Derby County striker David McGoldrick has been named Sky Bet League One Player of the Month for February.
The Rams' 19-goal frontman has landed the award after notching an impressive six goals and four assists across the month, including a third hat-trick of the season in the 5-0 victory against Morecambe.
McGoldrick sat down with RamsTV to discuss his award and looked ahead to a big game on the road against Oxford United on Saturday (3pm kick-off) as the Rams look to bounce back from Tuesday's 2-1 loss at Plymouth Argyle.
On the Player of the Month award...
I last got the League One Player of the Month when I was at Coventry City on loan - time flies. It's definitely good to get it.
On how long it takes to feel like you're in a really good run of form...
Probably from the Bristol Rovers game back in October (he scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 win), I was really confident in front of goal. Anytime I get through or get a sniff of goal I feel like I am going to score. It happens in football, with strikers. I've been there when I've been through on goal and you're not as confident as scoring when you're on a drought.
When you've got goals behind you, you're a bit more confident and like the chip that I scored at Barnsley, you go through one on one and if you've not scored for 10/15 games, you're not trying to dink the goalkeeper. When you're in a rich vein of form, you've got the confidence to do that.
On his three hat-tricks this season...
I think when I finish football and look back at it then I'll really treasure doing it. I do treasure it now obviously but I'm in the game at the minute, I'm in the moment and I want another hat-trick. It's a great achievement after never scoring a hat-trick before this season and then getting three so far is pretty crazy. Hopefully there's a fourth one coming.
On proving people wrong...
I've always believed in my own ability and when I came here I wasn't just coming to Derby just to see out my career like some maybe thought I was. I wanted to come here and I wanted to do something. I was injured at the back end of last season at Sheffield United and so I had a real desire to show that I've still got it, I'm still capable and things are going well this season. It's down to hard work in the gym, in the morning and in the afternoon after training, so it's not a coincidence.
On the team's recent form...
Not a lot has changed in terms of preparation or training - everything has been the same. It just happens.
We were on such a good run and winning games, that wasn't going to last forever. We were going to have a little sticky spell and we've been in that the last couple of games but we've got the players and the staff to get us out of that. We're not even thinking that we're in a slum. We've just got to stick to our basics and go back to being hard to beat starting on Saturday at Oxford.
The bad thing about it is that we've been leading in matches and thrown it away but it's just a temporary phase, it was going to happen some time and I'd rather it happen now rather than come the end of the season.
On how much the older guys help the younger members of the squad...
One of the old senior professionals spoke after the Plymouth game and said that it was like a play-off atmosphere and it will be more intense than that (in the future). Everybody has got to rise to the occasion, there will be a lot of games like that between now and the end of the season and we've got to be right as a team. We've got lots of senior lads and a lot of young lads, there's no real middle ground so the senior lads are always talking to the young boys trying to give them tips and show them the right things. They take it on board, they are all good lads, so it's a good blend.
