Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne says the 1-1 draw against Wycombe Wanderers at Pride Park Stadium felt 'more like a defeat'.
The Rams looked like they were heading towards a sixth win on the bounce in Sky Bet League One, after Tom Barkhuizen came off the bench and scored his second goal in as many matches, until a penalty deep into stoppage time saw them denied all three points.
Speaking to RamsTV after the game, Warne gave his verdict on a frustrating day at the office.
On how he's feeling after the performance...
Probably the same as everybody else in the stadium. I was disappointed with our first half performance and we had three central midfielders booked, so had to change it. We didn't seem to have any urgency in our play but I thought our second half performance was significantly better. We made as many attacking substitutions as we could and we got our goal through Tom. Unfortunately for us, when it comes to managing the game out, we've dropped four points like this, against Portsmouth in September and today. Those four points would have put us second in the table. It feels more like a defeat than a well earned point.
On the number of yellow cards...
It did feel a little bit like the Wild West in the first half and I felt like there was a red card coming. I told the midfielders I could have taken any of them off because of the situation but we only really had Tyrese Fornah as an established midfielder to come on.
On the substitutes' impact...
I thought the lads did well when they came on. They injected a bit of enthusiasm and pace to our play. It was good play from Nat again for the goal. We put some decent balls in the second half but it didn't feel like we ever had anyone in the box. Collo was the lone ranger. Tom Barkhuizen was in a good position for his goal and on another day that would have been enough to win the game. However, after the first 20 minutes I couldn't see us scoring. I just thought we let ourselves down a bit today which is disappointing but a point when you're playing bad is OK. It's just the fact that we conceded so late on, so it's tough to take. We'll need to be at a higher level on Thursday against Lincoln to give us a better chance to win.
