3/1 To Win
Richie Barker says Derby County’s players need to take advantage of cup competitions to build a winning feeling as they come up against Sky Bet League Two side Chesterfield in Round One of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off).
The Rams vistied Paul Cook’s Spireites as part of their pre-season programme of games last month, with the League Two side coming out on top in the friendly as both teams got vital match minutes in the run-up to the 2024/25 season.
Derby kicked off their Sky Bet Championship campaign on Friday night with a 4-2 loss against Blackburn Rovers and after their opening day defeat at Ewood Park, the Rams are looking to bounce back quickly and return to winning ways against Chesterfield.
Derby's Assistant Head Coach spoke to RamsTV ahead of the cup tie to discuss reflections on the Blackburn game, facing the Spireites so soon after meeting in pre-season and seeing how the Championship is shaping up after the opening weekend.
On the performance against Blackburn on Friday…
The important thing is the lessons the players have learned. We spoke to the players afterwards about an element of naivety in the second half. For their second goal, which came when we were on top, maybe we were thinking: 'we can go on and win this'. Not comfortably, it wasn't arrogance, but it was confidence.
We didn't quite recover from the second goal. One or two of the mistakes that led to the goals, if I'm being brutally honest, we'd have probably got away with in League One. Some of our recovery runs or the fact that they would have made a slightly different choice on the ball is why we could have got away with it. We spoke to the players afterwards about the finer details in that, actually, you aren't going to get away with it. We learned, but hopefully, the players went away and saw that some of the smaller details did let us down a little bit. I thought, despite the loss, there was enough positives in the game on Friday for us.
On how the Championship is shaping up…
We, as the coaching staff, all watched different matches at the weekend. We all came back with similar views about a couple of the games, while there were a couple of performances that took the eye.
We always take all the little bits of information that we get from the games that we've watched over the weekend. It isn't just about the individual clubs you're playing against, because we were watching some teams that we won't be playing against for a few weeks.
It can be about just taking the little bits of detail and the physicality and the pace, which is so important. In the next few weeks, we'll have a greater idea of who can and who can't adapt to that standard.
On the mood going into Round One of the Carabao Cup…
We are wanting to win it, because winning is a habit, and cup runs are important.
We also have an eye on Saturday's game against Middlesbrough but, on the flip side of it, there are one or two people who may need minutes. The most important thing is about winning. In fairness, it doesn't matter who we put out in the game on Tuesday night. We expect to win and we want to win.
Even with the changes we may make, we would expect that they don't make us any weaker. We want to make the team as strong as possible. We won't be treating it as just a Tuesday night where we've got a game on Saturday. We want to win the tie.
On facing Chesterfield after playing them over pre-season…
We showed one or two of the players the clips this morning from a few things that happened. I don't think there will have been too many changes within three weeks. I wouldn't imagine their team will change a great deal. Some of our lads who are playing in this tie also played in the game three weeks ago.
We have shown the group some of the stuff. We have shown them some of the positives and negatives, things that need to improve and things where we thought we hurt them. It's relevant because it's recent.
It was just one of those strange things; we'd organised a friendly and then, coincidentally, the draw came out, which I think has happened for a couple of clubs.
