"The Lads Performed Today"

Manager Frank Lampard was full of praise for his Derby County side following the 4-0 victory over relegation-threatened Bolton Wanderers.

Craig Bryson’s goal in the 37th minute put the Rams on course for all three points before Mason Mount stole the show with his first hat-trick in English football.

All three goals were well worked and capped off a stunning afternoon for Derby and it was a performance which pleased the manager.

“We are playing well in our home games particularly and we have to continue that,” he told RamsTV. “We have two more to come and if we can play like that then we will have a great chance. We are scoring goals and we are creating so long may that continue.

“We work hard on our forward movements, how we make runs from midfield and wide areas and we need to keep getting more bodies in the box which helps you to score.

“I went with the same team because you reflect back on game before that, Brentford and Rotherham, and we were strong. It was a difficult game for us on Tuesday, we know that but today, the lads performed.

“We were expected to win this game with Bolton’s position but you still have to do it. Once the deadlock was broken and we went 1-0 up, my only disappointment of the day is that we didn’t score seven, eight or nine because we had enough chances to do that.

“Being clinical is a huge part of the game. It doesn’t get so noticed today but it could do in games coming up so we must have that in our minds when we are combining great stuff around the box, we want to finish it off.”

The afternoon belonged to Mount. His three goals take him to 10 for the season and it was also a landmark day as it was his first hat-trick in English football.

“It was a really good hat-trick for Mason,” said Lampard. “He had a couple more opportunities but I loved the first goal.

“That’s what he started to do midway through the first half, he started to turn, play and run on people and he is hard to deal with when he does that.

“He was very effective, it’s great for his confidence to score three and we need more from him now.”

The Rams now sit two points behind Bristol City with two quick games in succession coming up but the manager is keen not to get too carried away and has called for focus.

“There are more twists than just one coming up,” Lampard commented. “There are too many games, the Championship throws up too many results and we are all looking at our run-ins.

“What we must believe is that if we perform like we did today, if we can get the results that performances like today brings, then we have a great chance.

“We have a great chance of the play-offs and at the start of the season, we would definitely have been happy with that with the way last summer went so we must keep fighting.

“Birmingham away will be a tough game. They are a team that have performed pretty well this year under difficult circumstances. They are physical, organised but the stakes are high for us now and it’s massive. We really need to attack those two games.”