Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne admitted he was 'really pleased' with the side's performance in the 2-1 EFL Trophy victory over Sky Bet League Two Notts County at Meadow Lane on Tuesday night.
A brace from attacking midfielder Louie Sibley all but cemented the Rams' place in the knockout stages of the competition and they now head into the October international break unbeaten in seven matches.
Speaking to RamsTV after the match, which saw Derby backed by over 3,000 travelling fans across the A52, Warne gave his verdict on the performance against the Magpies.
On the result...
I'm pretty pleased, but always want more. Our play at times was excellent but we should have just been 4-0 or 5-0 up. I wanted to put the young lads on off the bench and I intended to do that if we got further ahead and our play deserved that, but unfortunately we didn't and it made it a little bit nervier than we wanted later on. It was a really good game for the lads, a really competitive one and I'm really pleased.
On what pleased him the most...
We had to be brave. We knew if we won the ball back high up the pitch we'd have one-on-ones and if we played a good ball with pace down the side then we'd get in. We did that on numerous occasions in the first half so that's what pleased me, the lads had to be brave.
On what didn't please him...
I feel we're 'that' close to being quite good. We've won four and drawn three of the last seven games and I think we should have won all seven and if we were absolutely on song we would have done. We create chances and don't take them, we get in good positions and don't pick the right pass out. I think we let them off the hook tonight, so that was disappointing. I also don't think we were aggressive enough when we had them in a position to win the ball back but apart from that there were some really good performances. It was nice to see Josh Vickers play too, I think he deserved a clean sheet.
On Louie Sibley scoring twice...
I'm pleased for Sibs to get a couple of goals. He hit the bar early on too so he could have had a hat-trick. It's good for Sibs, his finishing was good. I'm pleased for him and this game suited him. People aren't happy when they aren't in the team so when you give them an opportunity, it's their chance to shine and he can be pleased.
On being seven unbeaten...
Internally, we're pretty pleased and we're just disappointed we haven't won some of the games we've drawn. We've been in every game and I don't think we've been outclassed. I don't know if that's more or less frustrating! We should have won virtually every game we've played in. We need to push standards up a little bit. I'm really pleased, but also frustrated because I think we should have more wins. We're just trying to improve incrementally and give the players the confidence to play.
On the squad fitness...
Waggy is a little bit sore and Curtis Nelson is a bit sore but he isn't out for any period of time. Wardy should be back in when we play again, Callum Elder is really close to being back in and John-Jules is close to being back in so all of a sudden we should have a plethora of amazing players to pick from and we're going to need it with the Saturday-Tuesday run of matches coming up.
