CURT WON’T STOP ’TIL HE BEATS DROP

READING v DERBY

CHAMPIONSHIP: KO 3pm DAVE ARMITAGE

BY

DERBY’S own King Curt has got the Rams rocking and rolling on the road towards a miracle relegation escape.

Curtis Davies, 36, looks nailed on to be crowned Rams player of the year after playing every minute of all 24 games so far as Wayne Rooney’s men try to overcome ridiculous odds.

The Rams are still rock bottom after being deducted 21 points.

But three wins on the spin suddenly has everyone looking on wondering whether they can make up the gap when they tackle Reading today.

The 2-1 win at Stoke with a late goal from Colin Kazim-Richards (below) means Rooney’s boys are suddenly just 11 points off the safety mark and on a roll.

And Davies (above) said: “I’m so proud of the group and it’s three on the bounce now – so why not make it four or five? We want to keep the momentum going.

“We are closing the gap, but it is still massive and there are teams above us that we need to catch.

“We will keep going, giving it everything and we won’t stop.

“It’s sometimes easy to sit back and think we will take the point but we’re not in that situation.

“We are not in a situation anywhere that a point is a good point – we want to be going for three points.

“The character is there but sometimes we haven’t had the mentality to get the winner.

“To have the heart and the bottle to go on and get the winner at Stoke was fantastic.”

PRESTON travel to Stoke with defender Andrew Hughes eager to impress new boss Ryan Lowe after a virus-inflicted break.

Hughes said: “We are expecting a tough game down there.

“But we’re going there to try to win it. The fans will be excited to see us because they haven’t had a game to watch for a while.

“When we came back on Thursday, it almost felt like coming back for pre-season.”