Tuesday night’s hosts, Fulham, recorded a second win on the trot on Friday night when they beat local London rivals, QPR, 2-1 at Craven Cottage and Scott Parker’s side will be looking to make home advantage count again when they play host to Derby County in this clash.
An earlier 1-0 win away from home at Birmingham City sent Fulham into the international break on a positive note and The Cottagers now occupy a place in the early play-off pack as they sit in 4th place ahead of this upcoming clash with Derby.
Indeed, all three points against Derby on Tuesday night could see the London club lift as high as 2nd place in the Championship if other results go their way, and having suffered just 1 defeat out of their last 5 matches overall, there’s a feeling that Fulham are now starting to get into their stride.
With just 1 defeat out of their last 6 matches at Craven Cottage that include wins against Wigan Athletic, Luton Town and QPR, their form at home has also picked up in the past few weeks.
Onto Derby County, and Philip Cocu’s side continued their good work on home turf at Pride Park on Saturday afternoon when they registered a fifth league win on the trot in the Championship with a narrow 1-0 win against 2nd placed Preston North End.
After a slow start at home which saw Derby winless after their first 4 matches, The Rams are gathering impressive momentum in their own backyard, but question marks still hang over Derby’s capabilities away from home.
The opposite has happened in terms of results on their travels as Derby began their season on the road with a 2-1 win at Huddersfield Town but have since slumped to 7 matches without a win away from home.
This poor sequence of results include 4 defeats at Brentford 3-0, Charlton Athletic 3-0, Hull City 2-0 and east midlands arch-rivals, Nottingham Forest in a 1-0 derby loss, as well as failing to score in their last 3 away matches on the trot.
Having collected just 3 away wins out of their last 20 matches on their travels in the Championship, Derby look to have their work cut out ahead of this trip down to face an in-form Fulham outfit, and the hosts look set for the points here.