Keep calm and hope to carry on.

That was the feeling under-pressure head coach John Eustace had when his Derby County team came into the dressing room at half-time after just going 1-0 down to Bolton Wanderers on Friday night.

While Eustace had previously said he "wasn't surprised" to still to be in charge of Derby for the Championship game after overseeing a 10-match winless run, his tenure was undoubtedly under threat.

And the chance to address his players at the break might have been the last opportunity he would get to trigger a reaction.

Whatever he said certainly worked as two goals in the first four minutes of the second half followed, with 28-year-old Ryan Nyambe netting the first of his career to level before defender Jack Robinson – a hugely experienced player recently recruited to help offset the club's injury crisis – put them 2-1 up with a header.

A third goal from Rhian Brewster in stoppage time completed the much-needed win.

Afterwards, Eustace was quick to highlight that some senior players – including Robinson and latest arrival Shane Duffy - were first to speak up at the interval.

But that's not to say the 46-year-old didn't deliver his own message.

"I certainly let them know my thoughts as well," Eustace told BBC Sport.

"It didn't get heated at all. I believe in the process, I believe in the way I am with the players, sometimes you do get emotional and heated, but not with important stakes like this. If you lose your head and show too much emotion, I don't think it has the right effect.

"We were very calm at half time, the players spoke, we changed our shape and it was about 'right let's go win the second half'."

Boos were last thing Eustace and his players had heard when they headed down the tunnel on the way to the dressing room at the break.

In that moment, having just gone behind to a Ruben Rodrigues goal, the Rams boss admitted they could "quite easily gone under".

Despite Eustace's future at Derby apparently depending on what he did next, he dismissed the notion afterwards that his team talk and half-time tweaks were a last-ditch effort to save his job.

"It certainly wasn't the last throw of the dice, I probably did that one about five or six games ago," he said with a laugh.

"We changed our shape, because it needed to be changed and I felt that we could hurt them on the transitions, and I was quite excited about the second half.

"I was just delighted for the boys really."

While it is the first time in Eustace's 21-month tenure as Derby boss that he finds himself in a position where he needs results to ensure he stays in charge, he likened the feeling he got from the victory against Bolton to those when overseeing the club's miraculous relegation escape when he took charge in the final months of the 2024-25 season.

"Keep calm and carry on" was the mantra that he relied on then as they avoided the drop on the final day – an escape that paved the way for their challenge for a play-off place last season.

When asked about that iconic phrase, which was first used on World War II posters, Eustace said: "That's the way I work.

"This past 15 games has been very challenging, for lots of different reasons, and it was important that I keep believing in what I do and keep believing in the group.

"You can listen to all the outside noise, and listen to what people will do or what I should do, but ultimately I'm in control of the group that I've got. I've been very calm and what will be will be.

"Tonight's performance felt like when I first came in, when we were seven points off, staying up with 11 games to go, and you know we found a way.

"So let's certainly not get carried away, but let's be really proud of the group. It's going to be a long season there's going to be some really difficult times, but when you can perform and fight like we did tonight hopefully that'll be enough to keep moving us in the right direction."

Derby poised for injury boost after break

With two weeks off now for the international break, Eustace also has the added bonus of time that will possibly allow him to call upon some of club's long list of injured players when the campaign resumes.

Prolific US forward Patrick Agyemang has been out with an Achilles tendon injury since April, while defender Matt Clarke, player of the season in 2025-26, has been absent for three months.

"They are two huge players," Eustace said.

"We haven't had them all season and they have certainly been missed, so just to get them back in the group is brilliant."