A week can be a long time in football. This time last week, the story of three Derby County players being involved in a drink driving related incident was just emerging.

Tom Lawrence, 25, Mason Bennett, 23, and club captain Richard Keogh, 34, are subject to an on-going "rigorous" internal investigation, whilst the latter of the three, may not play again.

Given the severity of the incident, Saturday's 3-2 home win against Birmingham was even more poignant. It was the Rams' first victory since the opening day of the season, and they were regardless in desperate need of a result, after last Tuesday's events this was even more so.

Tonight, Derby, head up the M1, to South Yorkshire to face a Barnsley side, who, like the Rams before Saturday, haven't won since the opening day.

A rejuvenated Chris Martin, told the official club website, how "It feels like we have some momentum after the past two results, and hopefully we can continue that momentum into the next couple of games".

Martin, 30, opened the scoring in the victory of Birmingham and grabbed the late equaliser away to Leeds the previous week.

He is expected to start tonight against Barnsley, where a win would potentially take Derby into the top half of the table for the first time since August.

Speaking ahead of the trip, First-Team Coach Liam Rosenior, said that "we will have to show that spirit and togetherness like we did on Saturday, at Oakwell, the mood on the training has been good, as you'd expect".

In Barnsley, the Rams, have an opportunity to take advantage and claim a second consecutive win, and seven points from their last nine available.  The Tykes have lost their last three home matches and only managed to find the back of the net five times all season.

The likes of Chris Martin, Jack Marriot, Martyn Waghorn and Jamie Paterson should have enough about them to secure a consecutive victory, and provide a real boost to Derby's season.

There has, of course, been much made about the drink-driving incident, however, Derby showed immense character to beat Birmingham after the previous week's events, and it was a test of their character to come through that, one they passed with flying colours.

If they come away from Oakwell, with another three points, it will be a massive boost to the club, and fill them with confidence going in to Saturday's fixture with Luton Town.