Pre-Match Thoughts: Bird Reviews Season So Far Ahead Of Plymouth Clash

Six weeks into the role, midfielder Max Bird is relishing being vice-captain of Derby County.

The Academy graduate has been wearing the armband more regularly than he might have expected because of an injury club captain Curtis Davies, suffered in early August, and he has played a vital part in the Rams’ early-season form.

He opened his account for the campaign in the 3-1 Papa Johns Trophy win against Grimsby Town on Tuesday night, in spectacular fashion, a victory which saw Derby continue their 100 per cent record at Pride Park Stadium this term after five games.

Ahead of their fourth home game in 12 days, when the Rams host Plymouth Argyle on Saturday (3pm kick-off), Bird joined RamsTV to discuss the start to the season, his goal in midweek and his leadership role.

On the vice-captaincy…

It’s brilliant, there’s a great group of lads here and we get on well both on and off the pitch. I’m still learning things about leadership and the senior lads like Richard Stearman, Curtis Davies and David McGoldrick help me with that. It’s part of my development and I’m enjoying it. It’s an honour to wear the armband and I need to keep improving at leading the team, but it’s going well so far.

On his goal in midweek…

I enjoyed it. It fell to me on the edge of the box and Jake Buxton has been on to us about stopping counter-attacks, so I was ready and alive for the knock-down and just thought I’d hit it towards the goal. It’s the technique I like to use the most and luckily it went in. It was a nice touch, but most importantly we won the game itself. I think I need to add more goals to my game and I want to get more than last season. It’s a case of being clinical in that position, I need to shoot more in games instead of looking for an intricate pass all the time. It’s something I’m working on and hopefully then it’s another thing I’ll add to my game.

On the start to the season…

It’s been really good. Our home form has been brilliant. We can still play much better football and aren’t the finished article because we have a lot to improve on - and we keep working on that on the training pitch. It’s those little details that are going to help us. It was another good performance on Tuesday night from the team against Grimsby and we need to keep raising our levels. We want to be promoted as champions of this league, that’s what we have to aim for. When we’re on a good run, we can’t get complacent and if we’re not scoring goals, we can’t get down about that. It’s something that we keep working on. We’ll keep focused, keep our heads down and keep going. Every match is tough in this league. We’re in a good place at the minute and are scoring goals. We’re enjoying it as a team, we’re playing well together but there’s a lot more to improve on.

On the Derby supporters…

The home fans have been phenomenal. The attendances we’re getting are brilliant. Away from home we’ve been getting brilliant support, too, and I’ve said it countless times: they’re massive for us going forward.