Wigan Athletic- Derby County

I have seen a lot of Derby County recently and ahead of their home game with Norwich City last week, spoke about their basic ability and the return in confidence under Steve McClaren ...................

They (Norwich) travel to Derby County today and the mood in the home camp is sky high and in stark contrast and the Rams looking to return to their rightful place, which is top 6 in the Championship as a minimum. They also made the notes last week...............

County 's trip to Wolves immediately before the international break ........... I previewed's trip to Wolves immediately before the international break ........... Hard to believe that County are still a Championship team and with their resources and support, they really should have been playing top flight football by now. They have had a bit of a managerial merry go round recently and have gone back to former boss Steve McClaren, who, forget all the jokes, is a very good coach and more importantly, understands the County way, which is that it is not enough to get results, you also have to play football that is pleasing on the eye and fans will forgive quite a lot , if they are entertained. McClaren has overseen four starts, through which his team have collected seven points ( they only had 10 from their first 11 outings) and kept three clean sheets. Last game was a 2-0 defeat of a very good Sheffield Wednesday side, watched by a crowd of over 30,000 and that really gives them something to build on and McClaren would have additionally welcomed a free midweek to work with what is one of the more talented groups in the Championship and he is 2/2 with seven days to prepare. We have sided with the Rams in three h2h meetings with Wolves in the last two seasons, they won two scoring nine goals in the process and it could have been more and they were unfortunate to come up short in the third, both of those wins came in front of the television cameras, so County will be pleased to be in the early televised game. Wolves have not yet officially announced a new boss (Paul Lambert ?) after their Chinese owners Fosun International sacked Walter Zenga, an appointment which was always going to end both quickly and in tears . Just one win in eight for them, they bought in a dozen + players in the off season, almost none of which had any English/Championship experience and six of those played in last week's draw with bottom 3 side Blackburn, where Rovers led for more than an hour and Wolves look and feel like they need time and an experienced hand at the helm and I guess we will not see any real improvement until Lambert is appointed and has the break and a few additional weeks to get his ideas across and all the signings get up to speed with the championship, which is far from easy and unlike any other league in Europe. Derby won 3-2, a scoreline that was incredibly flattering to Wolves, better in every department, the Rams could have been 4-5 goals at the half and it really looked like men against boys at times. The real County turned up and I feel that today is a massive game for them, three points will take them into midtable and no more than six off playoff pace, build on that performance, put in another today and score a few goals and the juggernaut will be up and running and very difficult to stop. They have won six at home in a row against United , who remain injury hit and with a squad that even at full strength is short of Championship quality and who are giving up 3.12 goals per game on the road. This is a mismatch on paper and whilst they have to play it on grass at Pride Park, if County get that breakthrough goal inside an hour, they should win this by 2-3 and if it comes early, the floodgates could really open.



County won that 3-0 and it was even easier than the scoreline makes it sound.



Norwich had their AGM this week and some awkward questions were put to Neil, who was given the "full backing" of the board. I doubt he will be sacked today, but they HAVE to beat Brentford (!) in their next home game. Which, of course, they won't !



I like County that is kind of a given, when things flow, they can be unstoppable here at Pride Park, Bradley Johnson, who I thought was just about the best player in the Championship for City when they were promoted in 14/15 is now a Ram and having been discarded just three months later by the Canaries, he will be doubly motivated to impress and there have been signs in the last month that he and Darren Bent, who has scored in the last two games, are refinding their best form and the same goes pretty much for the entire squad.



They edged that 1-0, but looked comfortable and restricted City to very few attempts on goal, the three points took them up to 9th and they are just three points off playoff pace and closing fast. They have their big derby game with Forest next week and three points today would really give that an edge, with their neighbours also having won their last three. Wigan have failed to score in 5 of their last 6 at home,top scorer Will Grigg, who is the focus of so much of what they do offensively is out and only one other player has more than a single goal to his name.

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Good Luck.