3/1 To Win
Phillip Cocu knows only too well that Derby County’s form away from home needs to improve.
Fresh from picking up a fifth successive home victory at the weekend against Preston North End, with the Rams 1-0 winners thanks to Martyn Waghorn’s first-half strike, Cocu’s side are back on the road on this evening with a trip to Fulham (7:45pm kick-off).
While Derby have been in excellent form in front of the Pride Park Stadium faithful, they have endured mixed fortunes on the road.
The Rams have won five and drawn three of their nine home games this season and currently boast the second-best home record in the Sky Bet Championship.
On their travels, albeit at times they haven’t picked up the results their performances have deserved, Derby have won one and drawn three from eight outings.
Ahead of the trip to Fulham, Cocu insists the Rams are working hard to address their away form and says they can’t rely solely on their home form if they want to be successful on the pitch.
Speaking to RamsTV, the Derby boss said: “To get a positive result on the road is our next goal.
“We have shown in the home games that we can get good results and play good football. Even a few times we were unlucky at the start of the season in some of our games, both home and away.
“We are doing well at Pride Park and if we really want to step up towards our ambition, we need to find a way to get results away from home.
“With the staff and the team, we have been working to find a plan that works against Fulham.
“That is key at the moment because we can’t rely on all season on home games because we will face a few difficult matches at Pride Park as well.
“There will also be moments away from home where things will go better.”
Cocu believes the Championship table’s congested make-up means there’s scope for Derby to climb the table, they currently sit in tenth spot, if they can add consistency to their results.
“We have to find now the perfect combination that we need to climb up the table and get more games away from home,” he said.
“It is very tight in the table, if you win three games you go up and if you have a tough couple of games, you fall down again. We remain focused on the short-term, but also the long-term too.”
