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Craig Bryson: Play-off heartbreak will drive Derby on against Hull

Derby's Craig Bryson clears the ball under pressure from Biram Kayal of Brighton

Craig Bryson says Derby will use the heartbreak of their 1-0 loss to QPR in 2014 as motivation when they take on Hull in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-finals on Saturday.

The Scottish midfielder came on as a 68th-minute substitute in the Wembley final against QPR and watched as Bobby Zamora pounced on a Richard Keogh error to score the winner in the 90th minute.

And speaking on Sky Sports' FL72 Podcast, he insisted they are determined to go one better this time, with all games live on Sky Sports.

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Don Goodman looks ahead to the Championship play-offs as Hull, Derby, Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday fight it out for promotion to the Premier League

"It was a nightmare," he said. "A hard one to take and not a great day to remember in my career but it's one of them, there's always going to be a winner and a loser and unfortunately for us, we lost that game.

"I think it was hard, the manner we lost it, in the last minute. Hopefully, if we get to Wembley this year, we can use that disappointment as motivation."

Bryson added that the pressure of the build-up to the game against Hull, which is live on Sky Sports on Saturday, is hard to avoid.

FL72 Live

"Anywhere you go, everybody wants to remind you and any time you speak to a member of your family, it's play-off time. It's just one of them that you have to get on with, put the circus behind you and concentrate on the game."

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Derby have beaten Hull home and away this season, a 2-0 away win in November and a 4-0 home win last month, in which Bryson scored the final goal, but he doesn't think the two victories will have any impact on the play-off games.

FL72 Live

"We have done well all season to get to the play-offs, I'm not too sure the previous games against Hull will count too much.

"What the Championship is like, any team can beat any team on their day and I'm sure Hull will come to Derby thinking they can beat us just like we think we can beat them and I just hope it is Derby.

"There's no denying how good a squad Hull have got but any team can beat anybody. We know we can do it as we have beaten them twice this season.

"On the flip side, we know if we don't turn up, they can easily turn us over as well. We just need to make sure we are at it on Saturday and go to Hull on Tuesday and hopefully get a result there."

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