Manager Steve McLaren admits his Derby County team are in for a rough ride against Cardiff City at Pride Park on Tuesday (7.45pm).
The Bluebirds are upbeat after their 2-0 win at Leeds, while Derby had to battle back from 3-0 down ton earn a draw against Bristol City.
Neil Warnock has steered Cardiff to a position 10 points outside the relegation zone and McLaren says: “Look at their record since Warnock took over.
“He has done really well and improved things.
“They (Cardiff) will come here thinking: ‘we’ve got a chance’ after watching us on Saturday.
“We have just got to make sure we do the job right.
“He (Warnock) knows how to win football matches, that is his strength, and he knows the Championship better than anybody.
“He has got Cardiff organised and hard to beat.”
Cardiff captain Sean Morrison and his players are up for the challenge at Pride Park and he says: “We believe in ourselves and always have done.
“Under the gaffer we’re solid and we know what we’re capable of.
“Derby away is a difficult game, but if we put in a solid team performance we have got every chance of coming back with at least a point and possibly all three.”
Morrison described Cardiff’s display at Elland Road as ‘the perfect performance’ and Cardiff are likely to stick with a similar game plan. Morrison and Sol Bamba at centre-back were protected by Greg Halford in a defensive midfield role at Leeds, while Craig Noone and Kadeem Harris provided the width with Aron Gunnarsson and Joe Ralls foraging through the middle.
Derby were shellshocked at home against Bristol City when they fell 3-0 down and Rams’ striker Darren Bent says: “
“We need to be better against Cardiff, because they are fighting for their lives,” said Bent, who scored twice. “If we give them any kind of impetus or head start, we might not come back from it this time.
“We need to cut out these slow starts. We don’t know why it happens but we’re one of the better sides in the division and if we want to get promoted, we can’t have slow starts.
“If you play against the top teams and you go 3-0 down, you don’t come back.
“Cardiff had an unreal result at the weekend. We played Leeds a few weeks ago and they were fantastic, probably the best side we’ve played all year. Now Cardiff have gone and turned them over.
“It’s going to be difficult but I believe when we play well at home, we can beat anybody. Hopefully, we will come out the blocks faster on Tuesday than we did on Saturday.
“Cardiff are going to watch our first-half performance and think, ‘this is going to be how we can hurt them’, but, hopefully, we can give them something to think about with our second-half performance, because we’ve shown how dangerous we can be.
“We changed up the system as well (from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1), which is rare, and managed to go and get a point, so we’re looking forward to Tuesday because we know we can do better.”
Derby have three injury doubts in midfield with Bradley Johnson, Craig Bryson and Will Hughes in the treatment room. They will be assessed later.
Cardiff City, probable: McGregor, Connolly, Morrison (capt), Bamba, Richards, Ralls, Halford, Noone, Gunnarsson, K Harris, Zohore. Subs: Murphy (gk), Bennett, Whittingham, John, Healey, Lambert, Hoilett.