MANAGER: We need to be 100% on it

“This is a game I’m sure everybody is looking forward to,” he said. “Derby have a fantastic squad, a great manager and a superb facility.

“Everything is stacked in their favour but we’ll do our work and we’ll look at the areas we think we can exploit. There are situations where we think we can cause problems but likewise we have to do our jobs at the back.”

“They have some very good players and if we want to go there to have an open and expansive game of football it could be a long evening for us,” he continued. “We’ll look for a game plan which will allow us to stay in the game, but we need to be 100% on it in every department if we want to do that.

“We need to carry on doing the things we’ve been getting right and make sure the concentration levels and understanding of how we need to shape up when we don’t have the ball are there for us. 

“Let’s make no mistake about it, Derby County are an excellent side and they have some real strengths all over the pitch. This is a chance for us to test ourselves against that. We aren’t going there to roll over – we want to compete and give a good account of ourselves.”

On new derby manager Nigel Pearson, he said: “He is viewed within the game as a real professional. He likes people to do things properly and that’s something I’m trying to emulate. 

“I want people to talk about me and my team in that way. We actually live in the same city and we have the same barber. 

“You can probably tell by his haircut that he spends less in that department than I do!”