunes.

Pressure is mounting after Derby were thrashed by Alex Neil’s side at the New Den, a performance that left striker Sam Szmodics feeling ’embarrassed’. An appalling 20 minutes in the first half gifted Millwall their victory with Kyrell Lisbie scoring twice while Luke Cundle also got in on the act.

Jake Cooper made it four in the second half before Filip Bilbija scored a consolation on what was a disastrous afternoon in the capital just weeks after they were thrashed 4-0 at QPR.

Speaking after the game, Eustace was in little doubt as to what was the root cause of their demise.

“We just didn’t defend well enough,” he said. “The first goal was far too easy. We let the lad cut in on his right foot and we’ve got to defend better. We lost too many duels in the first 20 minutes, which is the complete reverse of last week at Sheffield United.

“It’s always going to be tough with a makeshift back four, but there’s no excuse; we need to be better than we were in the first 20 minutes.

“I think the way we defended was really poor today, and we’ve done a lot of work on the training pitch this week. We’ve had to move different people around. Max’s coming in at late notice, and it’s going to cause disruptions, but there’s still no excuse.

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“The defending has to be better in that first 20 minutes, and it wasn’t.”

The defeat leaves Derby in the bottom three amid fears they will face a relegation battle this season just five months after they finished on the cusp of the play-offs.

Injuries have had a catastrophic impact on the defence which has deprived them of Matt Clarke, Sondre Langas, Eiran Cashin while Dion Sanderson was suspended.

With Patrick Agyemang and Matt Clarke due to return next month, Derby will get some key players back and asked whether he would get enough time to play his best XI, Eustace responded: “Hopefully. But it’s about results and we haven’t got enough results in the first 12/13 games, so let’s wait and see.”

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