Nottingham Forest vs Derby County Betting Tips

There isn’t much love lost between these two clubs and it is certainly the first game that fans of both look out for when the fixtures are announced. However the contrasting starts to the season from the pair suggests that this might not be a Championship fixture next season.

Derby are riding high in 5th place and will go top of the league for the first time this season on Friday night with a win. By contrast Nottingham Forest are in freefall, and only the inability of the bottom three to pick up results is keeping them out of more danger right now.

It is Forest though, who are the current holders of the Brian Clough Trophy, which is awarded to the winners of this fixture every time it is played, following Ben Osborn’s stoppage time winner when the sides met at the iPro Stadium back in January.

Plenty has changed since though with Forest experiencing a summer depletion of their squad, while the Rams strengthened and brought in Paul Clement as boss and Carlo Ancelotti’s former trusted assistant has only lost 1 of his 15 league games so far.

They say the form book goes out the window in derby matches, which is probably good news for Forest, who have only taken 3 points from their last 8 league games with 5 defeats and 3 draws. In the same period Derby have picked up 20 points and their last 10 in the league have seen them win 8 times, drawing twice.

The Rams are unbeaten on the road in the league in over 7 months, while Forest have won only 1 of their last 11 Championship matches at the CIty Ground, losing 7 times.

At least on Friday they are guaranteed to have the crowd fully behind them from start to finish as they won’t turn on their own players or manager in such a big game. However whichever way you look at it, the form-book would have to pretty spectacularly go out the window for Forest to win this one.

Derby appear to be much the stronger side right now and are playing with real confidence and belief in their manager’s methods. At 23/20 they look good value to seal the win here and make up for their home defeat in the fixture earlier in the year.

It is likely to be a close game though. Only 1 of Nottingham Forest’s 7 defeats so far has been by more than 1 goal and they have lost their two matches this week 1-0 at Sheffield Wednesday and Preston. Despite their overall shocking home form, they do usually manage to get on the scoresheet at the City Ground and 4 of their last 7 home defeats have been by 2-1 scorelines.

A repeat here seems a likely outcome and Derby were 2-1 winners on the road as recently as last weekend at Huddersfield. You can back the Rams to secure another win by that scoreline at 8/1.