Steve Howard wants to win the play-off final as a reward to boss Billy Davies for taking the Rams to within 90 minutes of the Premiership.

Davies arrived at Pride Park last summer and took over at a club that had narrowly escaped relegation in the previous campaign.

But nobody could have forseen the turnaround in fortunes this season and after taking the automatic promotion race to the penultimate weekend, Derby now have another crack at reaching the top-flight.

And Howard - Davies's first signing for the Rams - says the boss's influence has been key as they prepare for Monday's clash with West Bromwich Albion at Wembley Stadium.

"It's mostly down to the gaffer - he's a very passionate bloke, who thoroughly deserves it," Howard revealed in an interview to be screened on RamsWorld on Saturday morning.

"Nobody would deserve winning at Wembley more than him.

"He's been there and done it in recent years and has passed all of his experiences on to us."

Derby's leading scorer this season believes the game itself will be played by two teams wanting to attack each other.

And the 19-goal hitman reckons the Rams will be a match for their much-fancied opponents.

"It's a one-off game and both sets of players will want to go there to attack and win the game," Howard said.

"If we play the way we can then we're a match for anyone.

"West Brom are coming into the game in good form and so are we so I think it will be a good game of football."

The bookmakers have the Baggies down as favourites, despite them finishing eight points behind Derby and the two sides sharing a win each in this season's matches.

Could that put any extra pressure on Tony Mowbray's side?

"It might do," Howard admitted, "but we're not concerned with that. We just want to play the way we know we can and hopefully that will be enough."

Watch out for the full interview with Howard on Saturday morning, only on RamsWorld.