A bite-sized guide to Ipswich Town’s home clash with Derby County in the Championship
When and where?
Saturday, 3pm, Portman Road
What’s the team news?
David McGoldrick appears to be out for a while after suffering a ‘nasty’ hamstring tear, joining Teddy Bishop and Larsen Toure who are also out. Cole Skuse is good to go despite breaking his nose at Fulham, while Luke Varney will be on the bench after signing his deal at Portman Road.
For Derby, Craig Bryson and Will Hughes are likely to miss out.
Who is their manager?
He may be in his first job as a manager, but Paul Clement has quite the reputation, having worked under Carlo Ancelotti at both Paris St Germain and Real Madrid. He was hired by Derby in the summer, replacing Steve McClaren and has been given a substantial war chest to spend to try and get the Rams back into the big time.
How have they been getting on so far this season?
He’s done okay, Derby are third, but then that’s where they were expected to be given the money they’ve spent. After spending millions on the likes of Bradley Johnson, Tom Ince, Darren Bent, Andi Weimann and Jacob Butterfield, Derby have had to battle back after not managing a win in any of their first five league matches. Things have improved, though, and they’ve lost just once since the end of August.
Who has the best record in this fixture?
This will be game number 80 between the two teams, with the Blues holding the series advantage with 33 wins, eight more than Derby, and with 21 draws.
What happened when they met last season?
Derby got the better of the battle last season, winning 1-0 at Portman Road in January following a 1-1 draw at Pride Park, sorry, the iPro Stadium in August. Chris Martin scored both Derby goals while Christophe Berra scored for the Blues away from home.
Who is the ref?
It’s Keith Hill again. He refereed the 3-2 loss at home to Brighton earlier in the season, in which the Blues got off to a nightmare start and found themselves 2-0 down after 12 minutes. Prior to that he’d not overseen an Ipswich Town game since November 2010, when he showed Damien Delaney a red card in the 4-1 defeat at rivals Norwich.
Who is the Derby danger man?
It has to be Darren Bent, doesn’t it? He didn’t make it off the bench on Derby’s last visit, just days after being signed, but he’s a regular in the team now. He’s scored just once in 14 games this season, but we all know what returning former players are capable of. Chris Martin scored twice against Ipswich last season and is the Rams’ leading scorer with nine.
What are the bookies saying?
Despite being at home, the Blues are the outsiders at 9/4, with Derby at 7/5. If you do fancy Bent to be the party pooper he’s priced at 11/2 to score the last goal of the game against his former club.
Anything else worth knowing?
Christophe Berra has scored 11 goals for Ipswich in just over 100 games. More than a quarter of them have come against Derby. The Scot opened the scoring in a frenetic 4-4 draw at Pride Park in October 2013, netted the winner (2-1) when the Rams were at Portman Road later that season and then scored the equaliser in the East Midlands in the 1-1 draw in August 2014.
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