Ried's "tough guys" determined to fight on after derby defeat

The Innviertel side suffered a 4-2 home defeat in the Upper Austria derby (To match report >>>).

After a committed fight, they were once again defeated by their rivals from Linz in the closing minutes of the match. Only a few days ago in the cup, they lost 5-4 after extra time to LASK.

After almost 90 minutes, this derby was also still tied at 2-2. Then Usor and Danek shattered the hopes of the Ried fans.

"It hurts brutally"

Ried goalscorer Ante Bajic was frustrated in his interview with Sky that crucial points were given away right at the end once again: "It's not just this game, it's also the last few games where we've simply dropped points. That's just unnecessary and it hurts brutally."

Veteran Schwab is also struggling with the result and spoke of a painful defeat: "It really hurts because we work hard, because we played good football in the first half. LASK were better in the second half, you have to be honest about that, but even so, there's no way we should lose the game like that again."

"It's small details that we fail to get right at the end, that we don't defend well enough. The whole team needs to step up, and we will sort that out as quickly as possible," Schwab concluded.

Improved performance compared to the last derby

Ried head coach Despotovic was also saddened by the missed points and the second lost derby within ten days.

Today's match took a lot out of them, but positive aspects could still be drawn from the game: "Naturally, it was very nerve-wracking. I think we gave it everything. In the end, we were not rewarded. But I think it was definitely a better performance than in the Cup."

According to the Croatian, the blame for the late goals does not lie in the tactical system: "That was just an unlucky shot now. It wasn't a structural problem. We were too passive defensively in recent matches. I could already see today that we did better in that regard."

"Tough guys"

Nevertheless, Despotovic does not want to keep his head down and prefers to look ahead to important upcoming matches. Even if the defeat was unfortunate, there are areas to adjust: "We are not satisfied. We are also very disappointed right now, and we will try to do even better in the next game."

"We paid a harsh lesson again. But that's something we also work on every day in training. This is a group that will always keep going. I believe we can brush it off. If you are a tough guy, you keep going — and these are tough guys, they can handle it," the coach praised his team.

The next clash for Ried comes on November 22 away in Wolfsberg.