‘Create Some Momentum’

Gary Rowett wants Derby County to ‘create some momentum’ as they aim to keep their recent unbeaten run going.

Derby head into this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship home fixture against Sheffield Wednesday unbeaten in their last four matches.

Off the back of three successive draws – against Birmingham City, Brentford and Cardiff City – Derby claimed a 2-0 victory over bitter rivals Nottingham Forest last Sunday.

Now, with Wednesday in town on Saturday afternoon, Rowett wants his side to really build up some momentum and on the positives displayed in recent weeks.

Speaking to RamsTV, Rowett said: “We were pleased with our afternoon on Sunday and it allowed us to enjoy our evening a little bit more, which I’m sure the fans did as well.

“We’re sensible enough to know that it’s only one game, it’s only three points, no matter how much we built it up beforehand.

“We’ve got to try and create some momentum by building on some of the strong performances that we’ve put in recently.”

He added: “People were saying before the Forest game that we were under pressure, but now we’re four unbeaten, we’ve kept two clean sheets, but we’ve got to go again, it can flip the other way just as quickly so we have to maintain that home form and try to improve on the performance from Sunday."

Rowett was impressed with the atmosphere ahead of the Forest game.

A sea of black and white greeted the players onto the pitch after the club placed flags right across Pride Park Stadium.

Now though, the 43-year-old want to feel the buzz of excitement and anticipation on a more regular basis and not just for the big local derby.

“The atmosphere was electric, the club worked so hard to help create that with the flags and the music, but the way that the fans responded to a local derby was amazing,” he said.

“They made a hell of a lot of noise and I desperately need us to try and recreate that atmosphere, you can see from the start we made that it certainly does lift the players.

“We’re at home again, our home form has been very good and we’ve got to keep doing more of the same.”

On Saturday’s opponents, Rowett is aware of the quality that Carlos Carvalhal’s side possesses.

The Owls have finished in the top six of the Championship in each of the last two seasons and are tipped to be in the mix again this time around.

He said: “Sheffield Wednesday are the sort of team that can beat anyone on their day, but at the same time they’re having a season where the pressure to achieve something is sometimes difficult to handle.

“We’ll have to be on our guard and we’ll have to be focused on what we do.”