Paul Warne says Derby’s second-half display ‘one of the best’ of his career

Derby manager Paul Warne was delighted with his side’s second-half performance (Richard Sellers/PA)

Paul Warne hailed Derby’s second-half display as “one of the best” of his managerial career after they trounced Morecambe 5-0 at Pride Park.

Derby’s head coach saw his team extend their unbeaten league run to 15 games with David McGoldrick scoring his third hat-trick of the season.

But for much of the first half there was no sign of what was to come as Morecambe frustrated their hosts until McGoldrick fired home on the stroke of half-time.

The veteran striker then scored twice in the first five minutes of the second half to complete his treble before James Collins and Jason Knight sealed the rout, which would have been even greater but for visiting goalkeeper Connor Ripley.

Warne said: “I didn’t think we were very good first half, I don’t think we moved the ball quick enough although in fairness to Morecambe I thought they defended really well out of possession and worked hard to stop us getting it out wide.

“So I wasn’t best pleased first half but obviously the goal just before half-time is a psychological boost, not just for us but what it does in the other dressing room because I can appreciate how hard they worked to try and nullify us.

“At half-time I asked them to move the ball quicker and play with a bit more pace and in fairness the second-half performance is one of the best I’ve ever managed, nothing to do with me, the lads just played really well.”

Morecambe manager Derek Adams was delighted with his side’s display for much of the opening 45 minutes but felt a number of mistakes contributed to Derby taking control.

He said: “Up to half-time, I thought we did really well, our shape was very good and we competed well.

“But then they got a free-kick on the edge of the box, we didn’t block it and they get a head start in the game. After half-time they get a goal from a mistake by us and then a penalty and followed that with two more goals.

“Our first-half was performance was very good, second half we couldn’t do much about it because we were 3-0 down quite quickly and Derby at that stage had their tails up.

“We made a number of errors, two of their goals we could have done better and in the first half we got into their final third but we just weren’t able to get the better of them.”