Sign up NOW for your daily Rams newsletter direct to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Derby County striker Jack Marriott has spoken of the “strange period” that preceded his move to Pride Park from Peterborough.

Marriott signed a three-year deal with Derby in 2018 after a reported fee of £3m was agreed between the two clubs.

After scoring 33 goals in all competitions in his only season with the Posh, a summer transfer was always on the cards, and because the League One club didn’t want to risk Marriott suffering injury that would put a transfer in jeopardy, they neither played him at the end of the season, nor in pre-season.

Marriott said he understood, but it was an odd experience.

He told PoshTV: “I remembered speaking to Steve Evans [then Peterborough boss] before the game [the final match of the 2017-18 season at Portsmouth]. He said, ‘I’m not going to play you, it’s the last game of the season, we want to win it but I couldn’t live with myself if you were to get injured and it would scupper a move.’

“I respected that. I could see where he was coming from, because it could have been anything. Fratton Park is a tight ground it could be as simple as running around the outside and damaging your knee on the astroturf and then falling into the crowd. It doesn’t have to be a tackle.

“I do look back and think that was the best for all parties in the long term. It worked out for the best.

“It was difficult because I came back for the start of pre-season with Peterborough. We started pre-season as we finished the end of the season, they didn’t want to play me in many pre-season games because they didn’t want me to get injured.

“They said, ‘We’d rather you got your move for you and for us.’

“All parties wanted it. On the downside, I wasn’t getting any fitness. I was running but there’s only so much you can do. You need match fitness.

“It was a strange period because I was in a dressing room that I knew I wouldn’t be in for the long term. The manager was building a team that wasn’t involving me. There were a lot of signings coming in and going out and I knew it wasn’t going to be a part of it.

“So that was a strange old period, but they were all great lads so it was a good time anyway.”

Marriott is now in his second season with Derby, and while he scored 14 goals in his first campaign, including three in the play-offs, he only has netted three times this campaign.

Before the suspension of the leagues, Marriott had started just one of Derby’s previous 11 Championship games.