When City take on Derby here this weekend they know they have one of the most potent weapons in the Coca- Cola Championship, striker Matty Fryatt.

With seven goals so far, no doubt the Rams defence will be well briefed on him and may have certain plans to quell his talents, but his confidence is high with the start he and the team have made to the campaign.

He said: "I am obviously pleased with how I have started. The goals I have scored have mainly gone on to help us win the games."

"I obviously scored a lot of goals last season but it doesn't necessarily carry over into this one but after missing pre-season I was able to come back, score and get up and running again. It was nice to get the first one then get some confidence and go on a run."

"Goals mean everything to strikers. With the goals issue, most forwards thrive on that confidence."

The level is undeniably higher than last season but City are looking good and so is Fryatt.

He said: "It is different for the club altogether, not just for myself. There is a lot of confidence having won the league last season and that is why we have acquitted ourselves well."

"Other people might be talking about us but we will play it down and do the right things well and carry on trying to achieve our goals this year. But I think from the outside no-one really thought we would do anything."

That could have been easily applied to Fryatt himself as he had his doubters, but they are fading fast.

He said: "You are always going to have your critics and I am just going to keep on doing the business. I think so far I have proved a few people wrong."

"The defences are more switched on and when you look at teams like Newcastle and Middlesbrough there are players who are going for five million-plus so obviously it is a higher standard than League One. Some games are similar but there are certain players who can turn games and certain defences who are pretty shrewd and don't give you any space."

"I am not setting any targets personally. Outside observers might not put us in the play-offs but I think we can surprise a few people. We just want to go into this next game, get three points and keep moving in the right direction."

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