Lewis Walker has been in sensational form throughout 2018, but he’s ready to get off the mark at Pride Park Stadium when Derby County’s Under-23s face Manchester City on Friday night.


The striker has made the No.9 shirt his own since the turn of the year with seven goals in his last six games for Darren Wassall’s side, including a four-goal haul against Birmingham City, as well as strikes against Manchester United and Everton.

For Walker, though, there is one thing missing – a goal at the home of the Rams, and he believes that the Under-23s can produce another top performance against another big club.

He told RamsTV: “They will bring some firepower with their resources and how much they spend on their academy.

“It’s up to us, we have done it before against the big teams and we can do it again.

“They will probably have a lot of possession, we will try our best to hit them on the counter and keep a clean sheet.

We haven’t been at Pride Park for a while and I haven’t scored there yet, so hopefully, Friday will be the day.”

Wassall’s side earned their last win with a stunning 3-1 victory at Goodison Park against the Toffees, with Walker scoring the final goal on the night.


It was a difficult night for the forward, who had to feed off scraps for large periods as the visitors were penned in, but he revealed some advice that he recently received from Craig Short.

He explained: “I had to keep battling until the chance came. Me and Shorty talk about it quite a lot.

“He says that sometimes, there will be games when you don’t have a lot of the ball and you’ll just be in a battle, but you will get one opportunity.

“We wanted to hit them on the counter-attack and it worked, three times.”

Walker’s fine form saw him become the fourth member of the squad to be nominated for the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award, something that he believes is a demonstration of the progress that has been made so far this season.

He said: “I came back into the changing room and all of the lads were on about it, and the notifications kept coming through on my phone!

“The Birmingham game was just before February started and it just kept rolling from there.

“I was surprised at first, but when I looked back I realised that I deserved it, in a way.

“We had a really good start, we dipped a little bit in the middle but those nominations just show what we have done as a team.”