Cardiff v Derby preview
Friday 29 September 2017 16:41, UK
Leaders Cardiff will be without midfielder Craig Bryson for Derby's Sky Bet Championship visit.
Bryson joined Cardiff from Derby last month on a season-long loan and can not play against his parent club under the terms of the agreement. But Joe Ralls, who missed the midweek win over Leeds, could be available after returning to training. Jazz Richards (ankle), Aron Gunnarsson (hip/thigh), Callum Paterson (knee) and Kadeem Harris (knee) remain out.
Mason Bennett will be absent from the Derby squad with the knee injury he sustained against Brentford in midweek. The striker had to come off after only 12 minutes of the 1-1 draw at Griffin Park but the good news for the Rams is that tests have shown he suffered no serious ligament damage.
Johnny Russell is fit but has been left out of the last two matchday squads. Derby boss Gary Rowett has refused to elaborate on why and it remains to be seen if the forward will be involved on Saturday. Midfielder George Thorne has had a bout of illness and will play for the under-23 side on Friday afternoon but could still travel to south Wales.
Opta stats
The Bluebirds have lost two of their last three home league games against Derby (W1), as many as they'd lost in their previous 14 games against the Rams.
The Rams have never won back to back away league games against Cardiff.
This is the fifth consecutive meeting between these sides in which Derby will be managed by a different manager - Paul Clement, Darren Wassall, Chris Powell and Steve McClaren were in charge for the four games in the previous two seasons, and Gary Rowett will take charge of the Rams for this game.
This is only the second time Cardiff have gained as many as 23 points from their opening 10 league games - the other season was 2006-07 in which they also won their 11th game.
The Bluebirds have lost only one of their last 12 home league games (W8 D3), though this was against last season's Championship winners Newcastle (0-2 in April).
Derby haven't kept an away clean sheet in the Championship since January, conceding in each of their last 14 games in the competition.
Prutton's prediction
Cardiff looked like they'd hit a bump in the road a little while ago, but there's a real feel-good factor there now and they were superb against Leeds.
Derby are just a coin-flip every week as you never know which version of them is going to show up. But this is a home win for me.
Prutton predicts: 2-1 (15/2 with Sky Bet)
