Max Bird has stressed that everyone in the Derby County camp knows the importance of backing up Monday’s much-needed 2-1 victory over Charlton Athletic.
Derby ended their seven-game run without a victory by defeating the Addicks at Pride Park Stadium in their final game of 2019.
Jason Knight scored both goals as Phillip Cocu’s side, who played the vast majority of the evening with ten men following Krystian Bielik’s early red card, claimed all three points.
Bird, 19, made his first league start of the season in the fixture and set up Knight’s second goal with a fine cross to the far post for the Irishman to fire home.
Derby will get 2020 underway with another home clash in the Sky Bet Championship against in-form Barnsley (7:45pm kick-off) - and Bird says the Rams are eager to record back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
Speaking to RamsTV, Bird said: “Monday was a massive win for us and all the lads dug in and in the end I think we deserved the three points.
“Everyone was buzzing afterwards and we were all delighted, but we know we need to back it up on Thursday now against Barnsley.
“It’s another home game and hopefully we can get another three points in that one too.”
He added: “It’s another big match and we need to recover right and try to get ourselves on a good run.”
Bird’s first league start since March, and only the second of his career, came as a reward for his impressive showing off the bench at Wigan Athletic on Boxing Day.
The Academy graduate says he was focussed on making sure he grasped the opportunity to impress and take another step towards his dream of playing for Derby on a regular basis.
“It was unexpected for me to come on at Wigan but with Krystian Bielik on a booking and the crowd on his back, the chance came very quickly,” he said.
“I just wanted to take the opportunity and once I was told I was starting against Charlton, I thought the same thing again and wanted to try and play my usual game.
“This is what I’ve been worked towards and it’s my dream to play for the club week-in-week-out.”
On playing alongside his friend and fellow Academy graduate Knight, Bird added: “We’ve come through the Academy together and Jason was phenomenal in the Charlton game.
“He has been fantastic all season and deserved his goals. Jason has lots of different sides to his game and we saw that out there.”
Bird, who made his first-team debut as a 16-year-old in 2017, has now made 13 appearances for the Rams and signed a new deal until 2022 towards the end of last season.