Gary Rowett says Derby County need to keep working hard to maintain their fine form.
Derby will kick off 2018 with a mouth-watering Sky Bet Championship fixture at home to Sheffield United this afternoon (3pm kick-off) - just 48 hours after their 2-1 victory at Ipswich Town.
The win at Portman Road saw the Rams come through December with 16 points from a possible 18 to further cement their place in the division’s top six and move into the automatic promotion positions for the first time.
Rowett says he wants his side to maintain consistency and continue their strong home form, having tasted defeat in front of their own supporters on just three occasions this season.
The 43-year-old says his side are ‘in a good place’, but knows it’s important they continue to work hard to improve and get even better in the second half of the campaign.
He told RamsTV: “Our home form is up there with anyone in the division so we want to keep it going and I am sure Sheffield United will come to Pride Park aware of that fact.
“We’ll go into the game full of confidence like we always do. We will have to recover well and go again after Ipswich; we know it’s important to make the right decisions.
“We are in good form and we have to keep working hard to maintain it. We are in a really good place at the moment; a few weeks ago we were eight or nine points from second spot and now we’re right up there.”
He added: “I think it’s the nature of football and I also guess the increase in expectation as a result of our good form that when we don’t win a game, like at Hull when we drew 0-0, there’s people saying we slipped up or missed an opportunity.
“The reality for us is that it’s important to maintain consistency and look at the bigger picture if you look, rather than game-to-game.”
Sheffield United will make the journey south looking to bounce back from Saturday’s surprise 1-0 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers.
They retain the final play-off spot in the Championship but seventh-placed Aston Villa’s victory a Middlesbrough saw them go level on points with the Blades.
Last season’s League 1 champions have enjoyed a positive first season back in the second tier and topped the table earlier in the campaign.
Chris Wilder’s men inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Derby at Bramall Lane back in August and, looking back on the game, Rowett felt it was a defeat that felt worse than it actually was at the time.
It was still very early in the season, with the Rams still finding their feet, while rare errors proved to be costly.
He said: “They played well against us that day and put us under pressure.
“We made a mistake for the first goal which we’ve not seen again since, an own goal that we have also not seen again since and the third came when Scott Carson went up for a set piece on the counter attack.
“We had some good moments ourselves in the game but we didn’t make the most of those when we broke.
“It was a disappointing result but I don’t think it was as bad as it looked. In the games we have lost such as Sheffield United, Bristol City and Reading we conceded goals through errors from ourselves or some poor play – and that hasn’t happened very often.”
He added: “I think Sheffield United have been brilliant and Chris Wilder has done a fantastic job there. They have continued their good form from last season.
“They are an energetic side and difficult to play against. It’ll be another very interesting game and another test for us. We will be respectful of what they have to offer.”
