Looking to extend their unbeaten streak to four matches, Derby County will welcome Swansea City to Pride Park for a tasty-looking Championship clash on Wednesday night.
The Rams were forced to share the spoils at Preston North End on Saturday afternoon, whilst the Swans played out an extraordinary seven-goal thriller at home with promotion-chasing Leeds United.
Match preview
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Since the 2-1 defeat at Stoke City at the beginning of November, newly-promoted Derby County have strung together a three-match unbeaten run, delivering the final nail in the coffin of Mark Robins at Coventry City on November 6 before back-to-back draws against Plymouth Argyle and Preston.
A trip to a wet and windy Deepdale was on the agenda for the Rams on Saturday afternoon, when neither team deserved to win a contest that was devoid of attacking quality, with a first-half equaliser from in-form striker Jerry Yates cancelling out Sam Greenwood's opener for the Lilywhites.
Moving away from their early-season struggles on the road since returning to the second tier, a hard-fought point in Lancashire has allowed Derby to jump up to 11th spot in the Championship standings, five points ahead of Hull City in the highest of the relegation spots at this stage.
With four of their five second-tier victories arriving at Pride Park so far in 2024-25, Paul Warne's troops should be relatively confident of putting Swansea to the sword on Wednesday night, but the Rams have dropped points against Hull and Plymouth across their last two fixtures in the East Midlands.
Derby are unbeaten across the last five matches against Swansea at home, with the most recent meeting between the sides at Pride Park resulting a goalless draw in October 2021, when both Ryan Allsop and Ben Hamer faced plenty of work in between the sticks to keep clean sheets.
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After being smashed 4-0 by Leeds earlier in the year, Swansea City were understandably fearing the worst as Daniel Farke's Premier League-chasing crop came to town on the weekend, but the Welsh outfit were extremely close to earning an excellent point from the fixture.
The Swans were twice ahead in the Championship contest courtesy of strikes from Harry Darling and Wales international Liam Cullen, but a hardly-believable 91st-minute effort from Whites winger Willy Gnonto secured maximum points for the visitors at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Showing major signs of improvement following the arrival of Luke Williams as head coach from Notts County in January, Swansea are currently occupying 14th place in the Championship table, seven points behind sixth-placed West Bromwich Albion and four points ahead of Hull in the bottom three.
Owing to their narrow defeat at Burnley prior to the international break, the Swans have now lost back-to-back Championship matches for the first time this season, with Wednesday's visitors aiming to avoid three straight defeats in the division for the first time since early February.
After shipping four goals to Leeds last time out, there will be an emphasis on Swansea to remain solid at the back in the East Midlands, but there is also a pressing need for Williams's side to improve offensively on the road, with only Plymouth Argyle (2) scoring fewer than the Swans' four goals in away matches so far this term.
Team News
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Derby striker Yates will be denied the chance to extend his scoring run to four matches on Wednesday, with the 28-year-old unable to feature against his parent club.
As a result, the Rams will require a new partner for youngster Dajaune Brown in attack, meaning that veteran James Collins could earn a rare Championship start.
Alternatively, Warne could deploy natural winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing at the focal point of the attack for Derby alongside Brown in a 3-5-2 formation.
Despite netting an own goal on the weekend against Leeds, Ben Cabango is set to keep his spot at the heart of the Swansea defence alongside goalscorer Darling.
Florian Bianchini will be pushing for a start after scoring off the bench last time out, meaning that Myles Peart-Harris's spot in the side is under threat.
Derby County possible starting lineup:
Zetterstrom; Phillips, Nelson, Cashin; Adams, Jackson, Thompson, Osborn, Forsyth; Mendez-Laing, Brown
Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Vigouroux; Key, Cabango, Darling, Tymon; Franco, Grimes, Bianchini, Allen, Ronald; Cullen
We say: Derby County 1-1 Swansea City
Without the presence of loan striker Yates in attack, we are expecting Derby to struggle to break down a typically-resolute Swansea defence.
The visitors have pushed promotion candidates Burnley and Leeds all the way in recent weeks and should be confident of earning a positive result at Pride Park.
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Carter White
