The Pride seems to be returning to Pride Park - can we keep it coming against a resurgent Preston?

Derby County v Preston North End
Coca Cola Championship
Pride Park, Derby
Tuesday 16th February 2010 - 7:45pm

North-End

Current League Position: 11/24
Leading Scorer: Jon Parkin 6lg 3cup; Chris Brown 4lg 5cup
Manager: Darren Fergusson
Kit home: White shirts/Dark blue shorts
Kit away: Red & Blue shirts/Red shorts
Last game: Preston 0-0 Blackpool

Quotes from the manager:

Talking to the BBC after the Lancashire Derby:

"Derbies are always tense affairs and it can take a little bit of magic to win them or a mistake from opposition."

"The dressing room is very quiet because they're all disappointed, we wanted to win the game. "

"To a man we worked our socks off and there are some very tired legs out there."

Current North-End Squad:

No. Position. Player.
1 Keeper Andrew Lonergan
2 Defender Michael Hart
3 Defender Callum Davidson (captain)
4 Midfield Richard Chaplow
5 Defender Youl Mawéné
6 Defender Neill Collins
7 Midfield Chris Sedgwick
8 Midfield Velice Šumulikoski
9 Striker Chris Brown
10 Midfield Barry Nicholson
11 Midfield Darren Carter
12 Defender Sean St Ledger
14 Defender Liam Chilvers
15 Midfield Paul Coutts
16 Midfield Keith Treacy
17 Midfield Paul Parry
18 Striker Danny Welbeck (on loan from Manchester United)
19 Defender Billy Jones
20 Defender Tom Williams (on loan from Peterborough United)
22 Keeper Wayne Henderson
23 Midfield Matthew James (on loan from Manchester United)
25 Midfield Ross Wallace
26 Striker Jon Parkin
27 Defender Eddie Nolan
29 Striker Stephen Elliott
31 Defender Dominic Collins
33 Striker Neil Mellor
34 Midfield Adam Barton
35 Midfield Danny Mayor
37 Defender Conor McLaughlin
38 Striker Jamie Proctor
39 Midfield George Miller

 
The Rams:

Quotes from the manager:

Talking to  BBC Radio Derby after the FA Cup game:

"I thought overall that we deserved at least a replay and we do feel slightly hard done by."

"Stephen Bywater did not have much to do and we created enough situations ourselves when 1-0 up and did not sit back."

"We were as comfortable as anyone can be when facing a team lying eighth in the Premier League but we were undone by two set plays. We look at the two goals and there was certainly an element of bad luck about them both."

Current Rams Squad:

No. Position. Player.
1 Keeper Stephen Bywater
2 Defender Paul Connolly
3 Defender James McEveley
4 Midfield Paul Green
5 Defender Miles Addison (vice-captain)
6 Defender Dean Leacock
7 Midfield Lee Croft
8 Midfield Robbie Savage (captain)
9 Striker Rob Hulse
10 Midfield Kris Commons
11 Midfield Gary Teale
12 Striker Chris Porter
13 Keeper Saul Deeney
14 Defender Shaun Barker
16 Midfield Stephen Pearson
17 Defender Jake Buxton
18 Midfield Ben Pringle
19 Midfield Michael Tonge (on loan from Stoke City F.C.)
20 Striker Steve Davies
21 Defender Dean Moxey
22 Midfield Arnaud Mendy
23 Defender Mark O'Brien
24 Defender Nicky Hunt (on loan from Bolton Wanderers F.C.)
26 Midfield Lee Hendrie
27 Defender Russell Anderson
28 Defender Mitchell Hanson
33 Defender Mark Dudley
35 Striker Callum Ball
31 Defender Javan Vidal (on loan from Manchester City F.C)
25 Midfield Dave Martin (on loand from Millwall F.C.)

What the Bookies think:

Home Win: 21/20
Draw: 11/5
Away win: 21/10

First Scorer: Rob Hulse 11/2, Danny Wellbeck 13/2

Information for travelling fans:

Driving: Driving: Preston to Derby is about 120 miles. Take the M55 to the M6 then head south until J16 or J15 (not much in it) then A500 to the A50 through Stoke. Follow the A50 to Derby and stay on it until the turn off for Alvaston. There will be traffic around Alvaston however if you stay on London Rd you can get to the parking areas described below.

Drinking: There are a few pubs very close to the ground but if you come by train, the locale around the station is fairly inviting. The Crown and Cushion at the junction of London Rd always seems to be full of away supporters. The Brunswick is a must for any real ale fans and the Alexandra next door is my personal favourite.

Fans tend to mingle in these pubs and as long as you’re not being aggressive, the atmosphere is good. The Waterfall opposite the station is okay as well. If you are driving, the Navigation Pub on London Rd opposite the parking area is your best bet.

Around the ground there's a Frankie & Bennie's, Harvester and the Pride Park but these tend to be very busy.

Mick’s Prediction:

In the past few weeks we have beaten Newcastle & Forest, drawn with Sheffield United and narrowly gone out of the cup to Premier League Birmingham.

Charitably, You could class all these teams as top half Championship/bottom half Premier League material so it's gratifying to report that none of the results was a fluke and we could actually have beaten the Blunts and got a draw against Birmingham.

The acid test of course is tonight against Preston when we go up against a mid-table championship side. Preston are a good team on their night and seem to have turned their season around under Darren Fergusson - going out expecting to win easily would be foolishness in the extreme.

Both of the 'negative' results were because of late goals - something we have to watch out for. It's annoying to defend well for 90 minutes and then with the finishing line in sight, see the team panic or lose concentration and concede the soft goal.

Nigel Clough blames it on bad luck - better would be to acknowledge we are still restoring the teams confidence.

Nigel has set the team a target of six more wins - basically to achieve mathematical safety. The implication of this is that we can then start preparing for next season.

I'm not keen on this idea as it gives the players the idea that they can take their foot off the gas - and we saw what happened with that when Paul Jewell gave up on the Premier League.

I'd like to see us pushing every game to the limit - not necessarily on a late play off push - more as a confidence building exercise for the players and the fans. Then we might truly hit the floor running next year.

Mick's Team:

Bywater, Hunt, Barker, Buxton, McEveley, Green, Savage, Tonge, Pearson, Commons, Hulse

Subs: Vidal, Deeney, Pringle, Anderson, Porter, Martin, Moxey

Mick's Prediction:

Derby 2-0 Preston

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls