DERBY midfielder Craig Bryson admits his side “lacked quality” to break down Bolton’s stubborn defence in their 1-0 defeat on Saturday.

The Rams arrived at the UniBol buoyant after a penalty shoot-out cup victory against Manchester United in midweek but failed to display the same sort of swagger in the bread and butter of the Championship.

In the end, Craig Noone’s 10th minute header was the decisive strike on an afternoon where Phil Parkinson’s defensive gameplan was executed to the letter.

Wanderers recorded their second-successive clean sheet and Derby registered just one shot on target in 90 minutes.

"It wasn't our day," Bryson said. "It was a frustrating afternoon.

"After the high of Tuesday night, to come here and get a defeat is obviously not great.

"They had 10 men behind the ball, basically, and we found it hard to break them down.

"It's hard in the Championship and when we keep on conceding the early goal and going behind, we giving ourselves an uphill battle even before the game has really started.

"I think they would have been happy with a draw and when they went a goal up, they sat even deeper, which made it even harder for us to break them down - and our quality in the final third wasn't there.

"For most of the game, we were alright. We kept the ball well, we moved it well, it was just when we got into the final third that we either made the wrong decision or they blocked it.

"With them sitting so deep after they scored, there wasn't that much space."