Pre-Match Thoughts: Hourihane Relishing Lincoln Test

Derby County’s players are relishing their return to action at Lincoln City on Tuesday night, according to midfielder Conor Hourihane.

The Rams’ visit to Morecambe on Saturday was postponed following the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II late last week, meaning it will be a full 10 days since their last outing when they take to the field against the Imps.

That’s presented the squad with more time on the training pitch to iron out the areas that saw Derby surrender a two-goal lead at home to Plymouth in their most recent fixture, when they fell victim to a late strike from the Pilgrims to lose their unbeaten home record in a 3-2 loss.

It’s been fruitful time spent at Moor Farm Training Ground, though, with the players spending a full week out on the grass with the coaching staff for the first time since the very first week of the new campaign.

And Derby will be hoping that proves to be a decisive factor as they go in search of their first away victory of the season in Sky Bet League One at the LNER Stadium on Tuesday evening (7:45pm kick-off).

Hourihane discussed the side’s form away from Pride Park Stadium, the challenge the Imps will pose and more when he joined RamsTV on Monday afternoon.

On Returning To Action…

We’re really looking forward to it. Obviously, the last game we played was a little disappointing. We’ve had a really good week of training gearing up for Saturday’s game but then that was cancelled, so we’re really looking forward to Tuesday now. Following the postponement at the weekend we did more work on the training ground, getting more clarity around what the manager wants. I feel like it’s been a really good week’s training and we’ve got through a lot of detail and done a lot of homework. Hopefully that shows in our performance and the result.

On Spending Time On The Training Pitch…

It’s been really important. There have been so many games, it’s been going Saturday-Tuesday all the time, so if you win or lose you put it to bed and move forward again. After the loss against Plymouth, it was good to get some work done and, as the manager has said, the intensity in training has gone through the roof; everybody wants to put it right. Hopefully that will be the case. It was disappointing last time out, there’s no getting away from that, a 3-2 defeat in the manner it came was tough to take. But previously to that we had won in the last minute against Peterborough, so that shows the highs and lows that come every week. We’re looking forward to facing Lincoln and hopefully we can get the three points.

On The Campaign So Far…

I feel like we’ve done okay and have played well in most games without getting the points we deserve, but I don’t really want to say that because you get whatever you deserve to. I feel like we’ve put in good performances without getting results, like at Charlton early in the season when we played very well but were beaten 1-0. Then at Shrewsbury and Fleetwood we dominated but only picked up two 0-0 draws, so in those you think you’ve left something behind. Other than that, performances as a whole have been good, bar the Plymouth game, but you always get a couple where you don’t play your best.

On The Away Form…

It’s going to be crucial to get some results on the road and the longer we go without an away win, the more people will talk about it. Hopefully we can put that to bed as soon as possible. Losing to Plymouth was, I felt, disappointing because it was on our home patch and we don’t want to give many points away there. But we feel like we’re making big strides and it’s early in the season. We’ve got two big games this week to put things right and get some points on the board.

On The Test Of Lincoln…

It’ll be a tough game, as always. There’s not an easy game in this league, especially away from home, so we’ll need to be bang at it. We’ll have a big following, who will put demands on us to dominate and win the game. It’s not going to be easy but we’re looking forward to the challenge.

On The Travelling Derby Fans…

The support of the fans is massive and one of the reasons I came here was because pretty much every week there will be huge backing from the supporters, especially away from home. At home it speaks for itself; around 27,000 behind you every single week. It’s very exciting and I want to be part of home and away days where our fans are going nuts when we score a goal and get three points. Hopefully they’ll have a good away day at Lincoln.