Derby County host the league’s surprise package as they welcome Stevenage to Pride Park tomorrow afternoon.
Derby County are building up a head of steam in their pursuit of automatic promotion after winning three of their last four matches in League One.
Paul Warne’s side comfortably brushed aside Exeter City 3-0 on Tuesday night to move within six points of leaders Portsmouth and will be looking to continue their recent purple patch against Stevenage, although that won’t be easy.
The Boro are pushing for a play-off place and boast the fourth-strongest away record in the division, with only Derby, Portsmouth and Barnsley accumulating more points on their travels.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news on the injury front for the Rams. Ryan Nyambe is still a doubt after missing the win over Exeter while top scorer James Collins could be unavailable following an issue with his knee.
Losing Collins, who has scored 18 goals this season, would be a major blow to Derby given backup forwards Conor Washington and Martyn Waghorn are still on the sidelines.
In the win at St James Park, Corey Blackett-Taylor continued his disappointing start to life at the club after being taken off as a precaution.
The 26-year-old is “frustrated” about how the opening stages of his Rams career have played out and could be dropped for this weekend’s match.
Here is our predicted starting lineup…
Derby County predicted XI – Corey Blackett-Taylor dropped
Joe Wildsmith has wrestled back the number one spot after temporarily losing his place in the side to Josh Vickers. He has since started Derby’s last two games and took his tally of clean sheets to 11 for the season against Exeter.
Nyambe missed the trip to Devon in midweek due to injury and was replaced by Kane Wilson, who was impressive from an attacking point of view in that match. Wilson will likely keep his place at right-back.
A flat back four sees Curtis Nelson and Eiran Cashin partner in the centre of defence. That pair have been ever-present this season and have formed the backbone of their promotion charge.
Callum Elder replaced Louie Sibley at left back in the last match and the Australian gave a good account of himself by winning six of his seven ground duels and four tackles.
The midfield three remains the same as the ‘outstanding’ Ebou Adams partners Conor Hourihane and Max Bird, who scored and assisted in midweek.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has produced at least one goal contribution in each of his last four matches, continuing that run in his impressive showing against Exeter while the same can’t be said for Corey Blackett-Taylor.
He was substituted at half-time as a precaution but the January signing may have just lost his place in the team to Tom Barkhuizen on the left. The 30-year-old scored after coming off the bench and was a bright spark throughout.
Warne sounded positive about Collins featuring against Stevenage so he should continue leading the line as he aims to score for the first time since last month.