Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne was delighted with his side's 2-0 victory over Charlton Athletic in Sky Bet League One on Saturday afternoon at Pride Park Stadium.
The Rams earned themselves a penalty just nine minutes into the game after Conor Hourihane’s shot hit the arm of a Charlton defender and David McGoldrick confidently sent the goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot to give Derby an early advantage.
Eiran Cashin added a second goal in the second half, heading home a free kick from Hourihane.
Speaking to RamsTV after the game Paul Warne gave his assessment on a deserved victory for his side.
On what impressed him most with the performance...
We just said in the dressing room, it's like the three cherries on the cake - we are buzzing.
I’m pleased on the energy, it’s the same for every team but with three games in a week I thought we looked a bit jaded on Tuesday night against Lincoln. We obviously changed three players today but some of the players out there like Conor Hourihane play every minute and I thought he was excellent. Eiran Cashin and Craig Forsyth, and the senior professionals, the way they look after themselves is great and we’re asking a lot from those players.
I made the changes as soon as I could, put Tom Barkhuizen back in as well so I’m pleased with everything in that respect. I just thought that scoreline aside if we hadn’t have won, I don’t know how much better we could play.
I thought we played really well we should have taken more chances, I thought in the first half it broke down just on the final pass but apart from that I thought we were pretty scintillating.
I’m really proud of the lads how well they done.
They [Charlton] had threats out wide, the two wingers are very very good so the fact that we nullified them most of the time. The press and the energy it takes to play the way we want to play is testament to the lads, they’ve come a long way I feel.
On Hourihane’s delivery for the second goal...
He’s always got a great delivery, it's just that we have no one with a forehead - that’s what it feels like at times!
There was one in the first half, we should have scored from a corner but it's great for Eiran Cashin to score.
We needed that set piece goal, that second goal in tight games I’ve said it all along. Set pieces can win you games and today we got a penalty and a free kick, but I thought our performance was, no disrespect to Charlton, better than a 2-0 win.
I thought we were really good, caused a lot of threats a lot of problems and generally controlled the game quite well so as days go it was one of the better ones.
On Harvey White...
I heard a rumour he might have got cramp, if that is the case then I’ll fine him a month’s wages! You can’t have cramp playing for me that is unacceptable!
Generally, his passing was really good, I’ve asked him to take risks on the ball like anyone can play in this team and get the ball and go sideways and backwards and safe.
I don’t want the players to play safe, if it’s on to play a diagonal and you see it you do it, he hit one out to Tom early on it pushes their fullbacks back and makes their wingers do more work going backwards as well.
He was really instrumental in a really good team performance.
On the squad...
I couldn’t really single anyone out as much as I like to, I couldn’t I thought everyone contributed and its always about the squad, the subs come on and have an effect to give us a little bit of energy when there was a bit of a lull in the game so I am really pleased.
Words by Ciaran Morrison.
