WANDERERS’ forgotten man is enjoying his new lease of life in the team, and says despite the club’s step up their first win of the season is right around the corner.

Dorian Dervite did not kick a ball for the club for the first six months of last season but ensured he was ready when called upon in the promotion run-in.

And after signing a new 12-month deal at the Macron this summer, the Frenchman has began this campaign where he left off last term.

Although the Whites are yet to taste victory in the Championship this season the former Charlton defender, cementing his place as a regular starter these days, feels they are not far off.

“The first win will be massive for us, we need to get back to winning games like we were last season,” he said.

“But this division is harder so we have to work even harder to manage those three points. We are confident we can get them when we get back home this weekend though.

“It’s been tough with the travelling for three games away in a row but to be fair we manage to recover well. We’re feeling quite good and we’re ready to go again.

“It’s been a long journey since I played my first game back (in February) but I worked hard and the manager helped me a lot as well so I’m glad I’m playing and I’ll try to stay in the team as much as I can and play as well as possible to do that.”

Dervite and his partners in the three-man back line certainly had a hard night’s work at Birmingham in midweek, contending with the attacking prowess of the Blues’ new signing Isaac Vassell and Lukas Jutkiewicz, both of whom came off the bench once Clayton Donaldson, David Cotterill and Jacques Maghoma had failed to make the breakthrough.

Turning to desperate measures, Maghoma did his utmost to gain a penalty as he charged into the box, between Dervite and Darren Pratley.

Fortunately for the visitors, referee Darren England was not fooled. Nor was anyone else at St Andrew’s, and the striker admitted his deception to Dervite in a quiet moment later in the game.

“It was with Prats,” recalled his team-mate. “I was next to them, it was definitely a dive and he tried to get a cheeky penalty, but it wasn’t the case.

“He got booked and that was quite fair,I had a good view of it and it was a dive, definitely. I know him a bit and I had a word with him after and he said, ‘yeah, I dived’. We had got on to the referee and made sure he saw it anyway.”

As for tomorrow’s opponents, Derby County, Dervite feels he and his team-mates are in for another arduous assignment back in the Championship, where no quarter is asked for, or given.

“I would say it is a harder league this year,” he added. “You can see in the Championship, clubs are buying players from the Premier League more and more so it adds more pace to the game and we have to be more concentrated during the whole game, it is harder.

“This league is very unpredictable, every game is a battle so it’s tough to predict who’s going to be at the top of the league.

“You have to be very solid and when you get a few chances make sure you put it in the net. It’s very tough.

“Derby might be coming with a strong team against us but we will be ready to play against whoever it is and we’ll go for the three points at home.”