Birmingham City vs Derby County. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance23,902.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football Red Button from 2.55pm on Good Friday; Kick-off is at 3pm.
Thursday 18 April 2019 17:54, UK
Birmingham will have an unchanged squad when they take on Derby.
Blues boss Garry Monk made a couple of changes at Ipswich as he felt his side needed freshening up. Kerim Mrabti and Jota came into the starting line up.
Jacques Maghoma and Connor Mahoney will be vying for recalls after making way at Portman Road. Birmingham have won only one of their last eight games and are just six points above the relegation zone after their points deduction.
Play-off chasing Derby will be without Duane Holmes. The midfielder has a thigh injury and could be out for around 10 days.
Defender Scott Malone has missed the last two matches with a rib problem but he is back in training and will be assessed. The Rams are eighth in the table and two points shy of a play-off spot as they look for back-to-back Championship wins for the first time since the start of December.
Birmingham have won just once in their last 11 league games against Derby County (W1 D5 L5), a 3-0 win in January 2016.
Derby are unbeaten in their last five league visits to Birmingham (W3 D2 L0) since losing 1-3 in March 2013 under Nigel Clough.
Birmingham have never lost a home league match played on Good Friday (W6 D2 L0), winning most recently in April 2015 against Rotherham United.
Derby have lost their last two league matches on Good Friday, conceding four goals in each defeat - 0-4 against Brentford in 2017 and 1-4 against Sunderland in 2018.
Lukas Jutkiewicz has scored 12 league goals for Birmingham this season, his best ever tally in an English league campaign during his career.
Two Derby players have scored league hat-tricks for the club this season (Martyn Waghorn and Mason Mount) - the first time that's happened in a single campaign since 1993-94 (Paul Simpson and Marco Gabbiadini).
Birmingham should be safe now. It isn't mathemetically done yet, but there are enough points and teams between themselves and the relegation zone at this point.
Derby got back to winning ways last weekend but you imagine they will probably need to win their final five games to make it into the play-offs, and I think they will get held at St Andrew's.
David Prutton predicts: 2-2 (14/1 with Sky Bet)
