The Rams are eighth in the table, while Preston are seventh and Villa sixth in the standings.
Derby County manager Frank Lampard has spoken out about his side’s Championship playoff hopes and name-checked both Aston Villa and Preston North End, two sides that they are hoping to leapfrog in the table.
The majority of the teams in the second tier have played 38 games, with just eight left of the regular season, and the playoff picture is incredibly tight, with just 11 points separating fifth-placed Middlesbrough from 17th-placed Blackburn Rovers.
Derby have been in the playoff picture for much of the season but they return to action following the international break out of the bottom six in eighth place and on a poor run of form, having picked up just two wins from their last nine league games.
However, they have played 37 games, one less than Villa and Preston, the two sides directly above them in the table in sixth and seventh respectively, with fifth-placed Middlesbrough having also played a game less than the West Midlanders and the Lancastrians.
Nonetheless, both Villa and Preston are currently in a rich vein of form at the minute, and ahead of Derby’s Championship game against Rotherham United at Pride Park, Lampard gave his thoughts on his own side’s playoff picture and that of the teams above him.
“I expected Aston Villa to be in the hunt for automatic promotion, now they are making a run,” he is quoted by the Daily Star as saying. “Preston are a very good side, they are on a run.
“We knew it would be a tough season with some transition in terms of age of the squad and financially where we where at. We know this league is tough, so I didn’t expect anything. I just wanted to work hard. I’m satisfied but I always want more.”
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