3/1 To Win
Martyn Waghorn has been in fine form in front of goal for Derby County at Pride Park Stadium recently.
The frontman has his eyes set on finding the back of the net for the third successive home game when the Rams take on Sheffield Wednesday in the Sky Bet Championship this evening (7:45pm kick-off).
Waghorn to netted the winner in Derby’s 1-0 victory in their first game after the November international break, while he also scored in the 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers at the end of the month.
The 29-year-old, who joined the Rams from Ipswich Town at the start of last season, has scored six goals so far this term, of which four have come on home turf.
He hit 13 during the 2018/19 campaign and the striker is determined to stay amongst the goals moving forward as Phillip Cocu’s side look to climb the table.
Waghorn told RamsTV: “I’d certainly like to have got a few more goals than six at this stage and I definitely should have added to my tally.
“In terms of my goals and also performance wise, I believe there’s a lot more to come. I’m optimistic and I know I can still get better as I’m always learning and improving.
“I scored 13 goals last season and I’d love to get more than that, but the main focus is the team and climbing the league rather than individual accolades and targets.”
Waghorn enhanced his credentials to be one of Derby’s designated free-kick takers with a sublime strike from distance against Queens Park Rangers.
He curled home a superb free-kick from the edge of the penalty area which left Joe Lumley in the Rangers goal grasping at thin air.
The ex- England Under-21 international was pleased to see his work on the training ground pay off.
He said: “It was one of those where as soon as I hit it I knew it had a half of chance of finding the net.
“I’ve been practising the free-kicks lately and we do have a lot of quality players on set plays, as well as having someone like Harry Wilson when he was on-loan last year, so I’ve had to wait for my opportunity.”
He added: “It was a free-kick that was just set up nicely for me, so I was happy to take on the opportunity. It was good to see the practice pay off.”
Derby are three games away from halfway stage of the season and find themselves in mid-table after what Waghorn has described as an ‘indifferent’ start to the campaign.
While the Rams have been impressive at home, picking up five wins and four draws from ten games, they’ve struggled on the road.
Waghorn says hard work on the training ground is the only solution towards finding consistency.
Waghorn said: “It has been an indifferent first half of the season in terms of what we’re like at home and away and we can’t hide away from that fact.
“At home we’ve done well and put in some good performances, but we’ve been way off it away. We’ve not given a good account of ourselves on the road, not scoring enough and conceding quite a few too.”
He added: “Only ourselves can improve that and I think the only way we can do that is by working hard and doing the work on the training pitch.”
