Norwich City vs Derby County: Match Preview

[Excited Canary 19]

NORWICH CITY vs DERBY COUNTY on 4/12/10 at 15:00 BST.

This afternoons match brings Norwich City and Derby County together in the Npower Championship.

DERBY: After a disappointing first campaign in charge of The Rams last year, Nigel Clough was hoping for a much better season this time round. So far he has got exactly what he wanted, with County having had an exceptional home record and finding themselves sitting in a play-off spot going into this afternoons match. Derby have won their last six home games, and it will take a momentous effort from the Canaries to take anything back to East Anglia.

Key player. Kris Commons. The Mansfield born midfielder-cum-striker has been an absolute revelation for Derby this season. He has found the net no less than 10 times this season, taking him to within 3 goals of Championship top-scorer Jay Bothroyd. In 2008, Commons joined The Rams from their bitter rivals Nottingham Forest on a free transfer. For a supposed ‘Forest fan’ the transfer to Derby left Forest fans feeling very bitter. Kris didn’t start his career at Derby in the best of fashion, netting only a few goals in his first season and soon finding himself sitting on the bench more often than not. However, Common’s has completely won over the Derby faithful this year, having already found the net more times than he ever has in a whole season before.

Last 5 games: WWLWL: Derby have had a hit a miss last 5 games, taking 15 points out of a possible 21. They won all their home games, against Portmsouth, Scunthorpe and won one away game at the Canaries’ rivals, Ipswich Town. Their two defeats came at the hands of most recent, Burnley where they took the lead courtesy of a Luke Moore wonder-goal only for it to be cancelled out in a late Clarets come back. The other defeat was too local rivals Leicester, where they were totally out-classed, losing 2-0.

Predicted line-up:

Frank Fielding

John Brayford

Dean Leacock

Shaun Barker

Dean Moxey

Thommy Cywka

Paul Green

Robbie Savage

Kris Commons

Shefki Kuqi

Chris Porter

NORWICH: After a run of five games without a victory, The Canaries will have been delighted to end that run on Sunday, even more so that the fact that it was against bitter rivals, Ipswich Town. Norwich won the game 4-1 with their skipper, Grant Holt, netting a derby day hat-trick. They will be hit however, of the news that Andrew Surman, who has just returned from a 3 month set-back, has picked up another knock keeping him out until the new year at least.

Predicted line-up:

John Ruddy

Simon Lappin

Elliot Ward

Leon Barnett

Russell Martin

Wes Hoolahan

David Fox

Andrew Crofts

Henri Lansbury

Chris Martin

Grant Holt

Head to Head:

All time:

Played: 58

Norwich win: 25

Derby win: 18

Norwich goals: 84

Derby goals: 67

At Pride Park:

Played: 30

Norwich win: 7

Derby win: 11

Draw: 12

Norwich goals: 33

Derby goals: 38

Last time out. Tuesday 28th October 2008. Derby County 3-1 Norwich City.

Prediction: Derby County 2-1 Norwich City. It will be a close game between the league’s 4th and 5th place but I feel Derby’s brilliant home record will see them through.

Please feel free to update this thread with news, views, rumours and predictions.

Thank you,

Excited Canary