Frank Lampard committed his first mistake as Derby County boss during Bolton defeat

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Derby County lost 1-0 at Bolton Wanderers.

Frank Lampard committed his first big mistake as Derby County manager on Saturday as he brought Tom Lawrence back into the side during the 1-0 defeat to Championship rivals Bolton Wanderers.

It has mainly been a decent start to life in the manager’s hot seat for Lampard. Derby have won five of their ten league games to date, and they triumphed over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Carabao Cup.

Supporters at Pride Park will tell you that the football is far more pleasing on the eye under Lampard than under his predecessor Gary Rowett, while there is an abundance of youth and energy now in the side.

But among all the positives, it’s easy to forget that former Chelsea midfielder Lampard is a rookie manager and it won’t be all plain sailing with tough decisions and plenty of bumps in the road ahead.

Against Bolton the iconic manager made his first glaring error in charge of the Pride Park club, with Tom Lawrence coming on the second period despite there being far more worthy options in reserve.

The former Leicester City man has notched three Championship goals this season, including a last-gasp winner on the opening day of the campaign, but goals have masked over poor performances.

Lawrence’s last outing was during the 1-0 defeat at Rotherham United, where in particular he was having a poor game before his reckless challenge at 0-0 earned him a straight red card in the second period.

The 24-year-old earned a three-game ban, and in that time, Derby put in arguably their best three performances of the season as they defeated Brentford and Manchester United while drawing with Blackburn Rovers.

But for some reason or another, it was Lawrence and not the likes of Martyn Waghorn or Florian Jozefzoon who was brought on in the first change at Bolton – an unwarranted decision which set out the wrong sort of message.