Derby County host Lincoln City at Pride Park tonight in a crucial fixture at the top end of League One.
The Rams dropped points at home against Wycombe Wanderers last time out but didn’t lose too much ground in their race for automatic promotion.
If they secure a victory over Lincoln tonight, they will move from sixth in the table to third and that will pile the pressure onto their promotion rivals ahead of Saturday’s matches.
Paul Warne’s side are entering the festive period in a good place having pieced together an unbeaten run of six matches and kept clean sheets in four of those.
It’s a run that has seen them move into the promotion picture in League One and the Derby boss will want his side to avoid complacency as they enter a period of seven matches in the space of a month.
However, there were early signs of complacency in their first-half performance against Wycombe on Saturday, with Warne describing it as like the ‘Wild West’ after his side picked up five yellow cards.
He’ll want his side to start fast here and could make a few changes to freshen up proceedings.
Here’s our predicted Derby County XI v Lincoln City…
Predicted Derby County XI v Lincoln City
Joe Wildsmith has started every match so far and he’ll keep his place in between the sticks here.
On the right side of defence, Joe Ward is likely to start for the third league match running, despite giving away the penalty for Wycombe’s 98th minute equaliser.
The two central defenders speak for themselves with Eiran Cashin partnering the experienced Curtis Nelson. That duo have helped the Rams keep an impressive nine clean sheets – the third most in League One.
With Callum Elder lacking match sharpness after injury, Craig Forsyth will continue at left back.
In midfield, Warne could make one alteration.
At the base of it, captain and midfield maestro Conor Hourihane will keep his spot in the team, as will the advanced Max Bird, who has scored two and assisted three this term.
However, the Derby boss could replace Louie Sibley after his poor performance against Wycombe, which saw him get brought off at half-time.
The likely replacement for him is former Nottingham Forest player Tyreese Fornah, who replaced the 22-year-old in that fixture.
Warne could make his next alteration on the right wing by dropping Kane Wilson for Tom Barkhuizen, who scored from the bench for the second game running against the Chairboys.
The left wing needs no introduction with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing looking to produce more magic while James Collins will spearhead their attack once more.