Derby County currently boast the joint-best home record in the Sky Bet Championship - and striker Martyn Waghorn is hoping to use that to the Rams’ advantage on Friday as they face promotion-chasing Fulham at Pride Park Stadium (7:45pm kick-off).
Derby sit alongside Preston North End at the top of the home form guide in the league, having picked up 33 points from a possible 51 available.
That has included nine wins and six draws at Pride Park, and the Rams are currently unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions on home turf.
Whilst their away form hasn’t been up to the standards set, and Waghorn knows his side cannot just rely on their good home form, the frontman wants to capitalise on the good form built up in front of the home supporters.
“For some reason, we seem to be a completely different side when we are at Pride Park,” he told RamsTV. “I don’t know what it is, and we can’t quite put our finger on it but our away form has been poor.
“We have spoken about it a number of times after games and it’s something that needs to change. We can’t just rely on playing teams at Pride Park.
“We know that we have a couple of difficult away fixtures coming up so it’s just one of those things that we need to change and do it quickly.
“We are in a funny position because we are two or three wins away from being in a good position and also two not so positive results away from being in a dangerous position so it’s tough.
“We need to rectify our away form and keep going at home.”
Fulham pose the next challenge to Derby as they visit Pride Park in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Friday night.
The Rams sit nine points off the Sky Bet Championship play-off places, whilst the hosts sit third, only three points from the automatic promotion spots, so it’s set to be an exciting encounter.
“Fulham are coming off the back of a difficult result for themselves last weekend, losing to Barnsley at home, so are aiming to capitalise on that,” Waghorn said. “We want to use our home form to our advantage and really take the game to them.
“On our day we can beat anybody. We know it’s going to be a big game, leading into the busy month we know we have got so it’s important we do pick up the points and move on.”