Monday night brings us an east midlands local derby between Nottingham Forest and Derby County to round the weekend off, and both teams will be keen to grab all three points in order to boost their respective play-off ambitions at the City Ground this evening.
Nottingham Forest sit in 9th place in the Championship and have lost just once in their last five matches which was a 2-0 defeat away at Birmingham City, but otherwise, Forest seem to be slowly heading in the right direction under manager, and former Forest player, Martin O’Neill, as the hosts have recorded wins against Wigan Athletic and Brentford at the City Ground in recent weeks.
Three wins out of their last four at home has seen their home record improve to W8 D4 L4 scored 22 conceded 15, which includes an earlier 4-2 win over Championship league leaders, Leeds United, so the hosts should be respected here.
O’Neill has various goalscoring options at his disposal with the likes of midfielder Cash (6 goals), along with forwards Grabban (15 goals) and Lolley (7 goals), who look to be Forest’s main threats going forward.
While Nottingham Forest have struggled for consistency at home, both teams have scored in 8 of their 16 home matches to date.
Onto Derby County, and The Rams have another chance of breaking into the play-off pack when they make the short trip to Nottingham to face Forest at the City Ground, but manager Frank Lampard will need to ensure his side don’t blow another opportunity here as they muffed their lines during the week when they lost 1-0 at home to relegation threatened Millwall at Pride Park.
Derby have flirted with the play-off pack in recent weeks as they’ve gained recent wins against Reading and Hull City, which were both at home, but then failed to capitalise on their next matches after those wins with draws at Preston North End 0-0 (which they were lucky to grab a point) and a 1-1 draw at bottom club Ipswich Town.
The visitors have lost just three matches at home but it’s been their inability to consistently string together results on the road that has held The Rams back from already occupying a top six position in the Championship.
An away record of W6 D4 L6 scored 21 conceded 21 underlines their inconsistent streak on their travels, but with 11 of their 16 away matches seeing both teams scoring, this option looks the best market to look at in this local derby.