DERBY boss Paul Warne admitted he "went against everything he believes in" by setting up to stifle Middlesbrough - but says there was no way he could have gone to toe to toe with Boro at Pride Park.

Warne usually likes his side to play on the front foot but instead set out to frustrate Michael Carrick's visitors on Saturday.

And although the Rams only managed three shots on goal compared to Boro's 20, the approach worked with the hosts grinding out a 1-0 win to get off the mark in the Championship after winning League One promotion last term.

Warne admitted his side were slightly fortunate at times and thinks Delano Burgzorg's second half goal should have stood for Boro, but was delighted with Derby's efforts after parking his preferences for the afternoon.

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"It (Derby's approach) went against everything I believe in," said Warne.

"I don't like having our teams keg off but you have to be a realist. You wouldn't go and take on Real Madrid and go toe to toe.

"I'm not saying Middlesbrough are Real Madrid but they have unbelievable talent and there were parts in the first half where they were popping it around the edge of our box and I'm thinking that's just very good play, I can't criticise our lads.

"They have really good footballers. They're Championship ready and have strengthened again.

"We did have a game plan to let them go round us and not through us. We expected to attack with Kayden (Jackson) and we looked dangerous at times but we didn't have as much of the ball as I'd like.

"If we had a bit more in our legs we could have caused problems in the second half. Weirdly I felt quite happy in the second half, I didn't think they were so much of a threat although their goal looked OK to me. I don't know if it was offside or not but it looked close."

Jackson's 14th minute goal after Isaiah Jones' mistake was enough for Derby, who spent the vast majority of the second half defending their own box.

Warne said: "I'm exhausted really, the lads are. It's fair to say all 30,000 fans here were pretty exhausted.

"The fans could see how hard it was for the lads. They had to stay in a bit of a dour shape and make it difficult, which we did.

"Our plan was to break with our pace out wide on counter attacks and reduce them to shots outside the box and crosses, which I thought the boys did really well.

"I think we rode our luck at times, I'm not pretending we didn't, but to win games of football a lot of things come into it. We won 1-0 at home and our best player was Josh Vickers (Derby's keeper)."