Head Coach Paul Warne says he's feeling a mixture of 'relief and pride' after his Derby County side secured promotion to the Sky Bet Championship.
Max Bird and James Collins both found the net as the Rams cemented three points in a 2-0 home win over Carlisle United and confirmed their return to the Championship at just the second attempt.
Speaking after the match to RamsTV, the Head Coach gave his final debrief of the season after a joyous day at Pride Park Stadium.
On his immediate reaction following the promotion...
I'm relieved, I think it's fair to say. We put ourselves in a really good position going into today and you go to bed last night thinking: 'dare I dream'. The fact we got there, it's relief, really, and pride. I credit the lads for their character because it's that which wins games at times. David Clowes brought me and my team here, and it may not have been a trendy option to a lot, and let us build a culture that we want and change things a little bit. For someone to give you that much responsibility, to be able to pay it back to him means a lot to me. I feel pride with the group, with my staff and with everyone that helps. I feel really pleased for David and I just had to look at his face after the game to see how pleased he was.
On Max Bird scoring on his final game for the club...
I'm really pleased for Birdy. He's a beautiful human, a great kid and really wants to do well. Since I've been here, there has always been rumours of certain players going and with a heavy heart I knew he was going to be playing his football somewhere else in the summer. When you've done so long at a club, sometimes you need to open your wings and fly. It was a hard decision to make a change today because Tommo has been doing really. However, Birdy trained really well this week, looked excellent and I thought he would give us more of a goal threat. I'm a pretty emotional guy and I did have a bit of a weep inside when he scored. I know how much it means to him and I know how much it means to send off his time with this club with something great. When he came off I told him how proud of him I was. It was a fitting ending, 200 games, a great goal and justified my decision which makes me look great!
On whether he felt like it was job done after the second goal...
I thought, weirdly, we scored the first too early. The place was bouncing to start with but then Bolton started scoring and it felt like the lads played the occasion a bit and not the game. The more we tried to find a simple pass, the harder it seemed to get. Carlisle got a bit of a grip of a game with set-pieces and things like that, but we defended well. I think our best performances have come when we've played on the edge. In the end, it felt handsome because I didn't feel under any threat in the second half.
On being added to the list of Derby managers to earn promotion...
We want success. My coaches are brilliant, they all do so much work. It's hard to win games, it's hard to be elite and it's hard to get promotion. Look at how much the top of the Championship has tightened up and in the Premier League. I'm still a little bit disappointed we didn't get the title. We aimed for 92 points prior to the season starting and I said to the lads in pre-season that if we get that we're up so I haven't lied to them! I just feel pleased that we're quite normal people, we haven't been too high or low. It's an honour to get this football club promoted. I wish my Dad was here to see it but that's what I'll take away. I've got a photo with just me and my coaches behind the trophy and that will go up in the office for next season.
