INTERVIEW: “Home Advantage Crucial” - Eustace

Derby County Head Coach John Eustace has stressed the importance of making home advantage count as his side prepare to return to Pride Park Stadium on New Year’s Day.

Following back-to-back away trips over Christmas, drawing 1-1 at Birmingham City and losing 2-1 at Leicester City, the Rams host high-flying Middlesbrough in their first Sky Bet Championship clash of 2026 (3pm kick-off).

Returning to play in front of the Pride Park faithful, Eustace says Derby are determined to make the most of the raucous home support and convert their recent draws into victories.

Ahead of Thursday’s contest, Eustace also told RamsTV of the importance of captain Lewis Travis’ comeback and how the rising stock of his Rams side will necessitate alternative styles of play.

On Maximising Home Advantage:

We can't wait to be back at home; we love playing at Pride Park. The atmosphere there has been superb all season, so it's important that we utilise that support again and make sure the fans go home happy.

It's important we start winning more games at Pride Park. We've drawn too many matches at home, but we can't wait to play against one of the top teams in the league and try to put on a really exciting performance.

On Adapting To Different Match Scenarios:

I believe that teams are showing us a lot more respect now, so we have to find different ways to play and to create against them. As the season has gone on - where possibly we didn't have that respect at the start so much - people have realised we are a serious team.

Full credit has to go to the boys; that's down to them and the way they've been progressing and playing.

When we get those opportunities, especially in the final third, we really believe that we're a good team and we have players capable of putting the ball in the net.

On Putting Teams Away When On Top:

We just need to show our quality over 90 minutes and believe in ourselves when we get the opportunities to go and score two or three goals.

When teams are feeling us - and they know that we're a good team - we can now take it to that next level and score two or three to take games away from other teams.

At the moment, we're just not doing that. We've been competitive, we've been in all the games, but we want to see that level of consistency now where we can win and win well.

On Having Club Captain Lewis Travis Back:

Lewis has done terrifically well to get back fit. It's been 11 really hard weeks for him to get to this point.

He's trained for four sessions, but he's a really important member of our squad and to give him some minutes against Leicester was key. He's still a long way off from his ideal sharpness and fitness, but that will come with the increased minutes we give him.