James Collins has stressed the importance of Derby County’s players ‘keeping calm and sticking to the plan’ at a key stage of the 2023/24 season.
Derby head into Saturday’s trip to Cambridge United sitting second in the Sky Bet League One table, three points clear of Bolton Wanderers in third spot and six away from Peterborough United, who have a game in hand, in fourth.
With three sides battling to join Portsmouth in securing automatic promotion to the Championship, the race for second spot is likely to go down to the wire.
Collins, the Rams’ leading goalscorer this term with 18 goals, has achieved five promotions in his impressive career in the EFL and is one of many players in the squad that has plenty of experience to fall back on as he looks to add another to his CV.
The striker sat down with RamsTV to preview the clash with Cambridge and he was quick to highlight the need to keep clear heads and remain focussed on the task in hand.
On recovering from the knee injury he picked up at Exeter in February…
It came at a bad time. We were flying as a team and in a good vein of form. Personally, I felt I was playing well and happy with where we were going. I knew as soon as I had the contact on my knee that something didn’t feel right. I convinced myself it was alright. I carried on, the knee wasn’t too sore, and I finished the game. I was scanned, got the results back and there was a chance I needed an operation. In the end I didn’t need it and ended up having injections and we went through that process, which has worked. There was a lot of work put in while I was out in the gym at the training ground and all the medical staff have been great with me. I have a lot to thank them for to get me back in six weeks.
On his relationship with Paul Warne…
I think we have a really good relationship. We get on really, really well. He has been great for me since the minute he arrived. He has played me most of the time, so as a player you’re happy with that! I think he trusts me and understands what I can bring to a team. Away from the pitch he is great, especially with my family. Him and my little boy a good relationship and they’ve been sending each other videos! He is a great family man and I have a lot of respect for him.
On scoring the first goals of the Paul Warne era in October 2022 at Saturday’s opponents Cambridge…
I remember that day well and I was thinking about it in the car this morning! It was obviously the gaffer’s first game in charge and it was a new style of play compared to what we’ve been used to in the early stages of the season. It was all new to us all and, after a bit of time on the training ground, we went there and put in a really good performance. I remember scoring in front of the fans in the second half and celebrating with them. It was a good day.
On being two goals off 20 for the season in all competitions…
I am desperate to get there and I hope I do! There was a lot of talk when David McGoldrick left last summer about who would step up and replace those 20 goals. I’d be grateful to hit that number. That is why the injury came at a bad time for me in February, as I was on 18 goals with 14 matches left, but that is football.
On having tasted five promotions before, what experience can he fall back on…
Experience is useful to have. I am not one to look at league tables and worry about others until you need to. It probably wasn’t until Tuesday night I really looked at the table that much. Now we’re pretty much on level pegging in terms of games played, we know what we need to do. We have several players here that have experienced promotion before. The main thing for me is that we stay calm and don’t panic. If you panic, you end up losing your way of thinking and do things that you wouldn’t normally. We don’t need to go off our plan. We know we need to win on Saturday, but we need to stay calm and stick to the plan.
