The third set of matches of the week in the Sky Bet Championship gets underway on Friday evening when two of the sides who came into the division at the start of the season meet when Derby County host Portsmouth at Pride Park.
These two sides are in the bottom third in the table and will be looking for three points which would take them further away from immediate danger as we head towards the Christmas period and the halfway point of the season.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Derby County
Derby County have accrued a pretty solid 21 points from their opening 20 matches this term, which is no mean effort for a promoted side. Any team who comes up will be looking to keep their points above games played which gives them a chance of securing another season of Championship football so in that case they are nicely on course to complete that aim, however the longer the season has gone on they have just started to find the going a little tough.
Derby head into this match off the back of just one win in their last 11 matches and while they have drawn six matches in that run, four of those draws were against teams in the bottom half of the table. They go into this game having held Burnley to a 0-0 draw on Tuesday night but they only had 33% of possession in that match and you wonder how that will impact the energy levels in what is a really quick turnaround. Derby are without a goal in their last two matches and are starting to concede more regularly than they would like.
Portsmouth
It has been a bit of a struggle for Portsmouth so far this season but unlike their opponent here, they look to be heading in the right direction. They only have 17 points from their 20 matches but eight of those have come in the last four games and that is something that bodes well for them. They haven’t been helped by injuries earlier in the campaign but as key men look to be coming back the results have improved and the Hampshire side will be confident going into this one.
Portsmouth have lost just one of their last six matches with that coinciding with the return of Colby Bishop, their top scorer from last season who missed the start of this campaign with a heart issue. They now look a much more settled side and will be looking to win this game and move three points clear of the drop zone and still have a game in hand of some of those around them. Portsmouth have kept successive clean sheets too which bodes well because their 21 goals scored is the best of any team in the bottom six and they have played fewer matches than everyone else.
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Team News
Derby County boss Paul Warne confirmed that his side picked up no fresh injuries in the draw with Burnley in midweek so he will be without the long-term victim Ryan Nyambe as well as the on loan midfielder David Ozoh.
John Mousinho suggested that he is going to give Regan Poole as long as possible to prove his fitness after he was taken off as a precaution in the draw with Norwich in midweek. Portsmouth will be without Jacob Farrell and Conor Shaughnessy.
Betting
This has the feeling of a bit of a tense affair about it because both sides know that they need points from a fixture like this and perhaps that will mean that both play not to lose rather than be prepared to take risks to try to win the game. That might see the recent trend between these two sides of drawn games continuing. The last four meetings in the league between this pair have ended all square and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this follows suit.
I do think if there is a winner it might well be Portsmouth though. They are undefeated in four and look to be finding a new gear after a tough start to the season whereas Derby have won just one of their last 11 and are finding wins to come by. You can get 1.84 on the +0.5 Asian handicap line on the side of the visitors and that bet would have landed in 10 of the last 11 Derby matches as well as five of the last six Portsmouth ones. That feels like the best bet in this contest.
Tips
Back Portsmouth (+0.5AH) to beat Derby County for a 3/10 stake at 1.84 with Unibet
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