Clarke: “We Want The Results To Match Our Performances”

Matt Clarke is confident Derby County’s encouraging recent displays will yield positive results in the not-too-distant future.

Derby have started the 2020/21 Sky Bet Championship season slowly, picking up five points from their opening eight league matches.

However, there have been some encouraging signs in recent weeks to suggest Derby are close climbing their way up the league table.

Phillip Cocu’s side have picked up a win and two draws in their last five outings and their performances have warranted a better return of points at this stage.

Defender Clarke, on loan with Derby for a second successive season from Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion, is upbeat that the Rams will embark on a good run of form sooner rather than later.

Next up for Derby is a trip to high-flying AFC Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off).

“You want to get off to a good start and be looking at the top of the table from the off,” Clarke told RamsTV.

“At the moment we are not quite doing that, but recently I feel like the performances have been closer to what we want them to be.

“When you go ahead in games like we have in the last two against Forest and Cardiff and drawn, you feel like you should have gone on to win and that is frustrating.

“The performances are getting closer, as I just said, and hopefully we can start getting the points to go along with that.”

He added: “We know how we want to go about things and how we want to play. For the most part we have done that.

“We believe that if we stick to the basics and the fundamentals that we believe in then it will come good in the end.”

Saturday’s opponents Bournemouth sit second in the table after eight matches.

The Cherries are looking to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, after being relegated on the final day of the 2019/20 season.

Despite Bournemouth’s flying start, Clarke sees no reason why Derby cannot get a result at the Vitality Stadium.

He said: “Bournemouth have had a good start and they are still unbeaten.

“They are playing well but these are the games you want to play in, against good sides, and they’ve just come down from the Premier League.

“We believe that if we stick to what we are good at then we can beat any team on our day.”