Assistant Head Coach Richie Barker hailed an important win and a ‘pleasing night’ as Derby County secured qualification to the Round Two of the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 home win over Chesterfield on Tuesday.
The cup tie was the second time Derby have played Chesterfield in the space of a month, as the sides met during their pre-season campaigns.
Derby bounced back from a 4-2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers in their first game of the 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship season last Friday as goals from Liam Thompson and Kayden Jackson secured qualification into the next round.
Barker spoke to RamsTV after the game to discuss putting the first win of the season on the board, getting more minutes into players' legs and the importance of set-pieces to success.
On getting the win and more minutes in the legs…
The first thing is that we are pleased to get through and win the tie. I spoke in the media the other day and said the main aim was to win the game. Off the back of that, it was key to give people minutes, give people opportunities and rest a couple. I thought sharing the minutes out tonight was important for us, in terms of moving forward.
I thought the first half, in possession, was excellent. We were a little bit all over the place and scrappy out of possession. I thought the number of chances we created, and the football we played, was excellent. It was a pretty pleasing night.
On showing character to come from behind and win…
Chesterfield scored with their first shot and it came from us giving the ball away. They're the little details we've been talking about. For five minutes or so, it looked like the players were feeling sorry for themselves a little bit. Then we got back in it with a brilliant goal from Liam Thompson. Without disrespecting anybody, I thought we should have won the game a little bit more comfortably than we did.
On scoring from a set-piece again to win the game…
It is important. We've said it right from day one that if you want to be successful, set-pieces are becoming more and more important in the game. Even in the Premier League now, they're talking about it more. They have set-piece coaches and corner coaches. It's one of those things that the more you score, the more you believe you're going to score. It’s more important that they see it as a group of players. Realistically, there's an argument to say our set-pieces last year played a part in our promotion. We're hoping that it will play a part in the success this year, but we have to keep moving them around and keep changing them.
On the importance of getting the first win of the season…
We've got one more win than we had this time last year! That's a positive. It was a testing game and there's no getting away from it. We have to move on to Saturday now against Middlesbrough. It is nice to get a win under our belts and for the fans who turned up. With the Chesterfield fans, a good few thousand, it created a good atmosphere.
