Derby County host Ipswich Town in the Championship at Pride Park on Tuesday night, with Frank Lampard’s team hoping to show an improved performance in front of their fans and get their first home win of the season.
Ipswich meanwhile come into this game aiming to get their first win of the season.
The Tractor Boys have had a difficult start to the season, having drawn two games with Blackburn Rovers and most recently Aston Villa, they have also suffered defeat to Rotherham United.
Can Lampard get his first victory at Pride Park?
The Rams have so far had a mixed start to their 2018/19 Championship campaign, Tom Lawrence’s last-minute winner against Reading on opening day has so far been the only league victory for Lampard’s team.
Since then, Derby have suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat at home to Leeds United, beaten Oldham Athletic 2-0 in the Carabao Cup, and most recently suffered a 2-1 defeat to Millwall at The Den.
A poor first half performance against Millwall proved to be the downfall of the Rams, they were 2-0 down at half time, courtesy of goals from Lee Gregory and Shaun Williams.
Derby were much improved in the second half and got themselves back into the game in the 73rd minute, thanks to a good goal from substitute David Nugent.
Despite this, Millwall were able to hold on and gain all three points.
So now Lampard will want to build on the improved second-half performance and take that into the game against Ipswich.
Whilst it is still early in the season, a first victory at home on Tuesday night will help to get the fans behind the team, and build some momentum going into their next game which is again at home, this time to Preston North End on Saturday.
Lampard also recognises that so far his team have not showed a sustained positive performance for the whole of a game, in his pre-match press conference he told the club’s official website: “We have shown strong periods in games, and if we continue to do that, we will get positive results.
"We need to sustain it over 90 minutes.”
Ipswich hope to continue run of victories at Pride Park
Despite having not yet won a game this season, one positive for The Tractor Boys ahead of this clash is their recent record at Pride Park stadium.
Ipswich have won each of their last three away meetings with Derby County, including a 1-0 win last November, thanks to a goal from Callum Connolly.
Paul Hurst's side come into this game on the back of a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa last Saturday, an impressive result considering Villa had won all their games before this one, and Ipswich played for 51 minutes with ten men after Tayo Edun was dismissed for two bookable offences.
Villa had taken the lead through Jonathan Kodjia, before Trevoh Chalobah levelled for Ipswich.
Ahead of the meeting with Derby, Ipswich manager Hurst spoke to iFollow Ipswich about taking the game to Derby.
He said: “We’ll always look at the opposition and come up with bits of information on them to stop their threats, but we want to enforce our game as much as we can.”
Team news
Frank Lampard has stated that Scott Malone is struggling to be fit for the game, meaning Craig Forsyth could start after coming on in Derby’s last game and providing the assist for Nugent’s goal.
Harry Wilson is also a doubt for game.
Paul Hurst has said that all of his players came through the game against Aston Villa without any problems, however, they will be without Edun as he serves his suspension following his sending off in the last game.
Predicted line ups
Derby County (4-3-3): Carson; Bogle, Keogh, Tomori, Forsyth; Johnson, Bryson, Mount; Jozefzoon, Waghorn, Lawrence.
Ipswich Town (4-2-3-1): Bialkowski; Donacien, Nsiala, Chambers, Knudsen; Chalobah, Skuse; Edwards, Nolan, Ward; Harrison.