Pre-Match Thoughts: 'We Will Have To Be Really Good' - Warne

Derby County Head Coach says his side will 'have to be really good' to beat a Cheltenham Town team currently playing with a lot of freedom.

After a 0-0 draw at Lincoln City last Saturday and a 1-0 reverse at Reading midweek, Derby are looking to return to winning ways at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday against the Robins in Sky Bet League One (3pm kick-off).

Speaking to RamsTV ahead of the match, Warne gave a fitness update on the squad, reflected on loss at Reading on Tuesday evening and looked ahead to the return to Pride Park.

On Tyreece John-Jules' injury...

It's not great news, he's got a severe hamstring tear. He'll be seeing a specialist and will be out for the foreseeable future. That's all I can really say until he's seen a specialist about it. It's bad news for him and the club and I'm devastated for the kid. He's such a talent. If you could see what he could do in training, he's probably the best player. We've monitored everything with him and in that game at Reading, I actually wanted to start him but thought I'd err on the side of caution, so we brought him on off the bench and for that to happen from crossing a ball is heartbreaking for him.

On the fitness of the rest of the squad...

I've got a few issues this week to be fair, which I'm not going to go into great depth about. We've got a couple of fitness tests today and another one that can't play, so we're a little bit low on numbers this week. If it wasn't for Collo being so physically resilient, we'd be in pretty deep. Hopefully Waggy and Wash should be joining us in training February so that will help but we know need to strengthen the forward line because we haven't got two strikers fit. Corey Blackett-Taylor has trained twice with the group so he's not up to speed yet, but that will be under consideration for the weekend.

On his major takeaway from Tuesday night's loss at Reading...

I just didn't think we were very good at the basics. We were just poor from the basics and in the first 10 or 15 minutes we got into some unbelievable positions where I'd expect a goalscoring opportunity to come from, but we didn't create them. Fundamentally, against any team, if you don't play at your best then you're susceptible to lose and that's what happened. I don't think we had a shot on target and as a group we weren't good enough. Our basics weren't at our best on Tuesday night.

On missing a couple of chances to move into the top two...

I'm not so concerned that we missed the chance to go top of the table, it's just about winning. We had an opportunity to win, didn't take it and we underperformed. If we perform at our maximum and we don't win then I can accept it, but if we underperform and we don't win then it's much harder for everybody at the club to swallow. It's just about performing at a level every week, being consistent and that will be enough to get where you want to be.

On Cheltenham Town...

I've got a lot of time for their manager Darrell Clarke, he's a great guy. We struggled against them away from home in October (the game finished in a 1-1 draw) and if you don't look at their league position but look at their form, they are doing well and playing with some real freedom. We watched them play against Bolton in midweek and in fairness to them, they had more shots, more attempts, more corners, had a goal disallowed and had three glorious opportunities against one of the best teams in the league. It will be a tough game and that is always the problem. The lads know this. Don't worry about the league table, it counts for nothing. We will have to be really good to beat a really good, strong and organised team.