"We Know How Tough This League Is"

Midfielder Craig Bryson believes nothing should be taken for granted in the Sky Bet Championship as Derby County prepare for a trip to St Andrew’s to face Birmingham City on Good Friday.

Bryson netted his third goal of the season last Saturday as he fired home to give the Rams the lead against Bolton Wanderers in what turned out to be a convincing 4-0 victory.

That result put the Rams within two points of the Sky Bet Championship play-off places and with only five games remaining, the Scotsman knows should his side win all those fixtures, they will extend their season by a couple of weeks.

However, to do that, Bryson believes Derby need to find some consistency in a division which continues to throw up mixed results from week-to-week.

“The teams around about us have been a bit inconsistent, just like ourselves, so with five games to go to still be right in the mix for the play-offs is probably what we would have taken at the start of the season,” Bryson told RamsTV.

“We had a new manager come in, a big change around in players, the club spoke about it being a transitional season - yet we are still up there near the play-offs.

“We know how the Championship works. Even though Norwich City are probably going to get promoted at the end of the season, they went away to Wigan Athletic at the weekend and had to fight hard just to get a point, so we know how tough this league is.

“We know nothing is taken for granted and we need to be at it. You saw it at the Blackburn game last week when we lost 2-0, we weren’t at it we got beat convincingly on the night and we had to bounce back against Bolton, which we did.

“We don’t want to have to keep bouncing back, we have had to do it too many times this season, so we want to build on the Bolton result going in to Birmingham.”

The Rams have three fixtures away from home, whilst two are at Pride Park Stadium.

The Rams have recorded 13 goals in their last four fixtures, however, they have struggled to pick up points away from home.

Their last win on the road came in the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round clash against Accrington Stanley in January and Bryson admitted that form needed to change in order to reach the play-off positions.

“We haven’t won away from home in 2019 in the league and we have three tough away games coming up so we are going to have to pick up points in them, no matter what, if we want to get into the play-offs,” he said.

“There is no better time than to start on Friday. It is a transitional season, but at the same time we want to be competitive. The gaffer in his career has been used to winning things, he has been used to being right up at the top of the league.

“We are no different to that, he has brought that to the club as well and we want to be up there in the play-offs and we want to be within a chance to get promoted.”