Fight for the promotion

It was a really important away victory for Derby County vs Wigan, taking advantage that they had a man more in the pitch since the first quarter of the game. A few minutes later they scored the only goal that determined the outcome of the match, while they had a couple of chances to score more goals before the halftime. In the second half, Wigan balanced the game, but they didn’t find the net. F.Lampard has not available B.Johnson (suspended) and C. Forsyth, M.Olsson, M.Bennett (injured). On the contrary, midfielder J.Ledley is back in contention.

Nottingham Forest suffered an unexpected home loss, 0-1 vs Preston was their first loss after a seven-game undefeated streak. D.Rudd, the goalkeeper of Preston, was the hero of the match, especially in the first half, when he saved his team at least for three times. In the second half, away team found the net in one of their few dangerous situations, playing for the rest of the game behind the ball to keep their lead. Since that point Nottingham could not create, playing a wasteful game based on long distance balls. T.Figueiredo is out (suspended), S.Byram and E.Soudani also miss the game due to their injuries. On the contrary, A.Karanka will have available defenders D.Fox και M.Dawson.

It will be difficult for both teams to reach the top-2 positions of the table (straight promotion), as Leeds United and Norwich City seem unbeatable this period. However, Derby County and Nottingham Forest will fight till the end for a play-off place, to compete for the promotion in Premier League. The offered odds  (2.04 – 4.00) underestimate the potential of Nottingham Forest, actually they have lost only one out of their ten away games this season (3-6-1). At the same time Derby County is not the team that scare their opponents when playing at Pride Park. I ll take the risk here, odds >4.00 for the outsider could not be ignored.