Paul Warne says Derby County need to ‘shut the door’ on their recent run of form and get back to picking up positive results in the Sky Bet Championship - and says the home crowd can play their part.
Derby head into Tuesday night’s home fixture against promotion contenders Sunderland looking to end a run of four successive defeats in the league (7:45pm kick-off).
Since overcoming West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day at Pride Park Stadium, Derby have tasted defeat against four teams in the top ten in the division in the form of Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City and Watford.
Another tough test awaits in the form of the Black Cats, who are pushing for a top two spot in the second tier, but Warne knows that it can take only game to turn his side’s fortunes around.
Derby’s Head Coach spoke to RamsTV to look ahead to the clash with Sunderland in the Rams’ first home midweek fixture of 2025.
On Curtis Nelson’s season-ending knee injury sustained against Watford…
All our sympathies go out to Nels. He is out for the rest of the season, and he has damaged his knee, quite severely. He hasn’t seen a surgeon yet, but he will be out for a long period of time and that is a massive blow for the team, the club and the individual himself - I cannot dress it up any other way. He has been a real warrior, and I don’t think he can quite believe it himself yet. He has done brilliant for us since he arrived in 2023. He is a leader and an intelligent guy. He is excellent in the dressing room and has formed a good partnership with whoever he has played alongside in defence; he has helped Eiran Cashin’s game no end in the last year and a half.
On facing promotion hopefuls Sunderland under the Pride Park floodlights…
They’re a good side with a real youth and energy about them. They’ve had a good season, with a few dips in the road like any other team which they’ve handled well, and we watched them play on Friday night at Burnley. They had chances to win the game, including two penalties, and gave them a difficult game. They are in good form and with that comes a real belief. As always, it will be a game where we need to be at our very best.
On needing to go again at home where they have been in reasonable form this term…
We have to take heart from a lot of things. We will need the fans nice and loud at Pride Park because we will need them. For the majority of games, I like what I am seeing, but we need to make our moments count and not be punished as much as at the other end. We know we need to be really good, at home especially. We are on a run where we need to shut the door on it, get some positive results and turn down the slump in results. We know it can take one match to turn things around and get you off and running again.