JAMIE Ward is looking to end his Burnley hoodoo as Derby County go in search of a sixth successive victory on Saturday.
The tricky winger’s man-of-the-match display helped the Rams defeat Coventry City at Pride Park at the weekend and move to the brink of the Championship play-off places.
Now he is hoping the run of success being enjoyed by Nigel Clough’s men will prompt a change of personal fortunes against Burnley at Turf Moor.
He said: “I don’t really like talking about Burnley because I’ve been sent off twice against them.
“It’s not a good place for me, but hopefully I’ll manage to stay on the pitch and we’ll come back with another win — or at least a point.”
Ward believes a decent result against the Clarets will put down another marker as the Rams continue their improvement after a dreadful run of defeats in November.
He said: “It’s been tough, obviously when we hit the bad patch.
“We got a few injuries, but we’ve got stronger and stronger and you can’t knock the lads.
“Everyone’s expected to have a blip in the season and we’ve hopefully had ours and we can now push on.
“We’re good enough to be in the playoffs, maybe even get automatic promotion, but no-one put us in to get in the play-offs or automatic promotion.
“We’ve just got to keep proving people wrong and keep working hard.
“We’ve beat West Ham, we’ve beat Leeds, we’ve beat Forest, we’ve beat Blackpool and Birmingham — they’re tough games, so you have to put us up there with all of them. I think we’ll definitely be in the mix.
“Now we’re going up to Burnley after our sixth win (in a row). We’ll go and give everything.
“We always know we can get a goal.
We’ve got Bally (Callum Ball) now who’s on fire and we’ve got Theo (Robinson)
who’s doing well and probably should have scored against Coventry — but you get games like that.
“It’s a big step up for young lads to come into first-team football, but once Bally gets in the swing of it even more, he will be knocking the centrehalves all over the shop and he will be horrible to play against.”
Ward also praised the efforts of England under-21 goalkeeper Frank Fielding.
“Frank’s been brilliant these last few games he’s pulled off some great saves,” he said.
“Frank has been crucial these last few games and I think he deserves the credit the lads and the manager have been giving him.”
