DERBY forward Johnny Russell believes two consecutive years of promotion frustrations for his club in the Championship play-offs will ensure there is no repeat in 2016 as the Rams seek to end the year in first place when they visit Leeds on Tuesday.
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| Johnny Russell is confident Derby will gain promotion to the Premier League |
Wembley defeat to QPR in the play-off final two years ago was followed by missing the post-season play-offs altogether, by a single point, in May.
But after Boxing Day’s 2-0 win over Fulham, Russell looked forward to the Rams ending the year as Championship leaders when they visit Leeds on Tuesday.
He said: “I don’t think we will be disappointed again. We have identified what went wrong and we’ve strengthened. For the boys who were here last season, missing out took a lot out of us mentally.
“We should never have thrown it away in the way that we did. So we came back after a break mentally ready and prepared to put in the work to make sure that never happened again. Hopefully, it will be third time lucky.”
Fuhave announced that former Watford boss Slavisa Jokanovic will be their new manager and defender Dan Burn reckons Monday’s meeting with rejuvenated Rotherham now looks a vital relegation encounter.
“We’ve matched probably the best team in the league for 60 to 70 minutes but conceded two sloppy goals again,” he said. “It’s the same story every week and it’s got to change.
"Rotherham are coming to us on the back of a good result so it’s a massive game. It’s disappointing we’ve got to keep talking about that again but we’ve just got to keep battling.”
Rotherham’s 4-0 victory over Bolton was their fourth in seven games and moved them out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
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| Neil Lennon applauds the Bolton fans with the club rock bottom of the Championship |
Scorer Danny Ward said: “We’ve just got to keep looking forward and head towards the top half. If we can pick up points [at Fulham] it brings them down.”
Bolton manager Neil Lennon knows his side must avoid defeat to Blackburn on Monday with his team in danger of getting cut adrift – they are already seven points from safety.
“We have to turn it around and try to get something out of it, get a win,” Lennon said. “I can understand the fans’ frustration. They have been absolutely superb, they came in their thousands and they deserve a better performance than that. We are not good enough and in all departments really.”
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| MK Dons boss Karl Robinson is making his players train after matches |
MK Dons manager Karl Robinson gave his players less than an hour’s rest after securing a vital three points with a 2-1 defeat of Cardiff before putting them through their paces ahead of Monday's visit to Birmingham.
The dust had not even settled on Josh Murphy’s 90th minute winning goal before Robinson was conducting an on-field training session.
“It’s just something we have to do,” he said. “If you want to be better than everybody else you have to steal inches, or minutes. And we are going to steal a few minutes on other teams now and prepare almost immediately.”
Wolves match-winner James Henry hopes to pile misery on the club that tried to sign him today after sending a cheeky Boxing Day message to his in-laws.
Henry headed the only goal against Reading to give Kenny Jackett’s men their first Molineux victory since October 3.
He celebrated by tapping his head as a joke with his father-in-law and on Monday will try to have the last laugh over Charlton, who wanted to buy him in July.
“Over Christmas dinner I was getting grilled a little bit by my missus’s dad, John Sephton, about my heading ability,” said the 26-year-old. “So when I scored I thought I’d give him a little salute and tell him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
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