Marcus Harness says the Derby County squad are leaning into the pressure and harbouring belief and confidence at the business end of the Sky Bet Championship season as they look ahead to facing Luton Town on Friday (12:30pm kick-off).
The Rams clinched a Championship point in a 2-2 draw at Portsmouth last Saturday as Jerry Yates scored to give Derby the lead before Rob Atkinson equalised for Pompey. An own goal from Atkinson saw Derby ahead again, but the Fratton Park side pulled one back, again through Atkinson, to see the points shared on the south coast.
Luton are the opponents awaiting Derby on Easter Friday as they host the Hatters at Pride Park Stadium. The Rams will be looking to turn the tables after the Bedfordshire side took maximum points in a 2-1 win, through two late goals, in the reverse fixture at Kenilworth Road back in December.
Harness spoke with RamsTV before training on Tuesday to preview Derby’s Pride Park clash with the Hatters, who sit three points and two places behind the Rams in 23rd spot with four matches remaining this term.
On the Rams’ 2-2 draw with Portsmouth…
It was disappointing; we felt like we'd done enough to win. It was a game where both teams had chances. Once we went 2-1 up, we felt like we'd done enough. We're gutted, but we've just got to pick ourselves up and go again. We've already started working on the stuff for Luton, and we're just looking forward to going out at Pride Park and hopefully getting another three points.
On the coaching staff instilling a level-headed approach to the end of the season…
It's the same messages being put across. If we'd played in a way that we weren't proud of, weren't happy with, then the staff would have told us that. We'd played well, and that's just football. We'd like to have defended the goals better, but it is what it is. We just concentrate on the process of putting in good performances and cleaning up the little details that can help us.
On handling pressure with four games remaining in the Championship…
We've just got to enjoy it, really. We're going into games with the belief that we can win, and we're playing well. It's not too terrible, the pressure, because we feel like we have an effect on our outcomes - and we're just going to keep trying to do that.
His thoughts ahead of playing Luton Town on Friday…
Everyone was hoping to win the other day at Portsmouth and have a few more points on the board, but I think we feel just the same. Luton are a dangerous team. It's a dangerous game for us, and it's a dangerous game for them too. We feel confident being at home. We feel like we should have beaten them away from home, that was probably the biggest sickener of the season when we lost 2-1 in December. We're going into Friday’s game confident, and we hope that we can show our best self, score some goals and keep a clean sheet.
