Chris Martin is intent on turning Derby County’s fortunes on the road around as he travels with the squad to one of his former clubs, Hull City, this weekend.
The Rams’ only victory on the road this season in the Sky Bet Championship came in their opening game of the season.
A Tom Lawrence double secured Derby a 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town but, since then, they have found results tough to come by on the road.
Three draws and two defeats have followed the meeting with the Terriers and the Rams head into Saturday's game knowing a valuable three points could close the gap between themselves and the play-off places.
And Martin, who spent the 2018/19 season on loan with tomorrow’s opponents, is hoping that form will turn around following the late 1-0 success at home to Wigan Athletic in midweek.
“We need to try and come away with three points away from home,” he told RamsTV. “We should have done it more up until this point with the performance level but we haven’t managed to get over the line.
“It is difficult playing away from home. Teams probably say that when they come to Pride Park; it’s a difficult place to go, as is a hell of a lot of stadiums around the country.
“Teams seem to give that extra five or 10 percent in front of the home supporters. It lifts them forward and drags them on a bit so we understand that.
“It’s going to be a tough game this weekend as they have come off the back of a good win in midweek but if everyone steps up and brings everything to the table then we have the quality and belief in our dressing room that we can pick up results and there is no better place to start on Saturday.”
It’s set to be familiar surroundings for Martin this weekend. The striker spent the whole of last season at the KCOM Stadium but by his own admission struggled for consistency.
It was an up and down loan spell for the Scotland international, who only found the net twice in 30 appearances. Whilst half of his outings came from the bench, Martin admitted the spell didn’t go the way he would have liked.
Despite that, he helped Hull to a mid-table finish under Nigel Adkins and he believes they can cause problems, so the Rams will need to be at the top of their game.
“It will be a tough game and they have a lot of good players,” he said. “They have a lot of talent but the manager has changed so I’m not sure how they are going to set up from a tactical point of view but they are a threat for sure.
“Jarrod Bowen, last season, the amount of goals that he got, his contribution and the amount of work he does off the ball is a threat and Kamil Grosicki on the other side is another threat.
“Jackson Irvine is an Australian international and is a good player, George Long has just come into the team and seems to be doing well as well so I’m well aware of their threats.
“If I can give the manager any advice then I will doing that. Regardless of the opposition on Saturday, we need to make sure we perform.
“We will be looking to improve our performance level from the midweek win over Wigan heading into the weekend and it will give us a good chance to come away with three points.”