Warne: Come with your flags to roar on Rams
HEAD COACH SAYS SUPPORTERS CAN PLAY BIG PART AS HIS SIDE CLOSE IN ON PROMOTION
PAUL Warne wants Derby County fans to wave their flags and make a raucous atmosphere inside Pride Park Stadium today as the Rams chase automatic promotion from League One.
Their final game of the League season is at home against basement side Carlisle United today (12.30pm) and the Rams only need a point to cement second place and return to the Championship.
The home ends are a sell-out as the Rams aim to write themselves into the history books and head coach Warne is eager for the fans to make themselves heard today.
“You always need your fans, it makes a difference to every team in the world,” said Warne.
“Generally speaking, everyone’s home form is better than their away form.
“If you get the fans behind you it’s always easier to feel gladiatorial when you’ve got 95 per cent of people behind you.
“My message to the fans is to come along, wave the flags and get behind the lads. Hopefully, we can all go home happy.”
Warne has put a stop to any ticket talk among his players with demand so great for today’s game.
The head coach has had to turn requests down himself and said: “I think if you read Roy Keane’s book, one of the things he says about the best thing about retirement is he doesn’t have to sort tickets out anymore.
“It is a royal pain in the backside because you don’t want to say no to people.
“If you say look, I think they’ve all gone, they think but yeah, you’d be able to get some because you’re the manager.
“In fairness, the lads here and the staff in provisions are really good. They have a player liaison here who looks after them.
“I’ve got 13 people coming on Saturday and I average about six to eight. I could get 30 and I’ve had to say to people that I’m really sorry.
“And most people understand because we’ve been sold out for weeks now. That’s the problem with the end of season game when something still matters.
“If we were already promoted and everyone wanted to come to a party, you’re just relaxed and you’re like, okay we’ll sort the tickets and what do you want, how do we want the day to look, etc, etc.
“But because it isn’t, you don’t want the lads to keep going on about tickets.
“We had Monday and Tuesday talking about how it could look but on Thursday and Friday, it’s just purely football.
“If someone mentions tickets, they’ll come straight out of the team!”
Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt will be getting updates from the Rams’ game against Carlisle and is ready to go “gung-ho” against Peterborough United if there is a chance they can snatch automatic promotion.
The third-placed Trotters have it all to do to wrestle second place away from Warne’s side.
Bolton are away today against fourth-placed Posh, who will want to finish their season with some momentum before the League One play-offs begin.
Wanderers need a four-goal swing in goal difference and for the Rams to lose in order to seal the runnersup spot.
“Obviously we will get updates in the game and if we need to go a little more gung-ho because the goals need to come then that is something we can change in-game, but the approach is the same,” said former Rams defender Evatt. “We will play our way and try to win the game. If things don’t go our way then we continue with the momentum going into what’s to come.
“The most important thing is that we perform against one of our direct competitors. Peterborough have been very good this season, they have been right up there for the majority of it.”