Derby County welcome Nottingham Forest to Pride Park in a tasty East Midlands derby in Friday Night Football from the Sky Bet Championship.
Victory will see Derby leapfrog Forest and climb up to 14th in the table, whereas Chris Houghton’s Forest can go 12th with a win.
Team News
Matt Clarke is a doubt for Derby after suffering a hip injury in Tuesday’s win over Huddersfield.
Krystian Bielik (knee), Jordan Ibe (fitness), Tom Lawrence (ankle), Jack Stretton (groin) and Curtis Davies (Achilles) are all sidelined.
Forest will be without Lewis Grabban for a third consecutive match due to a hamstring injury which kept him out of narrow victories over Blackburn and Rotherham.
Scott McKenna (ankle), Sammy Ameobi (knee) and Harry Arter (calf) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Derby are winless in their last six league meetings against Forest (D4, L2).
- Forest have taken just two points from their last five trips to Pride Park (D2, L3).
- Martyn’s Waghorn’s 66th minute goal against Huddersfield in midweek marked Derby’s first second-half goal at home in eight league games since 1 December 2020.
Prediction
Derby come into this match in good form with just two defeats in the last month-and-a-half, although they did have to dig deep against a tough Huddersfield team for victory on Tuesday which will give them a boost coming into this derby.
Forest meanwhile are in similar form but they have been the defensively stronger out of both teams with five clean sheets in their last seven matches, so will certainly be a real threat throughout this game if can set themselves up with a solid defence.
Grabban though will be a huge loss for the visitors but I do expect this local encounter to be very competitive as usual, in turn making a draw a decent bet because both teams boast goal threats all over the pitch.
Prediction: Derby County 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Result: Derby County 1-1 Nottingham Forest