It will be the 108th East Midlands derby between these fierce rivals Derby County and Nottingham Forest when they meet on Friday night. In recent times they have both enjoyed play-off runs in the Championship but at the start of this campaign each club has experienced difficulties. Sabri Lamouchi lost his job as Forest boss after four straight defeats with Chris Hughton coming in to pick up four points from his first two games. A 1-0 win away at Blackburn on Saturday was followed by a 1-1 draw at the City Ground with Rotherham on Tuesday evening leaving Forest 20th before Wednesday’s fixtures. Derby come into this match one place and one point behind their arch rivals after two 1-0 defeats in three days and they will be without Wayne Rooney who is in isolation.
The home side went on a nine-game losing run stemming from the tail-end of last season before Lamouchi was dismissed heading into the international break. The former coach had Forest firmly in the play-offs before falling to 7th without a win in five matches. His replacement Chris Hughton has now got the club on the board with four points from his first two games and he will be hoping to get three points in his first East Midlands derby.
As for Philip Cocu and Derby County they have just three points from a possible 15 from their opening five games. A 1-0 defeat to Watford last weekend was quickly followed by a loss at Huddersfield by a similar score-line. The Rams collected just 23 points from 69 on offer in away games last year and have lost three of the last four head-to-heads with Forest failing to win at the City Ground since 2012.
I think Chris Hughton will manage to endear himself to the Forest faithful with a win in this game. The club were at a low before he came in and he has managed to steady the ship where Derby are still sinking and without Wayne Rooney perhaps a lack of experience could be their achilles heel. Either way I'm going for a Forest win in the derby after their recent improvements.