Nick Barmby hailed his players after he enjoyed the ideal start as new caretaker manager of Hull City after picking up a 2-0 away win over Derby.
City boss pleased with team spirit; Rams manager rues injuries
Nick Barmby hailed his players after he enjoyed the ideal start as new caretaker manager of Hull City after picking up a 2-0 away win over Derby.
Both goals came in the opening 23 minutes with Matt Fryatt and Cameron Stewart the men on target.
But Barmby ruled out any masterstroke on his part when he admitted: "Although it's my first game, it's not about me.
"It's about the players and always will be about them. I thought their attitude, desire, and determination was superb today. Some of our passages of play were really pleasing on the eye and we created a number of chances.
"I have got good staff, it's a team game and I don't think any one individual can take any credit for it. The players executed the game plan which we asked of them. We don't want them to be robots, we want them to express themselves as footballers and I thought they did that today.
"You would be a fool to radically change what isn't massively a problem, the lads have played like that the majority of the season, the last two games we've lost we've played like that so there's not a lot to change. Nigel (Pearson) did a great job for a year and a half at Hull City so you would be a fool to change it radically."
Positive
The Tigers' win condemned Derby to a third consecutive defeat, which was compounded by a hamstring injury to striker Theo Robinson after 15 minutes and manager Nigel Clough admitted: "It didn't help.
"I thought we started well, the first 10 or 15 minutes was very positive and we could have had a goal in that time but then the double blow of losing him and conceding the goal set us back significantly.
"I think the goal gave them a visible lift, belief as well.
"That and the fact we have got three first choice strikers out so it might have been a good day for them. I thought that was probably the difference between the teams today, their forwards, with the movement and finishing, was very good indeed but you get that when you get £3million worth of strikers up front.
"But I was delighted with the way we kept going, we kept trying to play, there was no hiding, everyone wanted the ball so I'm pleased from that point of view. We kept showing for it and kept going."
