POST-MATCH INTERVIEW: Morris reflects on Stoke defeat

Carlton Morris says Derby County need to take away the positives and allow themselves room to grow following the opening day defeat at Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.

The Rams came on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline in their first game of the 2025/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

Morris put the Rams ahead after 60 minutes and opened his Derby goalscoring account with an instinctive finish on his debut.

But a long-range goal from Lewis Baker and added-time goals from Divin Mubama and Sorba Thomas completed a comeback for the hosts to claim all three points.

Morris spoke to RamsTV following the first game of the season.

On the performance against Stoke…

It's a disappointing result in the end. I'd like to look a bit deeper into it, though. There were a lot of positives to take away from it, for sure. A lot of our patterns that we worked on diligently over the last few weeks were coming out and a lot of that was in there.

But ultimately, we didn't manage the game to the level we're capable of towards the end. We'll get into that, we'll get the magnifying glass in the footage in terms of the analysis as to why it happened and ultimately, it'll only make us stronger.

On a debut goal for Derby…

To celebrate right in front of the away fans as well was great. They were absolute magic today. What an experience. That's what keeps us coming back, for sure. Unfortunately, today it was for nothing, but you'd like to see at least a point gained from it.

On taking stock and building positively...

We'll review the game, see where we could have done better, and see where we could manage it a bit better towards the end. That'll only make us better. We'll take the positives, and we'll work on the things we need to improve ourselves as a group.