Midfielder Paul Green admits that tonight's opponents Birmingham City are "flying" so far in the Coca-Cola Championship - but he says Derby take them on with confidence.

The Rams go into tonight's clash on the back of four games unbeaten as they prepare to take on the second-placed Blues.

Alex McLeish's side have already opened up a four-point gap over the chasing pack and Green is expecting quite an encounter.

"They are flying at the moment so it will be a good test for us and it should be a good game," the former Doncaster Rovers man told www.dcfc.co.uk.

"Every game we pick up points from breeds confidence for us and we know Birmingham are flying high so they will provide us with a good challenge."

Derby find themselves in good form ahead of tonight and they recorded a fine 2-0 win away to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday against a side previously unbeaten at home.

It's a far cry from the early weeks of the season when both Doncaster and Southampton left Pride Park Stadium with all three points.

Green puts the change in form down to the increased pressure that came with expectation levels following relegation from the Premier League last season.

"There was a lot of pressure on us at the start and people thought we were going to win every game, but that was never going to be the case," he said.

"We have had a lot of new faces but things are starting to come together and you can see the confidence coming back.

"Hopefully against Birmingham we can get another win or, at the very least, take something from the game.

"People expected us to win games at the start but after we lost a couple, I think people then started expecting us to lose again so in a way that took the pressure off.

"We were going in to games with less pressure and that is starting to show now with the confidence coming back, we are picking up points, and hopefully we can keep the run going."

Green hailed Saturday's victory at QPR as a "great achievement".

He added: "I enjoyed the win and the team did as well. It was one of our better performances, we seemed to get a lot of second balls and be in their faces, which I don't think they liked.

"They had not lost there for a while so for us to score the two goals and get the result is a great achievement.

"I think the results were always on the cards. We are a good team with a good squad and I think we are starting to play some good football."