Craig Forsyth admits Derby County's aim is to re-establish themselves back in the Sky Bet Championship this year, with the new season getting started on the road next Friday at Blackburn Rovers (8pm kick-off).
Derby will play the final fixture of their pre-season programme ahead of the 2024/25 campaign on Saturday when they face Spanish La Liga side Real Valladolid at Pride Park Stadium (3pm kick-off).
The left-back, who can also play at centre-half, will be entering his eleventh full season in Derby colours, racking up over 340 appearances and ten goals in that time.
Forsyth sat down with RamsTV after training on Thursday to discuss his longevity with the club, the importance of getting back into the Championship and cementing Derby’s place in the division.
On his longevity and beginning another season with the Rams…
It would probably seem strange to go somewhere else now but, when you first sign, you don't think you’d spend this length of time at any one place. I’m delighted to still be here and hopefully I can contribute this year.
On the significance of bouncing back from relegation in 2022 with promotion in 2024…
It was really important and something that you probably don't sit back and realise until later on. I’m delighted we got the club back to where it should be and, hopefully, now we can go even higher than where it was when I joined. We've come close to taking the next step up before, but not managed it. But to get back to the Championship after the last couple of years and what everybody had gone through, fans and everybody associated with the club, was really important.
On achieving promotion and the atmosphere on the final day of last season…
It felt really sweet to get it over the line and have some success with this club because I had been here for so long, but without really achieving anything. To finally get that achievement and that promotion ticked off was a massive thing for me.
It (the atmosphere against Carlisle United in April) would have to be right up there. Everybody knew the situation that we were in and when Birdy scored the early goal, everybody seemed to relax and it was almost a party atmosphere for the remainder of the game. To see the scenes at the end, everybody running on the pitch and the enjoyment on everybody's faces, fans, players, staff, it was brilliant to see.
On entering the new season in the Championship…
I think everybody's excited; fans, staff, and all the players are excited to get back into this league and see what we can do. It's going to be a different challenge to last year; the expectation was massive last season for us to go up and we managed to deal with that and accomplish it. It'll be a different challenge but one we're looking forward to. It's the next step in the rebuild of the club now: stabilise in the Championship and before then hopefully make that next step.