Rotherham United's Paul Warne 'pleased but not ecstatic' at opening-day victory over Plymouth Argyle

Uniquely for him, Warne said he went into the game against Plymouth Argyle without nerves and goals from Freddie Ladapo and Ben Wiles proved his confidence to be well-founded. It was particularly sweet for Ladapo who had what Warne told him was the "compliment" of being abused from the away end.

But Warne's mindset was particularly telling and like he did, he wanted his players to enjoy playing competitive football in front of a crowd for the first time in 18 months.

"I haven't been nervous today," he insisted. "It's the first proper game in charge when I wasn't nervous at all.

"The lads trained so well yesterday that I was fully confident that, if nothing else, we would put on a performance.

"Just before the lads left the dressing room, I said: 'Sometimes your days drag but your seasons go really quickly.' They should be really grateful that they are allowed to play their home games in this stadium in front of a raucous crowd like this. I just wanted them to enjoy every minute.

"For a pleasant change, I seemed to enjoy quite a lot myself."

On the game, Warne said: "I thought we deserved the win. Plymouth had a lot of the ball as we knew they would have.

"I thought we were the more threatening team. Overall I'm pleased but not ecstatic. I wouldn't say it was the best performance ever but there were some good (individual) performances in there."

Ladapo is a former Plymouth striker, and the away fans were berating him seconds before he found the net.

"I spoke to him before the game about playing against his old club," said Warne. "When it used to happen to me when I was a player I used to have the driest mouth ever. I could barely swallow.

"Freddie is a lot cooler than me. It didn't bother him one bit. He was quite looking forward to the fact that he might get abused by their fans.

"Happily, it coincided with him scoring. In fairness, if you're not abused, that means they don't miss you or fear you. It's a weird compliment when you get booed by the opposition fans. It means they regard you as a threat."