Derby´s Clough is like no other boss

I´m just back from a training camp with the Scotland squad at St Andrews. It was a nice little get together and morale is really good in the squad. It would have been good to get a game of golf in while I was up there but you can´t have everything!

There´s no international game for us this week and a lot of the lads are just focused on the Old Firm game on Sunday. We´re not playing until next month when we´ve got a huge game against Holland. I´ve been in good form with Derby recently so hopefully I can keep that up and get myself a starting place. With James McFadden struggling for fitness I might even get a more central role. I´ve been playing just off the front for Derby recently so George Burley might have seen me there. It doesn´t really matter where I play, I´ve already played on the left and right of midfield so I´m happy to go wherever I´m needed.

What a week it was for Derby – two league wins and victory in the Cup over our biggest rivals. We´re going great at the minute, confidence is high and everyone´s got a big smile on their face in training.

A lot of the credit has to go to Nigel Clough; he´s come in with new ideas and new theories on how the game should be played. I´ve never worked for a manager like him, he makes everything so simple and we can´t wait to get on the pitch and take teams on. It was a great result at Plymouth on Saturday and apparently the gaffer reckoned it was my best game since he´s been here. I think that has more to do with my work rate than anything.

I was actually carrying a few knocks going into the game so I was just worrying about being able to do my job for the team. It wasn´t about any tricks or great passes it was about hard work and grafting to get the win. Work rate is a big part of Derby at the minute. Over the last couple of weeks we´ve really come together as a team and we´re all going that extra yard to win the ball back. When you´ve got a close knit group you´ll go out of your way to help a mate who´s in trouble on the pitch, by offering him a pass or making a tackle.

The Forest game was unbelievable. If we´d have faced the situation we were in – 2-0 down in the first half – a week prior we might not be in the FA Cup anymore. Hulsey (Rob Hulse) got us back in the game with a great goal and from then on we grew in confidence, started to dominate the game and deserved to win it. There´s nothing quite like going back to your old club and scoring the winner.

I expected plenty of abuse in the game and I certainly got that. I didn´t celebrate the first two goals but there´s only so much you can take, I was ready to celebrate by the time I scored the winner. Things were much better on the pitch for me then they were in the stands, it was good to see some familiar faces again although James Perch, one of my best pals in football, got injured in the game.

I´ll be back tomorrow with a preview of our cup game with Man United.

Kris