"We Know To Be Successful That We Need Clean Sheets"

To be successful, you need to keep clean sheets. That is the view of manager Frank Lampard who has seen his side keep two in their last two games.

A hard-fought 1-0 victory on the road at Wigan Athletic signalled their first shut-out since mid-September when they drew 0-0 with Blackburn Rovers.

That was followed by a goalless draw in the East Midlands Derby against Nottingham Forest on Monday night.

“We spoke a lot about clean sheets and now we have two,” Lampard told RamsTV.

“Against Nottingham Forest, we were against a team who had scored five goals at Aston Villa, went to Middlesbrough and won, and went to Leeds and drew so it was a tough opponent.

“We know to be successful that we need clean sheets. We know clean sheets can win you games and that’s a big positive that came out of the other night.”

Derby went 14 games in all competitions without a clean sheet, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

“We always work on defensive work,” Lampard said, talking about work done on the training ground.

“We did have meetings to analyse goals conceded and it was switching off for little moments. It was a loss of focus and concentration and it was a good thing to look back.

“We do a lot of video work with the lads and it was a good thing to analyse. It is not a comfortable meeting to analyse every mistake or potential mistakes for goals but you have to do it.

“Since then we have been switched on more and we have to stay like that. The moment you lose focus for a second then you concede.”

The Rams will be hoping to make it three consecutive clean sheets tomorrow as Bristol City are the visitors to Pride Park Stadium (3pm kick off).