Head Coach Paul Warne said his Derby County side 'gave their all' as they narrowly missed out on all three points after being forced to settle for a 1-1 draw against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.
Striker Jerry Yates netted his second goal in as many games in the Sky Bet Championship for Warne’s side early on as he scored an audacious bicycle kick goal to open the scoring, hot on the heels of netting in a 2-1 win over Coventry City on Wednesday night.
However, Plymouth hit back to equalise before half-time through a deflected free-kick and stood firm as Derby pushed for a winner in the second period.
The draw against the Pilgrims sees the Rams go into the upcoming international break with four points from the last two games and sitting 12th in the league table.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after an impressive showing from his side at Pride Park Stadium.
On the feeling in the dressing room after the 1-1 draw against Plymouth…
There is both pride and disappointment. I thought we were really good, but we needed that second goal in the first half - and we didn't get it. The longer the game went on, we had a couple of goalmouth opportunities and some moments from set-pieces. There were also chances that went into the goalkeeper's hands. If they were either side, it would have been a goal.
I don't care how biased you are, no-one could leave the ground and not think we were the better team today. The team was in the ascendancy for most of the game. I'm really proud of the performance.
I told the lads in the dressing room that they were excellent. We have a great team, full of great players, who want to attack teams and want to play with a bit of pace. There are always things you want to improve in your team, but as a group of men trying to win for this great football club, we are proud of them.
On fighting to take points from the game…
I’m disappointed that the free-kick they scored from looks so soft to concede and then it’s deflected in. I was sitting there thinking: “It's in the stars that the club's ex-manager comes back and somehow nicks a win.” I had this awful feeling it was meant to be that we weren't going to win.
In the end, we picked up a point. In games where you just can't get the next goal, you just don't lose it. There were some amazing performances throughout the team. We changed the shape as well to try and go for it as much as we could. I leave here really proud of the lads.
On coming out of back-to-back games with four points against Coventry and Plymouth…
Every game is tough in the Championship, but back-to-back games is hard. Plymouth hadn't registered an away win yet, nor had we until Wednesday. It didn't mean that we were bad away from home and the same is true for Plymouth - they had the same number of points as Hull coming into the match. We had a massive respect for Hull, so you have to respect Plymouth too. I thought we outperformed Plymouth in large parts of the game. In all of that, I'm pleased.
When you're on top, you have to make hay while the sun shines. We needed that second goal. I did like the way we played, in both shapes. I did like it. I thought we created enough attempts. The lads gassed out and gave everything they could.
On Jerry Yates’ overhead kick and another outstanding Liam Thompson performance…
I'm really pleased for Jerry to get another goal. I know the fans can appreciate how hard he works. That shot from distance in the second half would have been, in some way, befitting to win the game.
I thought Tommo was very good again. There were some really good performances throughout the team. The game-changers came on, but we just didn't have enough to get that goal. When I watch the game back, I'll be really pleased with how, for large parts of it, we really controlled it.