The busy Christmas period in the Sky Bet Championship begins on Friday night when two sides in the lower half of the table meet looking for some festive cheer when Luton Town play host to Derby County at Kenilworth Road.
Clearly this isn’t the season that Luton were looking for and they’ll be eager for a win here while Derby might consider this as a free hit given that two divisions were between the two last season so we could be in for an intriguing affair.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the build-up to the contest beginning at 7pm ahead of the 8pm kick off in Bedfordshire.
Luton Town
After embarking on a year in the Premier League last term and agonisingly falling short of a second campaign in the top flight, Luton would have started this season with the aim of securing an immediate return to the big time but clearly that isn’t going to happen now. They have to be careful that they don’t suffer successive relegations, which is much more likely than they would want and certainly more likely than their chances of exiting the division at the desired end.
To be fair to the Hatters, their problems have been created by a terrible record on the road. They have actually picked up 18 points from their last nine home games so they don’t have as many issues at home, although there have been times where their performance hasn’t matched the result. They have two tricky away tests to come over the Christmas period so Luton, who are ravaged by defensive injuries, will be looking for three points to ease the pressure on those matches to come.
Derby County
The immediate aim of any promoted side is to ensure that they have a second season at that level and Derby County look to be on the way to securing that. They are currently seven points clear of trouble and eight places above the relegation zone and a win here would extend that to 10 points ahead of the remainder of the weekend and set up a comfortable Christmas. It would also see them move into the top 10 in the table which would be quite some achievement.
The Rams have done most of their good work at Pride Park this season though it has to be said. They have only won once on their travels so now would be a good time to double that tally if they are able to. Not only have they only won once away from home but they have only scored nine goals in 11 matches on their travels so an improvement is likely to be needed here even allowing for the fact that Luton are a little leaky at present.
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Team News
Rob Edwards has confirmed that Daiki Hashioka is the latest defender that he is going to be without as he suffered a muscle injury in the loss at Blackburn at the weekend. He joins the likes of Alfie Doughty, Teden Mengi, Reece Burke, Shandon Baptiste and Amarii Bell in the treatment room. Liam Walsh is suspended.
Paul Warne is going to be without defender Eiran Cashin after he went off in the win over Portsmouth last week. He joins the likes of Ryan Nyambe and David Ozoh on the sidelines. Sonny Bradley could face his former club.
Betting
You would imagine that the value lies with Luton Town here but there are a couple of reasons to make me think that the better bet comes in a different direction. Luton have a lot of injuries, primarily to their back line but also to some midfielders too, while their away form is so bad that there is pressure on their home form to hold up. I still think they will come up with the goods but if Derby County have anything about them then they will score against this patched up Luton defence.
Derby have scored in all but four of their away matches this term but the road games they haven’t scored in all came against the top four in the table and Luton aren’t that. Luton still haven’t failed to score on their own patch this term so there has to be a lot of juice in the both teams to score yes option here. Luton generally do score, particularly at home, but as they go about getting the ball won high up the pitch they can leave themselves exposed to pace which Derby have in wide areas. It would be a major surprise if both teams don’t find the net here.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 5/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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