LEE Grant is ready to make himself unpopular with his neighbours and put a dent in Derby County’s 100 per cent start to the season.

Having spent eight years with the Rams, and still living in the area, Pride Park is almost a home from home for the Burnley goalkeeper.

But there will be no room for sentiment when he goes back to his professional football roots as he bids to secure a first Championship win of the campaign for the Clarets today.

“The locals are delighted with the start,” said Grant, who 79 appearances for Derby after breaking into the side in 2002. “It’s not one they were expecting so long may it continue from their point of view, but hopefully we can put a stop to it.

“They’ve made some good signings and it’s a big year for those guys down there. They want to push on and they seem to be doing things right, the club’s stable and they’ve always had a good fanbase.

“They’ve started well and it looks like they’re going to push on this year.”

In contrast, Burnley have picked up two points from a possible nine, having drawn home games against Watford and Cardiff, with a defeat at Crystal Palace sandwiched in between.

“Indifferent is probably the word,” said Grant.

“With the two home games, especially the Cardiff game, we had chances to go on and win it and we came away with a point, so that’s another two points dropped, although the Watford game you look at it and, coming from two down, you might class that as a good point.

“At Palace there were chances where we could have gone on and won the game. We played well for large parts.

“It’s been a strange one because we’ve not probably collected the points we felt we should have deserved but there are still plenty of positives to take away from the games.”

And Grant believes it won’t be long before those positives are turned into three points, as they begin to adjust to the personnel changes they have experienced in recent weeks - the most recent being Danny Fox’s £1.8million move to Southampton, following Tyrone Mears’ sale to Bolton Wanderers.

“We’ve had three or four changes back there and it takes time to get used to, but the players who have come in have great quality,” said the stopper.

“There’s no doubt we can go on and do great as a unit this year. It’s just a case of bedding in.

“I think that first win will make a huge difference to each department in the side, the back five included.

“It’s clear for a club this size what the targets are - that goes without saying.

“Our immediate aim is to get that first win nice and quickly, preferably before the international break then we can go away and work on a few things over that time and come back fresh and ready to push on.

“It’s a case of getting that win out of the way and taking the pressure off the boys.”

Grant added: “Naturally you’re all looking for that first win and once that comes I think everyone will ease into the rest of the season. Until that happens it’s all a little bit tense and a little bit nervy.

“That’s only natural because we’re all striving to get the first three points under our belt.”

Meanwhile, Burnley spent £434,000 on fees to agents in the year up to June 31, according to a report from the Football League.

That figure puts the Clarets in mid-table as far as the spending is concerned with QPR way out at the top thanks to fees of almost £1.8million paid to agents.

All the Championship clubs paid agents with Scunthorpe at the bottom of the pile, paying out £119,000.

In the Championship there were 1,125 player transactions, 328 involved the use of an agent and clubs committed to spend a total of £14,089,702 on agents’ fees during the period.