Matt Clarke has insisted that Derby County aren’t heading into this weekend’s Emirates FA Cup Third Round tie at Premier League side Crystal Palace with an underdog mentality.
Phillip Cocu’s side will take on the Eagles at Selhurst Park on Sunday afternoon to battle it out for a place in the Fourth Round of the competition (2:01pm kick-off).
Roy Hodgson’s side sit ninth in the Premier League this term and the cup clash will see the Rams take a brief respite from their Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Derby overcame Premier League opponents at the same stage of the competition last term, defeating Southampton in a Third Round replay at St Mary’s Stadium on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the original tie.
Clarke says the Rams are looking forward to the challenge of taking on an established top-flight opposition.
“We back ourselves whoever we are up against,” Clarke told RamsTV.
“When we play like we can, and with the intensity we’ve shown recently, we can cause any team problems.
“I think the intensity that we’ve played with in the last few matches, and the way we’ve pressed teams, has perhaps been with a bit more intent and purpose going forward, so we need to keep doing that.
“For this game we may be the underdogs from the outside, but we won’t go there with an underdog mentality.”
Clarke has recently returned to the Derby side following a knee injury.
After around six weeks out of action, he resumed training towards the end of December.
He was restored to the starting XI for the 2-1 win over Charlton Athletic in the final game of 2019 and produced a fine display.
The centre-back kept his place at the heart of the defence for Thursday’s victory, also by a 2-1 scoreline, against Barnsley in their first fixture of 2020.
The 23-year-old says he’s delighted to be back on the pitch and play his part in back-to-back wins.
“As soon as you get injured you start counting down the days until you come back, so to return and get some wins is really nice,” said the on-loan Brighton & Hove Albion defender.
“The injury healed fairly quickly so it was good to get all the work done and be back on the pitch.”
