Post-Match Verdict: Paul Warne Vs Forest Green Rovers (A)

Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne was delighted to get back to winning ways after the Rams saw off Forest Green Rovers with a 2-0 victory in Sky Bet League One on Good Friday.

Goals from James Collins, from the penalty spot after two minutes, and David McGoldrick in the final minutes handed the team their first win in four and kept them right in the mix for the League One play-offs with a month of the season remaining.

Speaking to RamsTV after the game, Warne gave his verdict on the performance.

On the performance...

I thought we started the game really well, obviously we scored early but we could have been 3-0 up in the opening 5 or 10 minutes.

In fairness to Forest Green they defended really well and made it really difficult for us after that. We limited them to not many clear-cut chances.

I thought Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was unplayable today. The balls he kept putting in were a joke. We created enough chances to win handsomely but until you get the second goal nothing feels comfortable.

I'm buzzing that Didzy got a pressing goal, that's worth two in my eyes! We finished the game in the ascendancy but by then we'd killed their spirit - but up until then you never know.

On the first goal early on...

What pleased me a lot is that we were trying to hit diagonals a lot and Eiran Cashin hit one, Nat didn't give up on it and those are the little details that matter.

I don't think we really had anything to worry about, but whilst it's 1-0 you have everything to worry about. My fear was that if they scored first it would be very hard to break them down so we were lucky to get that first goal so early. I thought we had reasonable control of the game from then but they did make it really difficult for us.

On David McGoldrick hitting 20 goals...

I thought he was good today and 20 goals is amazing from him. It was a really good performance from Didzy and Collo up top.

My man-of-the-match was Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, I thought he was brilliant. I thought Jason Knight was really good so, all in all, it has been a good day at the office.

It was nice to have Chezzy back on the pitch too. We had to take him off before there was an issue. It was the same with Haydon Roberts and same with Nat - all three of them had tightened up.

On James Chester making his first appearance since October...

Chezzy has trained really well and in fairness to Jake Rooney, he has played well. I really like Jake and he's having loads of minutes.

I just thought that bringing Chezzy back in today was another leader, another man. Sometimes you just need all your leaders on the pitch and Chezzy definitely brought that and as did Curtis Davies when he came on.

He makes really good decisions, hence why he's a really good player and we're a better team when he's in and around it.