Richie Barker has praised James Collins following Derby County’s win over Fleetwood Town.
Speaking to RamsTV after the game, the assistant head coach claimed that Collins’ goals will do him ‘the world of good’.
James Collins joined Derby County from Cardiff City last summer and went onto score 12 goals in 52 games in his first season.
The departure of David McGoldrick to Notts County in June has left the 33-year-old as the club’s main goalscorer, and he now already matched his goal tally for last season in almost 30 less games.
Collins netted a brace in yesterday’s EFL Trophy win over Fleetwood, making it five goals in four games in the competition this term.
The forward has now scored seven goals in the last six matches, however he has only scored in one of the previous eight fixtures in League One.
However, Barker is confident that his performances in the EFL Trophy will really help him out, despite being against ‘weaker’ opposition.
“I thought the first half was arguably as good as we’ve been and that in fairness, you know, off the back of the recent league results, that’s some statement,” Barker said after the win.
“Disappointing that we didn’t go in more goals up I thought we could have made the evening a little bit more comfortable for ourselves, but very pleased with everybody’s contribution and obviously, like I say, winning is a habit and we’ve continued the habit and through to the next round.”
On Collins, he said: “As a striker, it doesn’t matter what competition it is, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing against, scoring goals, it’s a good habit to get into and in fairness, he started a little bit of a run with the game I think it was a couple of weeks ago and it’s just nice to continue it.
“If it’s a striker, you just want to keep scoring goals, so it’ll do him mentally the world of good.”
Can James Collins score the goals to take Derby County up?
James Collins and Martyn Waghorn have 18 goals between them in all competitions this season, and it is great for the pair to both be able to compete with each other and push each other to score more goals.
Derby County are definitely going to need Collins to keep up his goalscoring form in the second half of the campaign if they are to achieve promotion at the second time of asking, with only Stevenage scoring less goals than them in the top eight places in the third tier.