‘Boro Win Is Right Up There With Our Best’

Curtis Davies has labelled Derby County’s 3-0 win over Middlesbrough on Saturday as one of the best he has experienced in his time at the club so far, but says the challenge is now to make it count when they face Ipswich Town on Tuesday.

Matej Vydra’s first league hat trick saw the Rams extend their unbeaten on the road to six games as the club also recorded its first win at the Riverside Stadium in 17 years.

“We knew coming into the game that Middlesbrough are in a similar position to ourselves and still are one of the favourites to go up,” Davies told RamsTV. “To come here and get a 3-0 win is massive.

“We’ve obviously been doing well away from home recently. We have probably been dogged in the way that we’ve done it and taken the wins, which we’re happy with, but I thought this was a good performance.

“We certainly deserved the win and we were clinical when they had eleven players.

“I think this result is right up there in terms of our best performance since I’ve been in a Derby shirt. Having said that, it means nothing if we don’t follow it up on Tuesday against Ipswich.”

He added: “We’ve been desperate to get that game in hand out of the way so that we can see a true reflection of our position in the table.

“We are hoping to follow it up with another win and go on another run.”

Davies also reserved a word for Vydra following his treble.

The three goals took the Czech Republic international’s tally for the season to 12 in just 15 matches and speaking about the forward, Derby’s centre back said he was ‘unbelievable’.

Not that he will be letting him rest on his laurels, though. Davies says his goalscoring tally could be anything he wants it to be if he maintains his rich vein of form.

“Matej Vydra is unbelievable,” The 32-year-old said.

“I’ve played against him at this level for a long time when he was at Watford and I said when I came here, he is probably one of the best players that I’ve played against at this level.

“He’s got 12 already this season and we want them to keep on coming. We’re not going to let him relax, we want him to keep going and get him to 20 or even 30 and hopefully he can be the one that helps us get promoted.