The Gaffer gave the good news earlier today that everyone in the squad is available and ready to go. We all know the tactical and organisational skills of Gary Rowett and he'll be especially keen to overcome what has recently been a minor blip for his team. Derby's preparation for the game hasn't been ideal however. In his press conference Rowett said, "It’s been a funny week, it’s always the same when the weather is like this, you end up not being able to prepare quite as well as you normally would. The players have trained in poor conditions before but the issue is the quality of the work that you can do. We’ll do a little bit more work in the video room, and you just prepare in different ways.You’ve just got to get on with it, we’ve all been here before, we will lose a little bit of preparation but it could be a lighter week, and hopefully we will feel the benefits on the Saturday.” Another downside for them is that Matej Vydra – the top scorer in the Championship with 17 goals – is unlikely to be available. He missed their trip to the Madejski Stadium last week with a groin injury and doesn't appear to have fully recovered. Chris Baird of course will be out having been sent off in that Reading game. Jokanovic on the other hand has been putting the lads through their paces pretty much as normal. On the indoor pitch at Motspur Park over the last couple of days and outside at the Cottage today. Can't see him altering much from last weekend's selection and indeed suspect it's only that right side position up front that's truly in contention. Ayite is undoubtedly the Gaffer's favourite but not one hundred percent convinced about his fitness. Ojo made his (inevitable?) appearance in the second half against Wolves but (my opinion) it was all posturing and he added little to the "team" effort. So, Piazon or Kebano? The former is better on the left and the latter appears to contribute more as an impact sub. Anybody's guess then, which of these two will get the nod. If in fact either will !? ........................Bettinelli........ .Fredericks..Kalas..Ream....Targett.. .......................McDonald.... ..............Cairney........Johansen.... .....Piazon........Mitrovic....Sessegnon..
The man in the middle today is Lee Mason. please log in to view this image Apart from Cup games all of Mason's games so far have been in the Premiership. What has he done to get this match? And more importantly what have we done to get him? It's been a while since we saw him and to be fair the Bolton Boy didn't do too badly by us in the 13 years up there. The highlight was probably our 3-1 win over Liverpool back in 2009 when he sent off their Carragher and Degan. Mind you was handed a one week demotion to fourth official for his handling of the game. Simply for nostalgia's sake, Zamora, Nevland and Dempsey got our goals. No doubt it's a fallacy but Mason has always seemed a bit roly-poly and from brief sightings recently he does seem to have trouble keeping up with play. Let's hope he's in shape today. For the record he's only had 19 games so far and flourished 48 yellows plus 3 reds.
Great start, all Fulham in that first half. 2-0 flatters Derby, who seem to have resorted to kicking Cairney off the pitch.
Having another go ... quite incredible support of 1,894 given the weather ... Edit: Ah well, not to be !!
Need to keep up this standard of performance, as there are no easy fixtures during the run in to Promotion and Relegation with almost 2 matches per week. Not much time to recover from injuries and niggles
