Boss Nigel Clough believes there are enough positive signs to suggest Derby's fortunes will soon change.

Defeats to Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Barnsley and Crystal Palace - all by the odd goal - have left the Rams on seven points from eight Championship matches.

But Clough said: "I've told the players that when we are rubbish and when we deserve to lose we will tell them and we will be honest enough to hold our hands up, but we don't feel it is at the moment.

"We have all those games by the odd goal and what we are saying to the players and everybody is if we keep going and continue to do the right things it will change.

"We are not trying to kid anyone or make excuses. It is not a false position we are in because we have lost four on the spin but we are trying to look beyond that and look at the manner of the defeats.

"Look at the Palace game and ask `did we deserve to lose?' We don't think we did. A lot of games seem to be decided by the odd goal and we feel as though we are on the wrong end of a little bit of bad luck at the moment."