Match Preview: Derby County

CRAVEN COTTAGE | TUESDAY 26TH NOVEMBER | 7:45PM

Image: Derby County

Our Focus turns to tomorrow nights visit of Derby County in the Skybet Championship. Both sides are on the up following two wins in each of their last 3 matches. Parker’s side are now firmly placed in the playoff places and its vital we keep that momentum going with the top two (WBA & Leeds) beginning to pull away from the pack. It’s going to be a tough one to call but one things for certain…MITRO’S BACK!

Head To Head

  • Fulham Wins 20 | Draws 20 | Derby Wins 23.
  • The clubs have never met in the league outside of the top two divisions.
  • 82% (46 out of 56) league matches between the clubs have come in then second tier.
  • The other 18% were in the top division.
  • Derby haven’t won a league match at the Cottage since 1969, however they did beat us 2-5 in the league cup in 2014.
  • That defeat for Fulham in 1969 was also the last time either side has won two league games in a row in this fixture.
  • Fulham has scored at least once in 10 of the last 12 meetings.
  • At least one of Fulham or Derby has been in the Championship playoffs in 5 of the last 6 seasons.

Derby in 2019/20

  • League Position: 11th.
  • League Form: WLWLW.
  • Average Possession: 53%.
  • Top Scorers: Tom Lawrence (5), Martyn Waghorn (5).
  • Form Table (Last 6 Matches): 13th.
  • Clean sheets: 5.
  • Discipline: 28 Yellows | 0 Reds.

Players in Common

Image: Sky Sports

Cyrus Christie 

Fulham – 42 appearances, 1 goal (2018-present).

Derby – 119 appearances, 2 goals (2014-2017).

Chris Baird, Giles Barnes, Darren Bent, Cyrus Christie, Steve Hayward, Shefki Kuqi, Dean Leacock, Eddie Lewis, Scott Malone, Chris Martin, Richard Money, Paul Parker, Mark Pembridge, Paul Peschisolido, Ben Pringle, Mark Stallard, Fredrik Stoor & Paul Trollope.

Matt’s View (@Matt10L)

The last time Derby set foot at the Cottage, Denis Odoi was celebrating on top of the shoulders of a couple Fulham fans. While we weren’t in the rising ranks of the Premier League long enough, we are also not quite down and out of the automatic promotion spots either. A quick turnaround from Friday night’s victory over QPR, and we are now set to host a Derby side that probably feels they should be doing better than 11th place. Well, join the crowd of those who feel we deserve to be top of the table. For those of us back in the real world, it was a tale of 25 minutes we would all love to forget against QPR, but it will also serve as a reminder to Parker and the players that we cannot force our game if it isn’t there – and we cannot always rely on clawing back from adversity each and every match. Derby have real threats in Tom Lawrence and Martyn Waghorn, but one cannot underestimate the grit and determination of former Fulham striker, Chris Martin.  After Tim Ream struggled to win aerial battles against QPR’s Jordan Hughill, it will be of great concern that he handle Martin’s physicality early on in order to prevent the potent attack led by Lawrence.

From our side, the questions arise in who will be dropped in order to take advantage of the two-goal momentum that Aboubakar Kamara has brought into the equation. I feel the player that will be dropped will be Knockaert as the Frenchman has struggled to find the net, not to mention struggling to have any real end product that was originally expected from him. So, with Parker most likely not changing our game, he will ensure that the right personnel are in place, such as Johansen taking the deeper midfield role that was occupied by Harrison Reed. It will be nice to welcome Mitro back, and I hope he nabs his 13th and 14th goal, but hopefully he can share a bit of the goals with Kamara and maybe…finally…bring Bobby Reid into the goal-scoring form as well.

I feel we have the momentum regardless because the adversity we faced against QPR was enough to show the dynamic positional play that Parker needed to see, and also the strong togetherness that was highly evident on both Kamara’s goals. Derby may be only 5 points off from us, but we’re going to pull ahead of that for another 3 points to nab that 3rd place spot. 3-1 Fulham. COYW!!