Stoke City host Derby County on Wednesday at the Bet365 Stadium.
Derby County travel to Stoke City on Wednesday evening in what has become one of the most important fixtures of the Championship calendar for the visiting supporters.
The Rams had to deal with manager Gary Rowett trading Pride Park for Stoke in the summer, only six months after the former Derby defender signed a new long-term contract at the east Midlands club.
With Stoke’s financial backing and a squad full of Premier League players, there is no doubt Rowett believes the Potters had a better chance of promotion this term, but the league table currently doesn’t reflect that opinion.
Derby, now under the guidance of Frank Lampard, currently sit in sixth spot in the Championship table and just five points off leaders Norwich City while Stoke are down in 13th with just five wins in 18 games.
The Rams head into the clash having claimed 15 points from their last eight games, and they are unbeaten in their last four league games on the road, picking up wins at West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday.
Lampard will want to see his side pick up where they left off against the Owls, with Tom Lawrence and Martyn Waghorn likely to come back into the side with the latter recovering from an injury.
Curtis Davies came on at half-time during Saturday’s win at Hillsborough and his physical presence would be ideal against Stoke strikers Benik Afobe and former England international Peter Crouch.
Andre Wisdom came back into the team for Jayden Bogle last weekend, but the former Liverpool man who was signed by Gary Rowett in the summer of 2017 for a reported £2 million fee (BBC) looked off the pace. Moving Fikayo Tomori out to right-back in his place could be a sensible decision.
The rest of the Derby side keeps its place, with the starting XI potentially looking like this.
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