3/1 To Win
Head Coach Paul Warne has praised the ‘brilliant’ Derby County support as the Rams look forward to being backed by a sold-out away end when they face Millwall in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Derby were last in action before the international break when they took all three points against Queens Park Rangers at Pride Park Stadium, scoring two second half goals without reply.
The Rams will be looking to carry on their momentum as they travel to The Den to take on Neil Harris' side with 3,000 away tickets sold.
Warne caught up with RamsTV before training on Thursday to discuss the advantages of the international break, having the backing of a sold-out away end and to look ahead to the clash with the Lions.
On the international break…
The lads who were called up went off with their countries and we gave the rest a couple of days off. This is as much mental as physical. We trained them pretty hard for a couple of days. They had the weekend off and we want them to live their best lives and enjoy some family time because, for the next few weeks, we'll be in hotels quite a bit.
I think I'm one of the only managers who says international breaks are amazing! Mentally, it's amazing. You can reset a little bit and it enables the injured lads to catch up, too. Some played for the Under-21s this week and Dajaune Brown, Tom Barkhuizen, Liam Thompson and Jake Rooney got some minutes. The break allows us to watch that as well.
It enables everyone to have a bit of a mental rest and to reassess how well we've done, how well we could have done and what we want to tweak. Everyone gets a bit of calm.
On the assessment nine games into the Championship season…
When we get the best out of the group - the players and the staff - everyone sees the results. From a performance point of view, I've been pleased. I'm disappointed we didn't pick up points against Norwich and Sheffield United. We've learned from the tactical mistakes we may have made at Blackburn on the opening day and our home performances have been really good.
We've had a chance to win every game. And at this level, I think it's really impressive. The players we brought in have hit the ground running, too. They have contributed well and had a massive input.
On Saturday’s opponents, Millwall…
As always, it will be a difficult game. I've always had really good games against Neil Harris’ teams. We both have competitive sides, and both are pretty good on set pieces.
They're good on the counter-attack as well. They'll be really organised, and hard to break down. They've got some really good established Championship players. It should be an exciting and tight game.
On being backed by another sold-out away end…
It means a lot to the players the staff and everyone. I always massively respect our away fans, as they stay to the final whistle.
Hopefully we can put a performance on and pick some points up on the road because that's sort of the only thing missing so far this season, really.
Our performances haven't been bad, but we haven't been on the right side of the scoreline. We want to correct that on Saturday and put in a performance in front of 3,000 fans, which is brilliant.
