Derby County vs Brentford. Sky Bet Championship.
Pride Park StadiumAttendance25,938.
Friday 2 February 2018 10:55, UK
Bradley Johnson could return to contention for Derby when they host Brentford at Pride Park.
The midfielder has missed the last four games with a back injury and he will be assessed. New signing Kasey Palmer will hope to be involved, although the midfielder has not played for a while at Chelsea and may need to do some fitness work before he is considered.
Andreas Weimann's wife went into labour on Friday and it remains to be seen if he will be available.
Brentford will be without Lasse Vibe with the Danish striker in talks over a move to China. Neal Maupay took over in attack for the 1-0 defeat by Norwich last weekend and could keep his place.
Boss Dean Smith otherwise has a virtually fully-fit squad to which he could add new signing Chiedozie Ogbene, who arrived on Tuesday from Irish Premier Division club Limerick . Full-back Rico Henry is the only absentee with a long-term knee injury.
Derby haven't lost at home to Brentford in a league match since February 1939, winning five and drawing three since.
The Bees did, however, win an Anglo-Italian Cup tie at the Baseball Ground in February 1993, a 2-1 victory courtesy of two Gary Blissett goals.
Gary Rowett defeated Brentford in all four league meetings when he was Birmingham boss but is yet to win against them as Derby manager (P2 W0 D1 L1).
Derby have conceded just three goals in their last 13 Championship games, including clean sheets in each of their last three. In fact, only Wolves (16) have kept more clean sheets than the Rams (15) this season.
Brentford have won six of their last 10 Championship games (D1 L3), after winning just five of their first 19 this season (D9 L5).
Lasse Vibe has scored seven goals in his last eight Championship games for Brentford; the Danish striker drew blanks in his first 11 league games this season.
Derby are still in second but they've drawn a few too many games lately and have a few teams right on their coat-tails again, with Aston Villa, Cardiff and Bristol City all lurking.
Brentford were dealt a huge blow in their play-off bid last week as they lost at home to Norwich, and will be desperate to get back to winning ways on Saturday. It will be a good game at Pride Park, but I just feel like Derby will edge it.
David Prutton predicts: 2-1 (8/1 with Sky Bet)
