Pre-Match Thoughts: Washington Looking To Kick On After First Derby Goal

Striker Conor Washington says it was 'brilliant' to bag his first goal as a Derby County player in the 3-0 victory over Burton Albion on Saturday.

Washington came off the bench to round off the scoring at the Pirelli Stadium to earn the Rams their first win of the season in Sky Bet League One.

Speaking to RamsTV on Monday morning, the summer signing from Rotherham United previewed the side's return to Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday evening against Oxford United.

On his first goal for the club...

It was brilliant. At the two clubs I've been at previously, I've scored quite early and it takes the pressure off. I've never really thought about it but I think there's maybe a five game cut-off where you start to think you probably need a goal now if you've not scored already so it's nice to get the monkey off the back early doors.

On the win at Burton...

The first 10-15 minutes were tough. It's not an easy place to go to and the pitch is very small so it's about as hostile as 4,000-5,000 thousand people can make it. I think we managed it quite well and it was great for Collo to score because set-pieces are something we work really hard on.

I thought we were relatively comfortable apart from a little 15-minute spell but that's football at League One level, there's going to be periods when you're under pressure and I thought the back line performed brilliantly especially after the last couple of games. They all stood up brilliantly and deserved their clean sheet.

On where he's at fitness wise...

I like to think I'm up to speed now. Tuesday night (against Blackpool in the Carabao Cup) was tough for me because you can do as much training but the game comes at you fast when you've not played for a while. I think my last game was 1st April and even that was off of the bench so it's been a long time since I've started a game of football. It was probably evident to myself and everyone else that there was a little bit of rust there but all I can do is get minutes on the pitch to try and alleviate that.

On missing pre-season due to injury...

Pre-season is never nice but at the same time I felt fantastic coming off of the back of it last year and I sort of rolled into the season and played like 17 on the spin. I'm disappointed to have missed out on that but for me now it's about getting in the best shape possible to make sure the rest of the season is injury free.

On Oxford United on Tuesday...

I think momentum kind of takes care of itself because the break in between games is so small it feels like you go game to game. The beauty of being at Derby and the luxury of facilities we have here, there's no excuse to not recover and do things right so that's what we'll be looking at trying to do over the next 24-48 hours.