Cashin: “There Are A Lot Of Positives To Take From Our Start”

Defender Eiran Cashin believes there are plenty of positives to take from the opening three games of the 2022/23 campaign as Derby County are back on home soil this weekend when they entertain Barnsley at Pride Park Stadium (3pm kick-off).

The Rams kicked off their Sky Bet League One campaign with a 1-0 victory over Oxford United at Pride Park two weeks ago, courtesy of Conor Hourihane’s debut goal.

Whilst Derby suffered defeat last weekend against Charlton Athletic in their second league fixture by the same scoreline, there were positive signs, especially in the first half, as Derby created numerous goalscoring opportunities.

The Rams did advance through to Round Two of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night against Cashin’s hometown club Mansfield Town, courtesy of a 2-1 win at the One Call Stadium, and the defender spoke to RamsTV ahead of the game against Barnsley about the start to the season and how much playing at home makes a difference to the players.

On The Start To The Season…

Obviously it was a good win against Oxford and we were unlucky against Charlton. It was a good victory against Mansfield Town in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, so there are a lot of positives to take from the start we’ve made. There are a lot of things we can get better at, as well. You can see that there is a process that we’re going through and when it works, it works. The goals against Mansfield came from playing in our structure and trusting the process so there are a lot of positives to take. I’m looking forward to the game on Saturday now.

On Playing Against His Hometown Club Mansfield…

I’m a Mansfield lad and a lot of my mates are Stags fans. There were probably more people in the Mansfield end than in the Derby end that were supporting me ,so I got a bit of stick off a few of my mates! It’s all good fun and more importantly we got the win and we got into the next round.

I put my body on the line and block shots, that’s my game. More importantly we went there and we settled the game down, especially in the first half. We played our football and got the opening goal from it and that’s where we looked dangerous. When you go away from home, you’re always going to have a fight and a battle so I’m more than willing to do that.

On Playing At Pride Park Stadium…

We have just got to keep the good form at home going. We have to trust ourselves, play in the structure that the gaffer is making us play and with the fans getting behind us, we have to go into the game positively and I’m sure it will be a good match.

The support is massive, both home and away. Away at Mansfield, we outsung the home fans and it makes a big difference. The fans help us so much and being at home feels nice and I enjoy it.

On Working With Coach Jake Buxton…

He’s a very similar player to me. He is a very good mentor and I’ve worked with him for a few years now. He’s taught me a lot, especially going into League One and it being a physical presence against a lot of teams who have big number nines. He’s doing a lot of work with me, teaching me little tricks just to make sure I can handle myself.