3/1 To Win
Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne believes his team will need to win 'four or five games' between now and the end of the season to secure a place in the Sky Bet League One play-offs.
With just seven games remaining of the 2022/23 campaign, the Rams sit level on points with Peterborough United in sixth place but sit outside of the play-offs on goal difference.
The first of those remaining matches starts on the road against Forest Green Rovers on Good Friday (3pm kick-off) and the Warne spoke to RamsTV to preview to the clash against a side the Rams defeated 4-0 at Pride Park Stadium prior to Christmas.
On whether we've entered season defining territory...
I think that's fair to say that statement is correct. A couple of weeks ago I thought four or five wins would be enough and I still think that but four or five out of 10 sounds a lot easier than out of six or seven.
We're not in the last chance saloon at all and the other teams around us need to win but we need to pick up points.
On whether there were positives to take from the Ipswich loss last weekend...
I don't think we had much confidence in our play in the first 15 minutes, which is disappointing but we did well after that. When we had our best moments in the game we were unplayable.
I spoke to their manager after the game and he was very complimentary about us and said that we were the hardest opponents they had played in a long period - but we came away with nothing.
We just can't waste a 10 minute period of the game whether that be the start or the end or wherever that may be.
We are looking for a positive performance and result on Friday at Forest Green, but we are aware how difficult it is. You could argue that Forest Green are in better form than us and if you take the league table out of it, they probably are.
They are a good footballing side when they've got the ball as they will probably say about us but, with Forest Green and then MK Dons on Easter Monday coming up, we need to pick up points.
On how much teams reflect the image of their manager...
Howeve the manager sees football and how he wants football to be played, it obviously rubs off on the players in some way.
Forest Green, managed by Duncan Ferguson, play with a real character and have become really difficult to beat. They concede around 10 less shots a game since the change of manager. They definitely have his fighting spirit and character and that's an essential part of all team sport.
On Forest Green's win over Sheffield Wednesday recently...
In fairness Forest Green could have scored three or four goals in that game. Sheffield Wednesday didn't really create a lot. They work really hard and are a really cohesive unit. With the ball they are comfortable and are happy to play out from the back.
I'm not sitting here pretending it's any easier or harder than facing Ipswich, it's just different. It's on a smaller pitch and they will ask us a lot of questions and we'll need to be at our best if we are to come away with anything.
On how far away the team are from the performances during the unbeaten run...
There's parts of our play in all the games that is us at our best. My biggest bug bear is that I don't think we've been as ruthless as we could have been.
We had a really good chance against Ipswich through Didzy at 1-0 and we could have gone in at half-time level at 1-1 against the best team in the league right now that haven't conceded in six or seven games.
We had a disallowed goal, an unfair disallowed goal, and we could have gone on and won the game and I'd be sat here doing a completely different interview.
Goals sway games so I think there's massive parts of our play that are positive but you need the entirety of it to win games. A lot of it comes down to fortune but a lot of that you control. There's pockets of our play that is excellent but it's just in those moments where we haven't been good enough to win.
I don't expect any football fan to think it's OK for us to lose 2-0 at home to Ipswich, no member of staff thinks that and no player thinks that. However, the differences between winning and losing aren't that catastrophic. Hopefully we are on the right side this weekend to win a game.
