Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne was left brimming with pride over his side’s performance despite ultimately falling to a penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool in Round Three of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
The Rams held the Premier League giants to a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes at Anfield but unfortunately fell to a 3-2 loss on penalties against the holders of the competition.
Speaking to RamsTV after the final whistle, Warne reflected on a pleasing night at Anfield.
On the performance…
I’m really pleased with it. I thought we started a little too nervy and showed Liverpool a bit too much respect, but we grew into the game.
There were some really good performances out there and hopefully we can build on it. I’m really proud of them. I said to the lads; don’t worry about the scoreline and just worry about if you get clapped off by your fans – that’s what it’s all about.
I think everyone enjoyed the night for what it was. We had to make changes because we’ve got another match in three days time so everyone played a big part.
It was pretty amazing all in all, I’m really proud of everyone.
On what pleased him the most…
We’ve asked the lads to play in a certain way and I thought that their discipline to stick to the game plan was really good and on another day they might have nicked one on the counterattack like we nearly did with Dobs late on a couple of times.
Once they grew into it, I thought they were really good. What pleased me the most was, they took on what we asked them to do.
On when Liverpool made the triple substitution…
When their big guns came on, the first few touches they had - even I was mentally clapping. It’s a brilliant experience for our lads. I wanted to use all five substitutes as I wanted everyone to experience it and it’s good for them to see in real life how good the best are. It was testament to our lads that they brought the big dogs on.
On the penalties…
You saw how relaxed I was on the side, it’s just a lottery.
I was buzzing it was in front of our fans and not the Kop end. I wanted to go through, obviously, but once it gets to that stage it is a lottery. I am really pleased to get a 0-0 after 90 minutes and in my head we didn’t lose that gamell; It was just a tombola.
On Jason Knight's return…
He’s a little bit sore. He wasn’t moving very freely so we’re going to have to assess him ahead of the weekend at MK Dons. There were good performances all around the pitch and I thank everyone for their efforts. I’m really proud.
On the travelling fans…
Our fans kept singing all the time, it didn’t look like there was a seat spare. As an evening of my life and hopefully for Derby fans and the players, it’s something to remember, we just didn’t get the cherry on the cake.
On MK Dons on Saturday…
I appreciate everyone that has bought a ticket for the weekend and I would say: 'please come and sing for the lads'. There will be a massive energy loss from tonight so we need to get the lads back up for Saturday and hopefully perform at a similar level and be competitive away from home.
