Bristol City face fellow play-off chasers, Derby County in a huge Sky Bet Championship clash in the race for the play-offs.
Victory will lift Bristol City up to sixth until at least Saturday afternoon, whilst Derby likewise can go sixth with a win.
Team News
Bristol City have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 2-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday.
Zak Vyner (ankle), Joe Williams (ankle), Max Bird (calf), Josh Stokes (foot) and Luke McNally (ACL) remain ruled out.
Derby could hand new loan signing, Jayden Banel his club debut after the paperwork was filed in time for the squad registration ahead of this match.
Josh Vickers (thumb), Max Johnston (hamstring) and Carlton Morris (knee) are still ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Bristol City host Derby at Ashton Gate on Friday 30 January at 8pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Bristol City have lost one of their last five meetings against Derby (W3, D1, L1).
- Derby have lost each of their last four trips t0 Bristol City (L4).
- Bristol City have kept two clean sheets in their last five meetings against Derby.
- This is Bristol City’s first home match this season to be played on a Friday night, but they drew 1-1 away to Derby and Watford in their two previous televised Friday Night fixtures of the campaign.
- Derby have kept a single clean sheet in their last four league matches (W2, D1, L1).
Prediction
Currently sat one point outside of the play-off spots after a clinical display against Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City now need to put their recent inconsistency behind them and produce another confident performance if want to boost their play-off chances.
Derby though are in slightly better form but did well to take the lead at home to West Brom who had outplayed them, yet there will be a sense of disappointment after they conceded late in their 1-1 draw, so I do expect them to try and mount a stronger response to that late defensive error.
My instinct however is that there will be little to separate both teams in terms of quality and they’re both set-piece goalscoring specialists from free-kicks, so a draw feels like a fair prediction in this clash despite Derby’s recent poor away form at Ashton Gate.
Prediction: Bristol City 1-1 Derby
Result: Bristol City 0-5 Derby