This weekend’s Sky Bet Championship action concludes with a Midlands derby in Monday Night Football as Derby County meet Nottingham Forest at Pride Park.
Just three points separate these teams coming into this match as Derby look to move into third and consolidate a Play-Off spot. Forest meanwhile can replace Middlesbrough in the top six and also leapfrog their local rivals on goal difference with victory here.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesDerby could hand midfielder, Joe Ledley a start after he resumed training last week following his recovery from a hip injury.
Midfielder, George Evans could also feature after a spade of injuries has restricted him to just two appearances since signing from Reading this summer.
Marcus Olsson and Craig Forsyth are both absent with knee injuries whilst Mason Bennett
Captain, Curtis Davies is out for rest of season with an Achilles injury as Bradley Johnson completes a three match ban.
Nottingham Forest could have Michael Dawson (hamstring) and Danny Fox (foot) available if the defensive duo pass late fitness tests.
Tobias Figueiredo is serving the last of a three match ban, leaving Aitor Karanka with a strong squad despite Hilal Soudani and Sam Byram both remaining sidelined until after festive period with knee injuries.
Form
Derby have lost just two of their last 11 league games in a run stretching back to start of October.
During that time, the Rams have however kept only one clean sheet, which came last time out against Wigan.
Nottingham Forest’s consistent run of WDWDWDW in seven matches came to an end last weekend, when they were beaten at home by Preston North End.
On their travels, Forest have avoided defeat in their last seven with four wins and three draws since losing 2-1 at Brentford on 1st September.
Stat Attack
- Derby are unbeaten in their last five meetings with Nottingham Forest, keeping four clean sheets during this run (W3, D2).
- Those three wins all came at Pride Park with four of the six goals scored across those games all coming in second half.
- The last meeting between these teams on a Monday came in November 1998 when both teams were in Premier League, finishing 2-2.
- Jack Marriott’s goal last time out in a 1-0 win at Wigan ended Harry Wilson’s run of four goals in three games beforehand for Derby.
- Nottingham Forest’s Lewis Grabban has scored five goals in their last four away games.
Prediction
Both teams are currently in strong form coming into this local derby, therefore making this a tough one.
Derby have won and lost two in four other Midlands derbies across past month and a half, so if consider that and Forest’s away consistency then a draw here is probably a decent result for both sides.
Prediction: Derby County 1-1 Nottingham Forest