Nottingham Forest visit Derby County’s iPro Stadium for a much anticipated Championship encounter.
Both Nottingham Forest and Derby County head into Sunday’s East Midland derby on encouraging runs of form.
Hosts Derby have experienced somewhat of a resurgence since Steve McClaren’s return as manager – as the Rams have won their last five Championship fixtures with the likes of Darren Bent, Thomas Ince and Bradley Johnson playing with far more confidence in recent weeks.
Nottingham Forest have won their last three matches and are showing signs of gaining some much needed momentum from an inconsistent campaign so far.
Manager Philippe Montanier will be hoping that his team’s recent good run will help Forest leave the iPro with maximum points and just one point behind their East Midland rivals.
Montanier, or possibly more likely the Forest fans, may look towards recent history for any extra motivation – as interestingly, despite emerging victorious from this fixture last season, Derby have not won back-to-back home games against Forest for twelve years.
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Nottingham Forest will be without captain Chris Cohen, Armand Traore, Daniel Pinillos and left back Danny Fox, whilst Britt Assombalonga is a slight doubt with a hamstring issue.
However, given the circumstances of the fixture, we may expect the latter to play a part in the match.
Encouragingly for Forest, they welcome back Hildeberto Pereira from his most recent suspension and see the return of defender Joe Worrell from a concussion.
Goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic is expected to line-up behind a back three of Worrell, Matt Mills and Damien Perquis – supported by wing-backs Eric Lichaj and the returning Pereira.
Forest’s three man midfield could see the trio of David Vaughan sitting behind the more adventurous Ben Osborn and Henri Lansbury. However, expect Pajtim Kasami to retain his place in the starting line-up if Assombalonga’s hamstring curtails his starting place.
If Assombalonga is fit, Montanier may well deploy two-man front line, with Forest’s number 9 partnering Nicklas Bendtner in attack.
Here’s the predicted Nottingham Forest line-up in full:
Meanwhile, with the exception of right back Cyrus Christie, Derby County will hope to be at full strength if left back Max Lowe can shake off a groin injury and the recently rejuvenated Darren Bent can recover from the cursed hamstring problem.
The duo missed the narrow 1-0 victory over Wigan Athletic last week, but have been instrumental for the Rams so far this season.
Here is the predicted Derby County line-up in full:
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