Derby County midfielder Conor Hourihane played his part as the Rams returned to the Championship at the second attempt
Conor Hourihane acknowledges that Derby County’s first League One season was a “failure,” which makes the Rams’ second-round promotion to the Championship all the more sweeter. The Rams are gearing up for life back in the second division. Derby ended the previous season in second place with a fantastic return of 92 points on the last day of competition.
That total is a significant 16 points more than where they finished the previous season, when they had a disastrous debut League One campaign in which an instant return to the Championship was the primary goal. They finished in seventh place and missed the play-offs.
The team’s ability to avoid the difficulties presented by the play-offs and secure second place behind champions Portsmouth after defeating Carlisle United at the end of the previous month was the result of excellent teamwork from both the players and Paul Warne’s coaching staff. Hourihane was happy to contribute to the turnaround, even if his contract expires this summer and his immediate future needs to be addressed.
Hourihane said to RamsTV, “You see tweets after games and you see that certain records have been broken.” The coaching staff has goals that they hope to achieve at specific points during the season, but for the players, it’s all about getting better and putting their whole attention on getting better. The manager may bring it up, or Richie Barker is very keen on numbers and clean sheets, which I naturally comprehend.
“Last year, we were disappointed not to make the playoffs. It strikes me as a failure last year for a club like this to only place seventh when I consider what we have accomplished this year, at least so far. It really isn’t good enough, so go ahead and turn that around so we can move up into the top two, where we wanted to be. In the past several years, there has been some improvement.
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