George Thorne says Derby County’s incredible work-rate is proving to be the biggest difference the side are showing as they continue to chase their Premier League dream.
The Rams fought hard with fellow top-six rivals Bristol City last Friday to pick up another point, extend their unbeaten run in the Sky Bet Championship to nine matches and, importantly, keep their place in the division’s automatic promotion positions.
It says a lot that Thorne, the 25-year-old midfielder who signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract last week, said that Derby were ‘disappointed’ to only draw that game.
He went on to say that he felt the Rams did more than enough to claim all three points.
“If we want to get to the Premier League, we have got to keep up the standards that we have set ourselves,” Thorne told RamsTV.
“We were resilient, we created chances, their ‘keeper has made a couple of good saves and another day we would come away from the match victorious.
“We were the better team. Who knows, though. Maybe over the coming weeks and months it will turn out to be a good point for us.
“Back to front everyone knows their roles, is working hard and we’re going out with the same attitude – to work harder than the opposition.
“We have to do that for every single game. Nothing is taken for granted.”
The Rams may find themselves in a good position with 18 games to go, but you won’t see anybody resting on their laurels.
Thorne feels that the experience within Derby’s squad, on top of the work-rate and desire to win games and keep clean sheets, is paying dividends.
With Millwall next on the horizon – the focus and message remain the same.
“The character and resilience that we are showing is there for all to see,” Thorne said.
“We added a lot of experience in the summer with Joe (Ledley), Curtis (Davies), Tom (Huddlestone) and now Cameron (Jerome) and we know if we keep a clean sheet then we have got a very good chance of winning the game.
“How hard we are working in games is probably the biggest difference from past years.
“We have to keep doing it, though, because there is still plenty of games to go. There’s going to be a lot of ugly ones along the way, but it is down to us to keep grinding the points out.”
