Pre-Match Thoughts: 'We Need To Give The Best Version Of Ourselves' - Warne

Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne wants to see his side 'give the best version of themselves' in Tuesday evening's Sky Bet League One game against Exeter City under the Pride Park Stadium floodlights.

The Rams are looking to respond to Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Shrewsbury Town, their first loss in eight matches in all competitions, and Warne believes a good start will be key for his side.

Speaking to RamsTV on Monday afternoon, the Head Coach gave his thoughts ahead of the meeting with the Grecians.

On Saturday's defeat...

My conclusion at the time was that we were bullied at times and when we had opportunities to score, we didn't take them. I don't think we did enough to win it although we did create chances. At the other end, we did concede chances too. The disappointing thing for me is that we wasted the first half. We need to play with pace to give ourselves a better chance to win. There is never an easy game to win but to give yourselves the best chance, you have to start games significantly faster than we did on Saturday.

On not taking chances becoming a concern...

It's always a concern, even if it was only 45 minutes where we didn't take them. We should be fourth in the league for the amount we create and at the moment we aren't even in the top ten, so we do need to be more ruthless in front of goal. It's a concern but it's a collective concern. It's not just about taking the chances that we create, we need to create more. It is a concern but today in training it looked like everything the lads hit went in the top corner. Hopefully everything will work when it comes to the game and we will see the best version of ourselves.

On the quick turnaround...

As a footballer you want to feel great all week if you win whereas if you lose you want to play straight away and get it out of your system. I'm looking forward to the game because I want the lads to be the best version of themselves and hopefully give the fans something they can get right behind because it's a two-way street. We need a good performance and we need to start the game well. Exeter outplayed Wigan on Saturday and had something like 30 attempts at goal, but the scoreline will say different as they lost 2-0. There's a lot more to the game than just the scoreline.

On giving the fans a good performance...

I appreciate the feeling at the final whistle when the team don't win, I can understand the abject disappointment. My Sunday was atrocious, so I understand the disappointment. The players have to put a performance on that the fans enjoy watching. Realistically, if our home form was anything like last year, then losing at Shrewsbury wouldn't have been that much of a huge disappointment. However, our home form hasn't been good enough so there's a greater pressure on our points tally away from home.

At the moment we're just short on points. We haven't won enough games, we haven't turned enough draws into wins and if we could flip a couple we'd be cruising in the top six and causing pressure - but we're not. There's no point worrying about the top two because currently we haven't been good enough to be in the top six.

On the squad fitness...

There's a couple of bits of soreness which we need to decide on. The two lads coming back in, Joe Ward and Callim Elder, have had some more training but there are no dramas in regards to selection.