Derby County captain Conor Hourihane believes the side are 'in a good place' ahead of a busy Christmas period.
The Rams are unbeaten in their last six Sky Bet League One outings and, having won five of those to move into the top six, Hourihane thinks the team are well placed to really push on in the second half of the campaign.
Speaking to RamsTV ahead of Thursday's Pride Park Stadium clash with Lincoln City, the skipper spoke about the busy period and reflected on the 2023/24 season so far.
On the Christmas period...
We always go through stages with a lot of games in a short period of time but this period now cranks it up even more. It's an exciting period though because if you get some positive results you can really fly up that table. It's an important time for us, definitely.
On managing the balance at Christmas...
We're used to it by now. It's a busy time for players and families and we have to find time for families because that's really important but if you get some results over the period, it makes it a lot more enjoyable. Hopefully that can be the case against Lincoln on Thursday and we get the Christmas period off to a good start.
On family being understanding during this time...
It's part and parcel of the job. The kids are all excited and you want to spend some time with them and we'll get that time for sure, but there's a lot of business to take care of as well and we need to be ready for that. The more points over Christmas we can take the more we can put pressure on those around us going into January and the second half of the season.
On his assessment of the first half of the season...
I think we've done OK. We started off slowly, we couldn't find our rhythm and were very inconsistent. We'd win an important game and maybe get a draw or loss straight afterwards where we couldn't find the rhythm or back-to-back wins to put pressure on those around us.
We've found it a little bit more over the last month. We were disappointed not to hold on at the weekend Wycombe, we weren't at our best but still should have held on to win. We're starting to find our feet a little now; our performances are getting better and we're becoming stronger as a team and a group.
We're in a good place and hopefully we can really move into the second half of the season in a good place because I feel we're getting there.
On the upcoming games...
Our Christmas period is tough, there's no doubt about it, but we need to look at it as a chance to gain momentum, confidence and belief where we can gather results against some good sides.
On how he helps the injured players as captain...
It's been a tough time for some of the lads. It's important for me to speak to them, text them and always check in to see how they are. Just from my point of view, it's good to make them feel part of it and make sure they are OK. It's important they still feel part of it.
On playing on Thursday...
If we get a good result it will be even better because we can put pressure on other teams. It's our last game before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the lads are desperate for a result so they can enjoy a couple of days heading into the Boxing Day game at Wigan. It's nice that it's been brought forward and hopefully we can make that to our advantage.
