Derby County coach makes Sunderland promotion claim and issues Academy of Light praise

Derby County assistant head coach Richie Barker believes Sunderland will be ‘there or thereabouts’ come the end of the season when it comes to the Championship promotion battle as he praised the work the club has put into its academy over recent years.

The Rams head to the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night, having enjoyed a mixed start to life back in the Championship. Derby were promoted from League One last term and have won three and lost four of their opening seven games while Sunderland sit second with five wins and two defeats. Barker wants the Rams to follow a similar process to Sunderland as they look to establish themselves as a Championship club before pushing towards promotion to the Premier League.

“Sunderland started a process three or four years ago - I remember coming against them in League One when they'd just had a change of ownership. They'd been stuck in League One for a few years and decided they were going to go down a different route. The Academy was very similar to ours and they're now gaining some success from those Academy graduates and buying younger players to develop them. They're a young, energetic, athletic team and are very well organised in terms of the way they play,” he told the Derby club website.

“Sunderland are an example of the process you have to go through when you’ve been promoted from League One. You have to ensure that in your first couple of years, you're going in the right direction before you push on further. I'm sure they'll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. It is another tough game for us. Regarding our away form, I've been told that we have played against teams from the top seven away from home in our first four away games. That's as tough as you get for a start. We want to go and win, but we're well aware of how difficult it's going to be.”

Both Derby and Sunderland head into tonight’s fixture on the back of defeats last weekend after losing to Norwich City and Watford, respectively. The Rams’ loss was a controversial one, however, after the ball appeared to go out of play before two of the Canaries’ goals as the game ended 3-2 to the visitors at Pride Park.

Barker added: “We don't enjoy defeats, but we enjoy the way the players play. We spoke to them after the game about all the positives that we felt came out of it. The result wasn't positive, but I think the fact that the stadium was predominantly full at the end and the fans stuck with us suggested that it was entertaining, they were pretty pleased with what they saw and that we did the right things.

“The lads were excellent - the word unlucky sometimes gets used when someone misses a chance, or a goalkeeper makes a mistake, but there's an element of ability in it. What unlucky is, for me, is when something's out of your hands and I would suggest that that's what Saturday was.”