Frank Fielding says Derby County have the chance in their next six games to make their start to the season a good one.
Derby signed off for the first international break of the campaign at the beginning of September with a thumping 5-1 win over Watford to claim their first win of the campaign, and return to action this weekend with a trip to Huddersfield Town.
The 24-year-old shot-stopper believes Nigel Clough’s men have made a steady start to the campaign and he is convinced that the next six games – against Huddersfield, Charlton, Burnley, Forest, Middlesbrough and Brighton – will present a chance to build on their win and two draws from the opening four games of the season before heading into the second international break of the season.
He said: “It seems like a long wait since the Watford game and to be honest, we’re itching to get back out on the pitch again.
“After such a resounding win against Watford, we felt the international break came at a bad time for us – but there’s nothing we can do about it because we’ve known all along that the international break was coming around.
“In some ways, having a few days to rest up over the weekend after a few good days away in Spain, it could well have been a good thing for us as we’ve had the chance to recharge our batteries for the next set of games.
“But now, with three games in quick succession in the next week or so and three more after that, we’ve got a real chance to kick on and make our reasonable start to the season a really good one.
“We’ve all got belief in ourselves and if we keep performing like we have been, we know we’re more than capable of stringing a run of results together.
“We’ve got six games coming up before the next international break, and it would be nice to have a good run between now and then.”
Having tasted defeat just once in their opening four games the goalkeeper says Derby’s glass is half full, and he’s convinced the best is yet to come from the Rams.
“We’re really positive about this season; the new lads are still settling in and the youngsters are getting experience all the time – so we’ll only get better,” he added.
“We have won one our first four, but we’ve only lost one as well so we’re looking at the positives and given the fixtures we’ve had - our start has been a steady one.”