Pre-Match Thoughts: Warne Relishing Stevenage Challenge

Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne is expecting an 'extreme test' from their Sky Bet League One trip to Stevenage on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Stevenage, managed by Steve Evans, have had an excellent start to life in their first year back in the third tier and Warne is under no illusions about just how difficult of a test awaits his side.

Speaking to RamsTV ahead of the match, Warne reflected on Tuesday evening's 2-0 home win over Exeter City and looked ahead to the trip to Hertfordshire.

On Tuesday night's home win...

We needed a home win, we needed a win - but a home win especially. Our pace was better, our athleticism was better and we were a bit more aggressive. We reduced Exeter to very little and generally speaking I thought we did enough to win. I would have preferred to score more goals but I don't think anyone could have left and thought we weren't the better team. Generally I was really pleased.

On the team being tough to pick...

I wanted to try and freshen the team up as much as I could. When you've won five or six on the bounce you don't over-think things but when you're in need of a win you don't want to make mistakes and you can over think it. I didn't name the team until the night of the game which I think I've only done about three times in my career. We just couldn't nail it down as quickly as normal.

On Tuesday looking like a 'Paul Warne side'...

We've played really well at home in lots of games but not scored, but because we won it made it look more like 'my' or 'our' team. When we lost the ball, we went after it. If the opponent pick you off with seven great passes in League One and score, then they deserve to win - but more often than not at this level they don't, so you just have to get after them.

All the running data stats were up and the harder you run the greater the chance you give yourselves to win. I'm not sure Joe Wildsmith made any saves so, generally speaking, if they don't have a shot and you have quite a lot then you are quite pleased.

On the quality of the first goal...

It was a very good goal, but in fairness if Fozzy didn't have a good touch and the right weight of pass then everything else is irrelevant. To score a goal is difficult and there were times in the first half where Exeter had all eleven players behind the ball around their box - that is very difficult to score from. Ironically we scored from the strong spell Exeter had where they had three or four corners. It was a great goal and I would have been even more pleased with the break we had when it went to the far post and Kane Wilson could have scored from a header - that would have been right up my street.

On Stevenage...

I've worked with their management team a lot previously at Rotherham and they had unbelievable success. They had back-to-back success with Rotherham so I know them really well, but they know me really well too. I know how good they will be at attacking set-pieces and stuff like that. I know how hard they work and they've done really well at the start of this season. They will want to beat us and they will want to beat Derby County. Every away game is tough but this will be a real extreme test.

On what he learned from Steve Evans...

Every manager you work for or play for, you pick different things. There are certain things you think you'll definitely do and definitely won't do.

Steve is very good at deciding the players who he wants and the players know exactly what they want from him. Paul Raynor has done a lot of coaching and works really hard, he's sort of the unsung hero.

When I first became a manager, Steve gave me one of the best bits of advice. That was: 'you either live it and you'll be great at it or you just play at it and you'll last a year and fall out of the game.' Regrettably, I've lived with it probably too much at times, but I'm fortunate enough to still be in a job. In fairness to Steve and Paul, not only have they had success, but they've had longevity.