Paul Warne was delighted with the way his Derby County side picked up all three points in Sky Bet League One on Tuesday evening with a 3-1 away win at Blackpool.
After a goalless first half at Bloomfield Road, midfielder Korey Smith opened the scoring nine minutes into the second half, lashing Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's cutback into the roof of the net.
Warne’s side went on to double their lead through striker James Collins on 71 minutes, but Kenny Dougall's header handed Blackpool a lifeline two minutes later.
The Seasiders could have been level through Jordan Rhodes, but he headed against the bar from 10 yards out before substitute Tom Barkhuizen had one cleared off the line at the other end.
Derby made sure of victory when they launched a counter-attack and Barkhuizen teed up fellow substitute Martyn Waghorn for a simple finish.
Warne’s side have now won four of their five away games in the league this season and the Head Coach was understandably delighted when speaking to RamsTV afterwards.
On the win…
I am really pleased. First of all, I want to thank the fans that travelled and got right behind the team. I hope they had a good night. Away from home, it can be a different game and you don’t have the ball as much. We asked the lads to do something out of possession tonight which they were really good at. Some players had to sacrifice themselves a bit and some of their natural desires. They did that for the team and we’ve got the win. I am pleased with how we defended and how we handled crosses into our box and concentrated as a team. We had plenty of chances to score too. Kane Wilson had a few in the first half from a counter-attack and, thankfully, we took those opportunities in the second half. We felt if we could pick the right pass, we would be in. The lads deserve great credit because they’ve had to put some ugly shifts in - but we got the rewards.
On what he felt Derby did well…
I think, overall, everyone stuck to their task really well. The midfield three were excellent tonight. When called upon, the centre-backs put their bodies on the line and the full-backs were great too. I loved how the lads did what we asked of them. Scoring three goals is great to see too but, from the point of view of a coach, I liked how we were out of possession. We frustrated them and they had their goalkeeper kicking long balls which we dealt with well. There are things that we constantly want to improve too but to come here, when they’ve been in good form, is a really big win for us and everyone should take great confidence from it.
On the quality of Derby’s goals…
They were all really good. Nat did really well to set Korey up for the first one and he caught it as sweet as anything. I am pleased for Korey because he has great feet and he, like others, needs to chip in with goals. Tom Barkhuizen came off the bench and was a real handful and set up the second and third goals, which is what you want from players looking to make an impact. Collo took his goal really well and that was the best I have seen him play for me. Out of possession, he was so good. He worked so hard and to get a goal was what he deserved. To break away to get the third goal for Waggy to seal it was excellent too and it felt nice because it meant we didn’t have to hang on and get a bit jittery.
On having options to call upon from bench and players back from injury…
It makes a massive difference having options, it always does. Having Max Bird and Conor Hourihane back is great and we’ve got a few more to come back too and they’ll have to fight to get into the squad. I said to the lads afterwards that it is probably the strongest bench I’ve had in my career tonight. We had six outfield players to select from who could make a massive impact. You always want to have proper, established footballers to call upon to see you over the line and we’ve been able to get to that stage now.
On being five unbeaten and heading to Cheltenham on Saturday…
We want to go into the international break on a good run of form. We need to keep picking up points and because of the international breaks it means we are a few games behind others. For us right now, it is about driving performances. We were good against Cambridge at the weekend but didn’t score and had to settle for a 0-0 draw, whereas tonight we were excellent but took our chances. We want the same level of performance at the weekend to give us the opportunity to win. When the moments in the game come our way, we have to take them. It will be a tough game at Cheltenham because they have a new management team and their players will be fighting to impress them.
