Derby boss Paul Warne has been clear on what he wants from his Derby County team ahead of their match against Blackpool

Derby County face an away trip to Blackpool tonight as they search for a win after a much improved performance against Cambridge United at the weekend.

Paul Warne’s side are unbeaten in three games but still only sit in 12th in League One and are in need of points to push closer to the playoff places.

The Blackpool trip begins what will be a busy month of October for the Rams and boss Paul Warne will be hoping for a run of form similar to what his side pulled off last season in the autumn.

Ahead of tonight’s match, he said: “We need to turn performances into points now.”

Speaking on last Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Cambridge, Warne said: “I thought we were really good. It was the most dominant we’ve been all season. We played really well and created numerous opportunities.

“We didn’t make the goalkeeper make enough saves but we got into really good areas, got down the sides and it’s fair to say we outplayed Cambridge in virtually every department.

“I thought we played well enough to win but it wasn’t our day in front of goal, which is disappointing.

“If we’d have scored early on with one of our chances it could have been a lot nicer afternoon but unfortunately you need that first goal. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck and maybe we didn’t get that rub of the green we needed.”

The Rams sit much further down the table than they would expect especially considering the strong promotion hopes this season. Boss Paul Warne thinks that his side have been dropping too many points from good performances. He added: “There’s a lot of results where it feels like we’ve left points on the pitch. We’ve sorted one area out in defence but we haven’t scored as many goals as I’d like for our play.

“I don’t think we go into any game differently but it’s probably what the opposition do to stop us and when we play teams away. They have to come at you and we’re quite good at breaking that.”

Blackpool currently find themselves in 11th, one point ahead of the Rams. They come off the back of an impressive 1-0 victory over Barnsley on Saturday. Warne says that it will be the Rams’ hardest away trip so far: “When we played them in the Carabao Cup in August I remember being really happy at the final whistle, mainly because the whistle was blown. I thought we were awful and lost 2-0.

“They outplayed us in every department and I thought they were really good. Just recently they’ve made a couple of signings late in the transfer window and changed the way they play a little bit. They’ve had some really good results so I’m well aware of the difficulty.

“We’ve got Curtis Nelson who played there last year, so we’ve got a good feel of them but we’ve got to try and match them. It will be our hardest away game so far, I think.”