3/1 To Win
Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne gave a frank assessment as his side were ‘punished for not taking chances’ against Watford at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday.
The Rams came out second best after Imran Louza’s early strike was backed up by Edo Kayembe’s goal on the counter-attack in the second half in a 2-0 win for the visitors.
Despite a positive start to the second period, Derby were denied well by goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and the frame of the goal on multiple occasions and couldn’t find a goal to turn the Championship clasg around.
Warne spoke to RamsTV following the defeat on home turf to offer his verdict on the 90 minutes.
On the defeat against Watford…
It’s disappointing. We're on the back of some bad results and we know that. There's stuff that I liked and there were things that were not so great. I thought we had a really good chance to score in the first minute. We've got to take the first chance. You can't give teams a leg up and then we had a bit of a mess up for their first goal. For about the next 15 minutes, I thought they were the better side. They grew in confidence, and we didn't really.
I don't think Jacob had any saves to make after that in the first half. I thought for the rest of the first half, as it went on, we created chances. We hit the crossbar twice in quick succession and I always thought we were going to get a goal back.
Then at half-time, we didn't make any changes, but we just tried to gee the lads up to start the second half with a bit of impetus. We started the second half really well and we were trying to get the goal back. And obviously goals change games, so we're chasing the game, even more so at home. The truth is we were just vulnerable then on the counter-attack.
They scored one and could have scored another on the counter-attack. However, I think we could have scored one, maybe two or maybe three in the second half as well. That's my honest appraisal. The goals are obviously a big part of the game and when they got the second one, it was a bit of a sucker punch. I'm just disappointed that I thought the lads deserved to get something out of the game.
On it not being Derby’s day in front of goal…
I'm forever an optimist, as you have to be as a football manager. As always, we were a threat on set pieces. We put good balls in the box today but, unfortunately, we didn't get on the end of them.
The chances we had today we didn't take. Football is about transporting the ball from one end to the other and then creating chances in the box. It's about taking them and today we didn't take them. We've been punished for it.
On looking to changes things and turn around the recent run of form…
We just have to be consistent with the lads. We've had a really open conversation about the facts and what they think and how they feel. It's everybody in the dressing room, together.
Watford are around one point away from fifth in the table, so, we were well aware of the quality of the opposition. In every game in this league, you have to be at your very best to get something out of it. I can't say that we were our very best, but we weren't a million miles off getting something out of the game. It is disappointing. Now it’s about picking the lads up again.
