Derby County boss labelled his side's 4-0 defeat to Chesterfield 'embarrassing' with just more than two weeks until they face Blackburn Rovers.

John Eustace's side host The Rams on Friday, August 2, two weeks on Friday, to kick off the Championship season.

Pre-season results shouldn't be heavily scrutinised but the manner of Derby's thumping concerned Warne. They named a strong XI against a Chesterfield team two divisions below them and were deserved beaten, in his eyes.

Derby's boss admitted he was 'embarrassed' by the scoreline and insisted there were 'no excuses' for the performance they produced.

"Chesterfield deserved their win, they took their chances really well," he said post-match.

"I thought at times their midfield and 10s caused us problems. I want to be respectful of the opposition because I thought they did really well. I am not going to get obsessed with the result but I was embarrassed with the scoreline.

"It is a bit of a stinger because I didn’t honestly see it coming. I know it is a pre-season game so I am not going to get too emotional about it, I want to watch it back, but fundamentally we could outrun and outfought and we got punished.

"There is no excuse. Chesterfield looked fitter and stronger than us and I presume they have trained reasonably hard as well.

“We had moments where we were quite good, I think we could have had three goals in the first 20 minutes but collectively we weren’t good enough and it is a good shock for the players really I think.

“In fairness to Griggy (Will Grigg), I thought he was the difference between the two teams, they had a real physical presence up top, he had link-up play, I love Griggy because I’ve had him (at Rotherham). He caused our centre-halves problems all night which is credit to him but a poor indictment of us.

"If they thought we could just turn up to the Championship because we deserved to be there and it will all be a merry party...it has proven tonight that we have still got a lot of work to do.

"I don’t think we did enough in the second half, every time we got into the final third we didn’t really pick the final pass out.”

Derby have been active in the transfer market, bringing in six new faces during the off-season. David Ozoh was the latest of those, coming in on loan from Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

However, Warne is hoping to add three more signings before they face Rovers at Ewood Park. A goalkeeper is a priority for them after previous number one, Joe Wildsmith, left at the end of his deal to join West Brom.

More attacking reinforcements in a number 10 and a striker are also desired, despite the additions of Kayden Jackson and Jerry Yates earlier in the window.

Warne said: "I am looking for a 10 and maybe another nine, a centre-back and a goalkeeper. They are the ones really. Potentially I would be looking for a left-back.

"I know who I want. They are good players, but as I've said loads of times, you have to be a bit more patient for those. They are not free transfers. There are no free agents left really.

They are predominantly loans and there is one free agent I am aware of but he's too pricey at the moment. We are working really hard and I would have thought we would have three faces in before the opening game."