Wayne Rooney hopes Mel Morris loses sleep after Derby relegation

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Derby County manager Wayne Rooney says he hopes former owner Mel Morris loses sleep over the club’s relegation to League One.

England’s record goalscorer watched on as his side’s 1-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers ended their fight to stay in the Championship.

Derby have been deducted 21 points this season after going into administration and then admitting breaches of EFL accounting rules. If they had not suffered those punishments, the club would currently be 17th in the table.

And Rooney believes Morris, who plunged Derby into administration back in September, should feel guilty about the position he left the club in.

Speaking to BBC Radio Derby, he said: “Hopefully he doesn’t have a good night’s sleep tonight and that plays on his mind. I think he needs to have a think about it.

“Where the club’s been left, it was a complete mess. I know Mel Morris is a big Derby fan, so I’m sure he’s sat at home tonight disappointed. We are disappointed as we’ve done everything we can to try and not let this happen and worked extremely hard.”

Derby will play their football in the third tier next season - the first time they have been there since 1986.

Yet despite the desperately disappointing situation the club find themselves in, Rooney remains somewhat positive about the future.

“We’ve earned enough points to stay in this division next season and developed some really good, young, local players,” he added. “In that sense, the future of the club looks bright. But we need to get over what’s happened.

“It’s a sad day. I’m sad, disappointed, upset, frustrated, but proud. The effort the lads and the staff have put in to try and galvanise the squad and the club, it’s been a lot of work.”