Derby County continue their League One promotion push as they prepare for the challenge of Reading at Pride Park.
Derby County ace Joe Ward has claimed that the Rams must “focus on ourselves” heading into the final nine games of their League One campaign. Paul Warne has guided his side to second in the table, with the push for promotion heating up.
The Pride Park outfit slumped to back-to-back defeats after facing Barnsley and Charlton, taking a huge dent to their form. However, consecutive 3-0 victories, against Port Vale and Bristol Rovers, have them back on track.
Results elsewhere mean that Derby are in the driving seat for an automatic promotion spot, with the matches drifting away. Next up is a clash with Reading, before rivals Bolton Wanderers make their way to Pride Park.
Joe Ward promotion message
Ahead of the match with Reading, Joe Ward spoke with RamsTV about the tie and the overall promotion picture. The wing-back was asked whether he and his teammates have discussed previous promotion campaigns they’ve had elsewhere, to which he replied: “Definitely, you always speak about it.
“Because it’s good experiences and it’s good to share and get different opinions and knowledge off different people. And then you’re hoping it helps in these situations, so it might be a case where things are not going to plan or not going right and you might think [about] what someone told you, you might take things on board.
“But yeah, we’re in a good place, we just got to keep it going, keep focus on ourselves and push until the last game… It’s just as important as every other game, you know, focus on Tuesday most importantly, go into it with positivity like we are, take the game by the scruff of the neck and try and get the win.”
Derby County promotion experience
The Derby dressing room is brimming with promotion experience, which could be useful in getting the final push over the line. James Collins (5), Sonny Bradley (3), Korey Smith (3), Josh Vickers (2), Conor Hourihane (2), Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (2), Conor Washington (2), Callum Elder (2), Ryan Nyambe (1), Dwight Gayle (1), Kane Wilson (1) Ebou Adams (1) and Ward (1), all make up the squad in terms of promotion experience.
It’s the type of cool heads that could help the team into those big matches coming up. The clash with Reading will be the first big test before the huge head-to-head with Bolton, while the tie with Portsmouth lurks in the distance.
There’s plenty more twists and turns left in this season’s race to the top, but the Rams will be hoping they end up on top.