Relegation-battling West Bromwich Albion host promotion-chasing Middlesbrough in a huge Sky Bet Championship clash.
Victory will lift Derby up to sixth until at least Saturday afternoon, whilst West Brom can climb up to 17th with a win.
Team News
Matt Clarke is suspended for Derby following his red card in their 2-1 win at Charlton on Tuesday evening.
Jacob Widell-Zetterstrom (illness) and Danny Batth (dead leg) are doubts but Josh Vickers (thumb), Owen Beck, Max Johnston (both hamstring), Carlton Morris (knee) and Dion Sanderson (shin) are ruled out.
West Brom have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 5-0 defeat against Norwich on Tuesday evening.
Ousmane Diakite (personal), Tammer Bany (thigh)
When is Kick-Off?
Derby host West Brom at Pride Park on Friday 23 January at 8pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Derby have lost one of their last nine league meetings against West Brom (W6, D2, L1).
- West Brom are winless in their last six regular-season league visits to Derby (D2, L4).
- Derby have kept a single clean sheet in their last six regular-season league matches at home to West Brom, which came in a 1-0 win in December 2021.
- No Derby player has been involved in more league goals this season than Patrick Agyemang and Carlton Morris (10), with Agyemang having produced 7 goals + 3 assists whilst Morris netted 10 goals.
- West Brom are looking to avoid suffering five consecutive league defeats for the first time since January – March 2018 when they lost eight straight games in that run.
Prediction
Sat two points off the last play-off spot, Derby’s biggest issue at the minute seemed to be their inconsistent results but after away wins at Preston and Charlton in the past week, they do seem to be sorting that issue out so this is a good chance to get a third straight win off the back of clinical front-footed performances.
West Brom meanwhile just seem to be in defensive freefall at present because whilst I hoped that they would of taken the attacking positives from their late loss to Middlesbrough last weekend, they instead were just wasteful against Norwich amidst tough weather conditions.
A huge improvement is therefore required from the Baggies here but give their recent away form at Pride Park and with the Rams finding momentum, I just can’t see Derby losing this but expect both teams to score.
Prediction: Derby 2-1 WBA
Result: Derby 1-1 WBA
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