But Lampard sent his players out early for the second half and they swarmed over Birmingham, with goals from Mason Bennett, Harry Wilson and Jack Marriott securing all three points.

And Lampard revealed he had told his team to press the accelerator during his half-time chat.

“We were too slow on the ball and even though we were in the game, we were moving the ball too slow,” the former Chelsea and England midfielder said.

“We weren’t turning quick enough and weren’t brave enough to take a bit of a risk on the ball.

“We needed to be quicker on it and I said that in no uncertain terms and the great thing is the players took it on instantly and they changed it with their urgency in the way they played.

“Birmingham are well organised and if you don’t move the ball quickly through those lines, they’ll defend all day long against you.

“We needed to change our game up with an injection of a bit of pace which we have in our team and then I felt it would all open up for us.

“There are moments when you need to do your job and my job was to get my message across but however much you do that the players are the ones that go out and do it.”

Birmingham boss Garry Monk feels his players let themselves down in the second period.

He said: “The first half was good, exactly what we wanted. We were very disciplined and good defensively and we were creating good chances.

“In terms of an away performance at a place like this, coming in a goal up is very good.

“But in the second half, not taking anything away from Derby who had a really good second half, I think we beat ourselves, especially in the goals.

“We lacked the usual high standards of concentration that we’ve had and when the levels are a little bit lower it leads to mistakes and we made mistakes for their goals that were unusual for us.

“We’ve been on a fantastic run and I don’t think this should overshadow the work these players have been doing to prove we can compete and the next step for us is to show that we can respond whenever we face a defeat.

“We haven’t faced many this season so the next point is to make sure this week is really focused on responding.”

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