Midfielder Max Bird described Derby County’s 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday evening as ‘massive’ for the team.
The Rams extended their winning run on home turf to four games following the victory against the Terriers and made it six wins out of their last eight games in the Sky Bet Championship.
It’s been a good turnaround for the Rams who suffered a disappointing start to the campaign, but are clawing it back under the stewardship of Wayne Rooney.
Central defender George Edmundson, on his home debut, opened the scoring Derby midway through the first half against Carlos Corberán's side.
The 23-year-old he headed home a cross from Nathan Byrne, whilst in the second half, substitute Martyn Waghorn grabbed his third goal of the season.
He latched on to a fine through ball from striker Colin Kazim-Richards and made no mistake from the edge of the box to ensure Derby secured all three points.
Bird, who dominated alongside Graeme Shinnie and Jason Knight in midfield, was pleased to register another positive result at home.
“It is a massive win for us,” Bird told RamsTV. “We knew it was a big game tonight and it’s a massive three points for us. Hopefully we can take that performance into Friday against Nottingham Forest and get three points again.
“The manager felt like we had to change the formation in the second half. I think we scored against the run of play in the first half and the formation wasn’t really working, he said we had to change it.
“We managed the game better in the second half. We knew when to press, we knew what to do with the ball a bit better and everyone put in a shift in the second half and we deserved the three points.”
Edmundson’s goal in the first half came at a time where the Rams needed it the most. He stooped to head home on 22nd minutes to put Rams ahead after a nervy opening to the game.
In the second half, Waghorn netted his 100th career league goal and his first since the 1-1 draw against Cardiff City in October.
“They were two very good goals,” Bird said. “A very good pass from Colin Kazim-Richards for the second goal and we are becoming more of a threat from set pieces.
“It was brilliant for George Edmundson to get on the scoresheet. We have been working on the set pieces and Shay Given has been hammering it into us how important they were.
“We have been working hard on the training ground so it was good to get one from that.
“We had a couple of chances and we could have really killed it off in the second half with a couple of chances that we had.
“We managed the game very well but the desire and determination to defend the two goal lead was phenomenal from the lads.”
Derby now four wins in a row at Pride Park heading into Friday’s local derby clash against Nottingham Forest (7:45pm kick-off).
“We are trying to make this place a fortress,” Bird admitted. “It’s a bit cliché but we have another home game coming up and we are going to try and get another three points.
“It’s another massive game for us on Friday. It’s not just a derby, but in terms of the table as well.
“We really want to win on Friday. We are going to be working hard on the training pitch and maybe we have to recover a bit more than what we usually do because tonight was a tough game physically - and we go again on Friday.
“We had the good news yesterday about the fans hopefully being back in for the start of next season. We are just aiming to put results and performances on the board to make the fans happy and hopefully we can climb the table and finish the season strongly.”