Clough urges Rams to end their recent poor run against Leicester.

Clough urges Rams to end their recent poor run against Leicester.

Nigel Clough reckons it’s ‘about time’ Derby County claimed a positive result against East Midlands neighbours Leicester City – and he’s challenged his squad to make it happen this weekend.

Clough’s side will make the short journey across the region to the King Power Stadium on Saturday evening (5:20pm) looking to achieve a point, or even a goal, against the Foxes for the first time in three seasons.

Leicester have had the better of recent meetings and were 4-0 winners in the corresponding fixture last season in front of the Sky Sports cameras, who have once again selected the fixture for a live screening this time around.

Clough says his side have laid plenty of ghosts to rest in recent months when it comes to opposition and venues they haven’t fared well at, and says he wants to cross this particular fixture off that list.

He told Rams Player: “We’ve not had the best of times there in recent years; we’ve not scored in our last three visits and have lost our last two games 2-0 and 4-0, so that needs to improve.


“We’ve obviously found it difficult playing there, but if there’s any group of players to change that statistic it’s this lot.


“We’re due something there and hopefully we can do it this weekend. We’ve spent the last 18 months beating teams we hadn’t for a certain amount of time, so maybe we can lay this one to rest as well.”

Although Derby’s stand-out fixtures of the season remain the titanic battles with fierce rivals Nottingham Forest, a meeting with Leicester provides some added spice nonetheless.

“This one is a notch down from the games against Forest, and that is without any disrespect to Leicester at all, but it’s still a local derby and it would be nice to get something there,” Clough said.

Clough has conceded that tomorrow’s game, when looking at Leicester’s strong home form compared to the Rams’ record on their travels of late, having lost their last three in a row, is a home banker.

However, he says Derby’s away displays have not as been as bad as the results suggest and he feels they aren’t too far away from getting it right away from Pride Park.

He admitted: “It looks a home banker doesn’t it? But….this is the Championship!


“Their form is great at home and our away form isn’t the best, so if you were a betting man you’d say Leicester will win but it doesn’t always work like that.


“It’s a mental challenge away from home and we perhaps have to be that little bit stronger, more resilient perhaps, and not give goals away so cheaply.


“We’ve been that bit stronger at home, but both at Pride Park and on the road we’ve not kept as many clean sheets as we would have liked.


“We know the away form hasn’t been good but three defeats on the spin on the road doesn’t tell the whole story, but we know that a result or two on our travels wouldn’t go amiss.


“The performances haven’t been that bad and we do try to play the same as we do at Pride Park, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way because of the way the opposition set out – and we’re got to deal with that better.”

On Leicester specifically, Clough isn’t shocked to see Nigel Pearson’s men sitting in the top six after investing heavily in their squad over the last year and he feels their potency in attack is one of their strongest qualities.

“They’re extremely dangerous at home and Nigel has a very strong squad,” he said.

“Anyone that can let a player out on loan of Jermaine Beckford’s quality must have a strong squad, and Leicester certainly have that.


“They have options up front and they’ve very dangerous at home, and they’ve got some good experience too.”

Despite the tough challenge that awaits Derby, they go into the game in buoyant mood after a dramatic 3-2 win over Birmingham City last Saturday and then a 1-1 draw at home to league leaders Cardiff City on Tuesday.

The Rams dominated for long spells against Cardiff and there was a slight tinge of frustration within the camp that they didn’t take all three points, although Clough did admit the point should be viewed as a positive one.

He said: “It’s probably a measure of how far we’ve come that we were disappointed with a draw against the league leaders, so that’s big progress on our part.


“The only downside to Tuesday night was the way we gave the goal away, but apart from that we were delighted with the players and they recovered very well indeed.


“We could have won it and we were disappointed we didn’t, but on the other hand to get a point was a decent result for us and it kept the run going at home.


“We struggled to break them down, but you have to give Cardiff credit for the way they defended.”

Watch Nigel Clough’s full pre-match interview on Rams Player.