The New Year begins at Hillsborough as far as the Sky Bet Championship is concerned as Sheffield Wednesday host Derby County in a key clash at the bottom end of the table in what is the only game in the division on Friday.
Wednesday go into the contest third from bottom while Derby play their first match outside of the bottom three in quite some time. This feels like a big match for both teams in their quest to pull away from trouble in 2021.
Where to watch
The match will be shown in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the lead up to the game beginning at 5pm and the match itself starting at 5.30pm.
Sheffield Wednesday
Campaigns are rarely quiet at Hillsborough these days and this one is certainly no different. We are not even halfway through it in terms of matches played and yet they are already looking for their third permanent manager. The move to appoint Tony Pulis never looked like the right one. His days went a number of years ago but to be fair to their chairman he swiftly realised his error in appointing him and has rectified that.
There is a sense that if they appoint the right manager the Owls will pull away from danger with a bit in hand but I think they need to do some good business in the January window because while they are where they are because of a point deduction, a lack of quality certainly isn’t helping. Wednesday do at least begin the New Year with a little bit of form behind them having won two and drawn the other in their last three matches, which is something to build on.
Derby County
It has been a first half of the season of two halves really. The opening 12 or so matches they were bang ordinary and looking like certainties to be relegated but after Wayne Rooney was appointed as the official manager, swapping the pitch for the dugout, their fortunes have changed completely. It must be said that injuries didn’t help Phillip Cocu that much and Rooney hasn’t had the same issues to overcome but there is more confidence about the Rams now.
Derby have only lost one of their last eight matches and they played 70 minutes of that game with 10 men so it is probably a little harsh to judge them on that. They certainly didn’t have any hangover from that match on Tuesday night when they absolutely steamrolled an admittedly out of form Birmingham City side. Rooney has made some clever changes to the Derby setup and it is working at both ends of the pitch at present.
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Team News
Sheffield Wednesday will be without midfielder Massimo Luongo and Julian Borner and there are doubts over whether Adam Reach and Joost Van Aken will be fit to start the game. Jack Marriott is ineligible against his parent club.
Derby County will be without the injured Tom Lawrence and Curtis Davies while Martyn Waghorn is continuing his suspension after the red card he picked up in the defeat to Preston North End last weekend.
Betting
Given that this is the third match in six days for these two sides you’ve got to think that squad depth will be an issue in this one. One thing that all the injuries Derby County had throughout 2020 gave them was a much bigger squad with youngsters getting opportunities that they might not otherwise have been afforded, which probably puts Wayne Rooney in a better position than his opposite number going into the game, before we even go into the form.
One of the things you would have expected to happen for Sheffield Wednesday while Tony Pulis was in charge was for their defence to improve but they only kept two clean sheets in the 10 matches he was in charge for which suggests that the personnel in that department isn’t good enough. That isn’t ideal when they are coming up against a Derby side who have conceded just one goal in their last six matches, and who are beginning to really warm to the task in the offensive areas of the pitch. When you process all that in Derby look the most likely winners here.
Tips
Back Derby County (-0.25AH) to beat Sheffield Wednesday for a 3/10 stake at 1.96 with BetVictor
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