Excited about proving myself at Derby

As of Sunday I´m now a Derby player. I´m really looking forward to it and hopefully it will help me prove myself to the gaffer at Middlesbrough. It all came about on Friday, when the gaffer told me that Derby wanted me to join them. He said it was a good idea for me to go out and get some experience and I was happy to go. I arrived in Derby on the Sunday and started training with the lads later that day.

I think one of the reasons Middlesbrough have been a bit afraid of using me at times this season has been my lack of games so I´m delighted to get the chance of some pitch time at Derby. I know things aren´t going great in the league and there´s uncertainty over the manager but the club are in a Carling Cup semi-final which is a massive achievement. In a way I´m glad I wasn´t involved in the competition for Boro earlier in the season as now I have the chance to play against Man United.

I don´t know whether I´ll start in the game but hopefully I can get on the bench and get some involvement against the best club in the world. The lads are really sound here, very down to earth and they´re all really excited about the United match. I can´t really pick out any players I´m looking forward to facing as it covers all of them. There´s always talk about the bigger clubs putting out weakened sides in this competition but the fact is United are just two games away from Wembley so they´ll be taking the game very seriously. They´re still in with a chance of winning the quadruple this season and I´m sure they´d love to do that. I suppose it would be five if you include the Club World Cup!

I´m at Derby for the next month and it´s a bit strange as it´s the first time I´ve ever gone out on loan. I´m staying at a hotel near the training ground and I´ve not even been to the stadium yet. I know the club get big crowds for every game so I´m really looking forward to getting on the pitch at Pride Park. It may only be a month but that period covers eight games so I should get plenty of opportunity. Let´s hope all goes well.

I´ll be back soon with more news on my time at Derby.

Seb.