Derby head coach Paul Warne felt his team learned a valuable lesson despite beating Barnsley 3-0 to reach the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Although the Rams went on to win comfortably in the first FA Cup meeting between the clubs in 125 years, it could have been different but for Joe Wildsmith’s brilliant fourth-minute save to deny Tom Edwards.
Derby grew into the game and went ahead on the stroke of half time when Matthew Wolfe handled from a corner and James Collins sent Jack Walton the wrong way with the penalty.
The tie was settled by second-half goals from Tom Barkhuizen and Jason Knight, but Warne felt his side’s start to the contest was not good enough.
“I thought for the first 15, 20 minutes Barnsley were superior to us, they won all the second balls and Joe pulled us out really with a save from a corner that kept us in the game,” the Derby boss said.
“As the game progressed we got better and the midfielders got to grips and I thought in the second half we were really good, we had a real energy about us and the lads should take a lot of confidence from the game.
“I don’t think the scoreline flattered us, however it is a good warning sign, it’s always great to win and learn and what I think we’ve learnt in the dressing room was we were just a little bit complacent in our start.
“We can’t afford to give teams a leg up. If they were to score and go 1-0 up it’s hard to chase the game sometimes so I think in that respect we’ve learnt from that.”
Barnsley manager Michael Duff was not happy with his side’s performance.
“We lost every duel, every header, gave poor goals away so it’s not a great combination which is why we got beat,” he said.
“They’ve got good players, we’ve got good players, but when you get outfought and outrun then that’s the result that happens.
“There are mitigating circumstances, we’ve got an issue with the penalty, we think the second goal was offside and then we hand them a third goal – but they’ve outscrapped us.
“Let’s not shy away from the fact that we weren’t good enough today. One thing we can’t do is get outrun, they had more desire than us, they were hungrier than us, and we’ve got to learn from it.”
