Paul Warne says the emphatic 3-0 home win over Bristol City on Saturday was ‘one of the proudest’ in his time in charge of Derby County.
First Derby goals for summer signings Kenzo Goudmijn and David Ozoh were complemented by another from Kayden Jackson as Derby produced a fine display to secure all three points and make it two wins from two at Pride Park Stadium in the Sky Bet Championship this season.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after the final whistle to talk about the importance of building into the game, knowing the quality in the squad and picking up another victory on home turf.
On getting another three points at Pride Park…
Of all the games we've managed here, that felt more like our team than any other. That sounds a bit harsh, but I just liked the fact that there was an effort to it, the speed of our play was excellent and our counter-attacking was really good.
On the marked improvement in the second half…
There are going to be periods in the game when the opposition has the ball and I know because the fans are pretty intelligent here, they understand you can't have the ball all the time and we probably started a little bit nervy. Bristol City then they had a couple of good chances, as did we.
In the second half, our performance was right up there. I loved it - and even if we'd have come off it a bit and they'd have nicked two goals in the last minute, I'd have still loved it. I thought we were really good. I’m really pleased with a lot of performances.
I just thought that, initially, we didn't have the distances right and we had David Ozoh too deep, so they kept getting either side of him in the 'tens' and once we got him a bit higher and blocked the pass through the middle of the pitch, we looked a lot better. Everyone to the man has contributed, so I'm very, very proud of the players.
On riding out the start of the game and building into the game…
We always say to the lads, the first ten minutes of a game is normally really random. It doesn't have any pattern, it doesn't have any technical nuances; it's just random.
I thought that they got a better grip of it in the first ten minutes, and when we got the ball back we looked a little bit edgy on it. Once we got the tidy-up pass good, we looked a lot better. And Kenzo did have a good chance before he scored, I think he should have just put his foot through it.
I messaged him last night saying: 'I think you'll score score tomorrow'. I fancied it. I knew his dad was coming to his match. The longer the game went on, the better Kenzo looked. I'm really pleased for him and really pleased he scored that goal.
Winning does give the lads a lift, and we've just said it to them in the post-match chat. You've got to take confidence from that, but you've also got to think that 'that's your standard'. No-one wants to play against my front three in this league, I don't think.
People tell me: 'you haven't got this, you haven't got that'. There's a lot of things we have got. We've got a lot of pace, we've got a lot of heart and we've got a dressing room full of people who care. It can take you a long way. I'm hugely proud standing here talking about this win.
