Nathan Jones' Luton Town have had a flying start to the season, as they defeated Barnsley at Oakwell on the opening day as well as finding their way past Norwich City and Reading to make it to the third round of the EFL Cup.
It has been a different story for Phillip Cocu and Derby County, who suffered an opening day defeat to Reading at Pride Park, as well as bowing out of the EFL Cup at the hands of Preston North End. The Rams will be hoping to turn their form around when they visit Luton at the weekend.
Team news
Luton will be without Dan Potts, Brendan Galloway and Eunan O'Kane for the visit of Derby, Tom Lockyer should also be fit for Saturday after going off against Reading with cramp.
Potts was expected to be back sooner but his foot injury is taking longer to heal than expected.
Derby will be without Mike te Wierik, who is facing a one-match ban after seeing red in the EFL Cup against Preston. The Rams will still be without Martyn Waghorn, Tom Lawrence and Krystian Bielik, the latter of which is still recovering from an ACL tear suffered in January.
New signing, Polish international Kamil Jozwiak, may make his debut after making the move from Lech Poznan earlier in the week. The winger contributed to 12 goals for the Polish outfit last season and Cocu will be hoping he can help to spearhead his forward line.
Predicted lineups
Luton Town: Sluga; Cranie, Lockyer, Bradley, Norrington-Davies; Berry, Ruddock, Rea; Cornick, Lee, Collins.
Derby County: Marshall; Byrne, Wisdom, Clarke, Forsyth; Bird, Shinnie, Sibley; Knight, Jozwiak, Marriott.
Ones to watch
The key battle in this game will be Luton forward James Collins against Derby centre-back Matt Clarke. Collins has been a key player for the Hatters over the last few seasons, the 29-year-old scored 14 goals in 46 games last season and helped guide Luton to safety last time around.
Clarke was a key figure for the Rams last season and has returned on loan for a second time around. Collins is a big physical striker and Clarke will need to be at his best physically to deal with the big striker and keep him at bay.
Previous meeting
The previous encounter between the two sides was one for the neutral. After a pretty quiet first half, the two sides went into half-time level at 0-0.
The game burst into life in the second half as Wayne Rooney gave Derby the lead just past the hour mark only for Pelly Ruddock to equalise four minutes later. Luton then took the lead just six minutes later as defender Donervon Daniels rose highest from a corner.
The Rams found a way back into the game with just five minutes to go as Jayden Bogle made a move down the right-hand side and whipped a ball across the six-yard box which Chris Martin headed home.
They were level for less than a minute as immediately from the restart, the Hatters went down the right, the ball found it's way to the back post and Derby defender Bogle turned the ball into his own goal. It went from bad to worse for the Rams, a couple minutes after the goal, Max Lowe saw red for a foul followed by kicking the ball away, leaving Derby with an impossible task, one they could not fulfil as they fell to defeat.
How to watch
The match is available to stream on 'iFollow' and 'RamsTV'.
It is scheduled to kick off at 3pm BST.
Manager comments
Luton manager Nathan Jones has said it will be a good test for his players to come up against the likes of Wayne Rooney.
On facing Wayne Rooney: “We’ve just said to the players that we never look too far ahead but these are the games you want to play. Derby have been a Premier League club, then next we play Man United and then we play Watford, three huge games but what a week, what a week to be a Luton Town player, test yourself, whether that’s against Wayne Rooney, Jack Marriott, Matt Clarke, whoever it is", Jones told the Luton website.
“To have those tests is what you want, this is why we wanted to get to this league so we could do that before trying to go again. It is a good thing for them to play against Wayne Rooney, but they have to relish that because Wayne has been a legend for the game. England, Man United, top scorer, a wonderful career and it will be great to test ourselves against that.”
Derby manager Phillip Cocu is expecting another tough match at the weekend against Luton after defeat to Preston in mid-week.
“The mood is positive in the group", Cocu told RamsTV.
“Most of the players had a day off on Wednesday, sometimes you need a day off to get the frustration out of the system and move forward to playing against Luton on Saturday.
“It was a tough one to swallow on the Tuesday because we looked great with the ten men, after Mike te Wierik was sent off, and the effort we put in. We have to move on and another tough game against Saturday against Luton.”