Head Coach Paul Warne admitted his Derby County side needed to show ‘intensity and aggression’ earlier in the game as they lost 2-1 at home to Swansea City on Wednesday night.
The Rams fell to defeat at Pride Park Stadium for only the second time this season after two early first half goals from the visitors left Derby chasing a result.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's penalty just after the 60-minute mark set up an intense final 30 minutes to the game, but Swansea's defence held firm against the strong Derby pressure.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after the Sky Bet Championship clash against the Swans under the floodlights.
On tasting defeat for only the second time this season at Pride Park Stadium…
There are mixed emotions. I'm proud of how we went about the game after the first 25 minutes. We just didn't start well, and that's on me. I'm the one who motivates the team and sends them out. Unfortunately, we didn't play with the intensity or press with the aggression that we want them to play with. We just looked very much unlike ourselves and were too easy to play against. That's what it looked like. I thought we were unlucky with a penalty shout on Callum Elder and a couple of set pieces which looked likely to give us a goal.
On coming out stronger in the second period…
I don't think it's a tactical thing. We needed to play at a real tempo, and I thought we were great at that in the second half. I enjoyed it. I know no-one wants to hear their manager say they enjoyed a defeat, but the lads gave everything they could, tried to score and tried to get back into the game.
There were some really good performances, and when we pressed with a lot more intensity, we just kept getting the ball back. I was pleased with them for 75% of the game.At this level, you cannot afford to start that badly, especially at home. If you go a goal down the crowd want you to get the ball back quicker, and it adds a little bit to the team, but we deserved it because we didn't put on a performance befitting of the Derby County shirt in the first 20 minutes. After that, I thought we did.
On needing to start strong to get results…
I don't think we were stunned by their goals, I just didn't think we came out of the traps very well. In this league, we have to be at our very best to pick up points and we definitely can't afford to give any team in this league a two-goal start and hope to come back. We did everything we could to get back, but unfortunately not enough.
On substitutes changing the game…
Tom Barkhuizen looked good, I was pleased with him. Dajaune Brown was a handful again. It was disappointing that Tom's cross towards the end wasn’t an inch higher, because James Collins getting on the end of it would have been a befitting equaliser for the team. There were good performances throughout. Liam Thompson and Kane Wilson had a really positive effect. I've still got some fresh legs to go again on Sunday. We're going to need to be better because Sheffield Wednesday, when I watched them last night at Hull City, were very good.