Head Coach Paul Warne expressed his gratitude for the crowd reaction as Derby County narrowly fell to a 3-2 defeat against Norwich City at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday.
Canaries attacker Borja Sainz netted a hat-trick of goals that secured three points for the visitors and made them the first team to take away a result from Pride Park in over ten competitive fixtures.
The Rams kept themselves in the fight for points throughout as Craig Forsyth scored an equaliser to make it 1-1 and substitute Corey Blackett-Taylor ignited a late storm of chances that Norwich weathered to leave the Rams empty-handed.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after the result and praised the spirit and belief in the Rams’ ranks.
On defeat against Norwich…
I thought our performance was really good. In the second half, I thought we were excellent; we were a bit braver in our press and better with the ball. I thought we were really good when it got back to 1-1. I'm ever an optimist so I wanted to go on and win the game from that point and the lads gassed out and gave everything they could to do that.
Their second goal comes from individual good play, which we'll look back on. I was just disappointed that we'd won a corner and then the ball wasn't given as out of play. Then they went up the other end and scored the third goal.
On the unity between the fans and player to push through until the final whistle…
It gave me the greatest joy that, at 3-1, I would say that the stadium stayed with us, which I cannot thank people enough for. That means a lot to the dressing room and to myself, because they think: we'll stay with this team. They feel a bit hard done by today.
Then Corey Blackett-Taylor scored a great goal and the last five minutes was just pure fun. That's how I see it; pure fun. Just go for it. I leave disappointed that we don't come away with anything, but really proud of the lads. They competed against Norwich. To the man and the lads that came on, I thought they all performed the way I wanted them to.
On Blackett-Taylor getting off the mark in Rams colours and the substitutes having an impact…
It will be a confidence boost; he's struggled to gain time through a couple of injuries here and there, and everyone wants a good run at it. He took his goal well and he was a threat. I thought Tawanda Chirewa was excellent when he came on, too, absolutely spray-gunning it everywhere like Tom Brady!
I'm pleased for him. In fairness, those two and Marcus Harness were lucky not to be in the starting line-up today. Those three trained brilliantly this week and have caused a nice problem for me. I'm pleased for them. I thought Craig Forsyth was excellent too, I do leave here proud of the group today.
