INTERVIEW: Eustace Builds Up to Bristol Clash

John Eustace spoke about the importance of Derby County matching their aspiration and hunger with hard work ahead of the Rams’ Friday night trip to Bristol City.

Derby travel to Ashton Gate for the second of back-to-back Friday night matches in the Sky Bet Championship, with a 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion at Pride Park Stadium last week earning the Rams seven points from their last three matches.

A day before their away trip, the Rams made their second addition to the ranks in the January transfer window, with the loan signing of Jaydon Banel ahead of the trip to the South West.

RamsTVspoke to Eustace ahead of his side’s Friday night action to talk about harbouring belief amongst the squad, measuring progress and the latest signing ahead of Bristol.

On Jaydon Banel joining the side

We are delighted Jadon's here. The recruitment team have done a great job in making sure that we got him in. And he's going to give us another dimension to the way we want to play; he's got pace and power - a really exciting wide man.

After speaking to him, he's very hungry. He's got a desire to do well, and he's coming into a really exciting young group now.

On honing ambition in the squad

We've got a really good, exciting group and their aspirations, of course, are to be pushing at the right end of the table. That's what we want.

But it's important that we also realise that it takes a lot of hard work to get there. We've got 17 games to go, and the way they've applied themselves up to now has been excellent.

We want them aiming for the top half of the table for sure, but the proof's in the pudding. If they want to talk about it, they've got to go and do it on the pitch.

On measuring success

I think the most important thing is that we're competitive against Bristol. We're coming up against a team that's been in the top six for the majority of the season. They've got an excellent squad.

You can see the progression that we've been making. It means nothing if you're in the top six with 17 games to go. We want to keep pushing, and it's just important that we follow up a really good week from last week with another competitive performance and keep picking points up.