NIGEL Clough would like Derby County to “play better” as they seek to build on a five-match winning streak.
The Rams have won four in the league and beaten Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup.
Today, they face Burnley at Turf Moor, kick-off 3pm, with the manager confident that performances will soon improve in line with results.
“In terms of general performance, I think there is more to come from us,” said Clough.
“But we’re at a stage where we’re making it difficult for teams to create chances against us and certainly to score against us.
“We’d like to play a little bit better, but it’s about getting that balance and we’re very happy with that side of our game.
“We think there is a bit more come, in terms of the fluency of the play, as we’ve seen at times this season.
“But we’ve played better and not won, so we’ll take the points!”
The Rams boss is delighted that his players are working as hard as ever to improve results — and is enjoying every second of the good run after some difficult patches this season, especially November, when Derby played five and lost five.
“It’s nice to be able to tell the players to keep doing the same things, rather than trying to grind out a result to stop a bad run,” said Clough.
“So, it certainly makes our job easier from that point of view.
“All good runs will come to an end — we know that.
“We just want to extend it as long as we can.
“Then, when you do lose a game, it’s important how you react to that.
“You can’t be critical when you win a game, especially when you see the effort the players are putting in.
“It’s not a fluke that we’re winning games.
“It’s not as if we’re getting battered for 90 minutes and then nicking a goal.
“We’re certainly doing more than enough to win them, in our work rate alone.” Clough felt a good run had been in the offing following some decent performances without reward in December, with the 1-0 defeat at Ipswich Town coming to mind.
“I think it had been coming,” he said.
“The performances in December were good and we were very unfortunate not to get anything at Ipswich.
“We’ve been playing at a more consistent level this season — with a couple of dips.”
Asked whether the table made better reading — the Rams sit eighth and are two points off the top six — Clough said: “We don’t take too much notice of the table at this stage.
“We’re just looking to get to that 50-point mark as soon as possible, rather than be sweating about it in March and April.
“That would be progress.”
