3/1 To Win
Scott Carson has warned Derby County to expect a reaction when they welcome Ipswich Town to Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Rams made it back-to-back wins with an impressive 3-0 victory at Middlesbrough on Saturday, but the Tractor Boys didn’t enjoy such success with a 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa in the Sky Bet Championship.
As Derby look to make it three in a row, Carson has made it clear that they can’t allow complacency to creep in, with a top performance needed to take the three points against Mick McCarthy’s side.
He told RamsTV: “We’ve got three big games coming up, I think everybody is probably expecting us to win these games but this is a time when we need to be playing at our best.
“I think with the away games, everybody thinks that it’s going to be difficult for us to get the win, so now we’re back at home, it’s expected.
“We’ve got to be at our best because they need a win themselves and they’ll want to produce a reaction after Saturday.”
With the scores level at the Riverside Stadium after 12 minutes on Saturday, Carson produced one of the saves of the season to deny Britt Assombalonga and less than sixty seconds later, Matej Vydra gave the Rams the lead.
The Derby number one described the save as a ‘special’ moment, especially as it contributed to a winning performance.
He said: “I just reacted and luckily I got a good hand on it, thankfully the defenders followed in and got it out of there.
“It was nice to make the save and then a minute later, we go and score, which makes the save a lot more important from my point of view.
“When you score and win the game, it just makes the save a little bit more special because looking back, it could have been a turning point in the game.
“At the time, I felt that I did well to keep it out, because sometimes you get a hand on it and it still goes in because it’s from such a short distance.”
Carson believes that the victory on Teesside is up there with the Rams’ best performances so far this season.
He added: “It was as good a victory as we’ve had this season, we all knew how tough the game was going to be but I think we showed the determination that has won us a lot of games this season.
“We defended resolutely, everybody stuck to their jobs and that put us in a good situation, especially towards the end of the first half.
“We dealt with everything that they threw at us, but like a lot of games this season, we kicked on in the second half and put the game to bed.”
