Derby County midfielder Ben Davies confident a high tempo performance can end poor run against Leicester City

BEN Davies believes Derby County are due a win over East Midlands rivals Leicester City.

The Rams have lost their last five matches against the Foxes.

Leicester have done the double over Derby for the past two seasons, without conceding a goal.

And Nigel Pearson's men triumphed 4-1 when the sides met at the Walkers Stadium earlier this term.

The Rams' last success against Leicester came at Pride Park Stadium in March 2010, when midfielder Andy King's unfortunate own goal – a back pass that was missed by keeper Chris Weale – gave them a 1-0 victory.

The teams go head-to-head again at Pride Park today (5.20pm) – in front of the live Sky Sports cameras.

It is an important game for both sides – Derby will be out to end a run of eight games without a win, while Leicester are looking to revive their promotion bid after stuttering of late.

"Leicester is a massive game for us now and we need to go and put a performance on and get a result," said Davies.

"The scoreline was a bit harsh on us at their place earlier in the season.

"It seems to be the same every time we play Leicester – but we're due to beat them.

"Hopefully, it will happen this weekend.

"We know Leicester are a good team on their day but we know we are capable of beating anyone, especially at home, if we play the way we can.

"We've got to concentrate on putting in a high energy performance and cut out the mistakes.

"We'll go into the game full of confidence and, hopefully, we can get a result."

Davies scored his third goal of the season against Birmingham City at St Andrew's last weekend.

The midfielder's 40th-minute volley put the Rams ahead but three goals in the final quarter of the match sent them to a 3-1 defeat.

"It's tough because we feel we've not been playing badly during this spell but we keep saying the same things," said the 31-year-old wide man.

"It's like a broken record at the moment – we need to keep clean sheets and be more ruthless – but until we do that, we're going to have to keep saying it.

"We'll just have to keep plugging away.

"If we keep doing the things we're doing well, we'll be OK."

Derby's recent run of results has seen them drop to 15th in the Championship table and the gap between them and the relegation places is now only six points.

Davies believes victory over Leicester would go a long way to easing the pressure building on Nigel Clough's young side.

"When you haven't won for a while, you just need one good result to ease the pressure a bit, because you tend to get a bit edgy if you don't," he said.

"With this league, you're only a couple of wins from being back in the play-off chase and a couple of defeats from being down near the bottom.

"So I think you've got to look over your shoulder. Birmingham would have been doing that before last weekend's game and they've now gone above us.

"But we just need a couple of wins and then everyone can relax a bit."