3/1 To Win
In the first-part of our exclusive interview with former Ram Jeff Hendrick, we found out just how his journey with Derby County began.
Seven years is a lot to cram into one interview so try and categorise it, we asked the Republic of Ireland what his toughest and best moments at the club were.
It may come as some surprise to you that both came in the 2013/14 season, as Derby so agonisingly missed out on promotion to the Premier League.
Despite the bitter Wembley end, Hendrick’s toughest moment in a Derby shirt actually came towards the beginning of the rollercoaster.
“For me, it was when I had my ankle injury,” the 26-year-old midfielder revealed.
“I got injured towards the end of Nigel Clough’s time in charge and a few weeks later we had a new head coach in Steve McClaren.
“There was almost an instant turnaround in the style of football and the feel around the building, the games and the stadium and there I was still weeks away from even returning.
“I’d had a few chats with the manager at the time, but I could see how much the lads were enjoying training and the way we were playing, but you could see that in the results alone that year,”
It was a time, however, that Hendrick used to his advantage: “During the time I was out, I took a lot of time to reflect on football and thought about what I needed to do for the team and how I needed to play to get into the team and really kick on.
“It was tough on a personal level, but I also do believe it helped me learn what I needed to do to get used to this new style of football that the manager had brought in and how I could implement that into my game.”
This leads us nicely on to the Dublin-born midfielder’s most enjoyable season in a Derby shirt.
The aforementioned injury kept Hendrick out of action until the beginning of January, but once he returned, the Rams were riding the crest of a wave and he contributed heavily to the cause over an incredible second half of the season.
“That year as a whole was just fantastic,” he recalled. “We finished the season off with a major disappointment, but it was definitely my most enjoyable year of football at the club.
“As I touched on, I did miss a few months of it, but the time I got back after Christmas, and once I got back into the team, was just brilliant.
“There was a lot of talk about us being on a rollercoaster from where we were when Nigel left to then how we kicked on up the table.
“Near the end of that year, we were going into games and had no thoughts whatsoever about losing. We would go a goal down and we weren’t even fazed – it was just brilliant.
“We stuck to our style and you could just see everybody enjoying the way we were playing. We truly got some fantastic results.”
We all remember his winner in front of the Derby supporters at the City Ground don’t we? We will save that for another time…
