Head Coach Paul Warne says the ‘excitement’ in the air at Pride Park Stadium has been a key factor in Derby County’s perfect home record so far in the 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship.
The Rams will be looking to keep the momentum they've built up on home turf on their side when Norwich City make the trip to Derby on Saturday (12:30pm kick-off).
The Canaries are Warne's boyhood club, with the majority of his family supporting the Norfolk side. It adds an extra flavour to the clash as Derby aims to carry on their perfect form on home turf this term, having won four out of four in all competitions.
That run has included three in the league, overcoming Middlesbrough, Bristol City and Cardiff City.
Derby's Head Coach caught up with RamsTV ahead of the clash with the Canaries.
On coming up against his boyhood club, Norwich City…
I played against Norwich as a player many times and I have managed against them many times. It probably gets more excitement from family. Most of my friends are Norwich fans, my uncles are too and my cousins were season ticket holders. I wasn't as my Dad played non-league football, so I used to go and watch him play every weekend and kick in the nets at half-time! I got to go to the odd Norwich game, which I loved. I went to the cinema to watch Escape to Victory and it was the best birthday I've ever had! All of my family and my best friend live in Norwich, so it has a lot of impetus for me when I see the fixtures come out.
On working in football changing his relationship with fandom…
It dilutes the support, of course. Norwich has always been my club, but it isn't as important as the club I work with, and it was the same when I played. I want Norwich to have a reasonably good season, but not better than the club I'm at. You want to beat them. However, the infatuation you have as a football fan does dilute.
On Norwich City’s squad this season…
They probably had their best win and best performance of the season against Watford last week, they were excellent. They signed well in the summer. They've got Josh Sargent up front, who is a very good player. Their full-backs come inside, they can play. They've got real mobility in the middle of the pitch and, like every Championship team, if you stay off them, they can control the ball and control the tempo of the game.
On the Rams' perfect home form at Pride Park…
I don't know if that was because the anxiety of early-season last year, that it was felt we needed to go up, that may have affected the atmosphere. It could have been that my team wasn't playing as well, so the atmosphere wasn't as great. You never know which comes first.
It's always the players' responsibility to entertain the fans and it's the fans who keep the players going when it's not going so well. I just think that since February, there has been a real excitement at Pride Park. That's what it felt like to me.
Every time the lads walk out of the tunnel, it just feels louder. I don't know if that has been the fans feeding off the players or the players feeding off the fans, but collectively, the 30,000 and the team on the pitch have been unified.