No Pride Lost For Wolves Against Derby

Promotion rivals Derby and Wolves meet in a mouth-watering Championship clash this Saturday lunchtime.

Form
Just a couple of weeks ago these two teams were locked together at the top of the Championship table, but such is the competitiveness of this league that following a couple of minor slip-ups they each go into the weekend ‘only’ occupying play-off positions.

Last weekend Derby slipped up away to Brentford to make it back-to-back league defeats following a home defeat to Wigan by the same 2-1 scoreline. Sandwiched in between those losses was a remarkable 5-2 Capital One Cup win at Fulham, where they bounced back from being 2-0 behind just before half-time.

The rot, if you can call it that, was stopped by a midweek win at home to Huddersfield, although the 3-2 scoreline shows that the Rams didn’t exactly have things all their own way.

Striker Chris Martin now has 12 for the season and five in his last six appearances, while former Dundee United man Johnny Russell has two in three.

Wolves have also had a couple of slip-ups in the past few games. In midweek they lost 2-1 away to Ipswich, after being held to a goalless draw against Birmingham at the weekend. It’s now just two wins in eight for Kenny Jackett’s men who are in danger of slipping out of the play-off positions.

Bakary Sako is the club’s top scorer with seven league goals following a run of four goals in four games during October, but has not scored in his last two outings since the international break.

Team News
Craig Bryson missed the midweek game with a stiff back but should be back in contention for the home side this weekend. Ryan Shotton, Will Hughes and Jordan Ibe will be hoping that they did enough to retain their places in the starting XI having been recalled to the team on Tuesday.

Wolves were dealt a big blow when Dave Edwards was forced off within 15 minutes of their game against Ipswich on Tuesday night. It looks as though it could be a knee ligament injury that would rule the player out for a number of weeks.

Head-to-Head
Both meetings last season finished as draws with the game at Pride Park being goalless.

Wanderers have never lost at Pride Park and are unbeaten in nine away games against County in a run dating back to 1985.

Recommended Bets
Odds of Evens on the home win are a shade on the short side, especially against a Wolves team that have such a good record in this fixture. Edwards will be a big miss for the visitors, however, with the Wanderers boss even commenting, “Our good performances have coincided with his and him having a strong run”.

The Draw, at odds of 5/2, looks to be the value play here, with the Wolves win also a tempting option at odds of 17/10 in the Draw No Bet market.

Bakary Sako may not have found the back of the net for a couple of weeks now, but looks a very good play at odds of 8/1 to score first, while Derby’s top scorer Chris Martin heads the market at odds of 4/1.