Derby County midfielder Conor Hourihane has now explained the reason why he trusts Paul Warne to win promotion this season.
Derby have given themselves a great opportunity to win promotion back to the Championship.
The Rams are six points behind first-place Portsmouth with a game in hand and one point inside the automatic promotion places.
Although third-place Bolton Wanderers have two games in hand on Paul Warne’s side, there is increasing belief that Derby can escape the clutches of League One football this term.
Of course, with the competition around them fighting for the same outcome, it won’t be easy, but the Rams are the third most in-form team in the division across the past 10 games.
And in Warne, they have a manager who has experience of achieving promotion with Rotherham United previously.
He won three promotions to the Championship with the Millers in 2018, 2020 and 2022 before leaving in September of that year.
Conor Hourihane earmarks his experience at this level as the reason why he trusts him to achieve similar at Pride Park.
Conor Hourihane reveals why he trusts Paul Warne
Speaking as a guest on the Not The Top 20 Podcast, Hourihane said: “A big thing for me as a senior player looking at the manager and his staff, they’ve been there and done it in this league and their know-how is not to be questioned.
“They’ve been promoted out of this league three times I think, so if they say we’re going to do this today, we’re gonna go away to Fleetwood and do this or we’re gonna go home to Burton Albion and do this. They’ve been there, seen it and done it and the results that follow that makes you think how can you question what they are asking.”
At the age of 33, Hourihane is an experienced member of the Derby squad so placing his belief in the manager is so important.
It means the group of players and managerial staff are all pulling in the same direction, which is vital when battling at the top end of the division.
The Derby squad have shown a togetherness this season that hasn’t been seen in recent times.
After their difficult start to the campaign, they needed all of their experienced players to step up and they did.
Now they have a real chance of achieving their ultimate aim and the fact that Warne has experienced the business end of a season so many times previously, the Rams are in a great position to add a fourth promotion onto his CV.