Derby vs Cardiff Predictions

• Derby have won at least one half of football in 15 of their last 16 home league games.
• Derby have won eight of their last 12 home Championship matches.
• Cardiff City have lost six of their last nine away league contests.
• Eiran Cashin scored his first league goal last week and has a great scoring record in youth football.

Rams’ remarkable record for winning at least a half 

Derby County can finish a tough season on a high by getting the better of Cardiff City in Saturday’s Championship finale at Pride Park. The Rams will be playing League One football next season, but the defiance shown by Wayne Rooney’s side all season should stand them in good stead for an immediate return to second-flight football.

On an uncomfortably moderate budget, Rooney’s side won enough games to finish on 55 points and in 17th place – that would have seen them finish clear of Cardiff in 19th, but for being docked 21 points. A squad of gnarled veterans and inexperienced talent, with very little in between, gelled and fought hard until it was impossible to stay up – and did so again last week even though their fate had been sealed.

The 2-0 victory at a Blackpool side that had won six of their previous nine home gamers and had tonked Birmingham 6-1 in their previous outing at a packed Bloomfield Road suggests Derby are worth supporting in some way again here. The obvious way would be to back them at around 6/5 to claim all three points. The Rams have won eight of their last 12 home Championship matches while Cardiff have lost six of their last nine away league contests, so the price seems fair enough.

Cash in on Cashin in a anytime GS market

But for only slightly shorter odds of around 4/6, Derby can be backed to win just one half of the game – which they have done in a remarkable 15 of their last 16 at Pride Park. The Bluebirds have lost at least one half of each of their last seven, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer to recommend this as our main bet preference.

Also worthy of note at greater odds is the goalscoring prowess of Rams defender Eiran Cashin, who got his first league goal with a trademark header against Blackpool last week. Cashin is fearless in both penalty areas and has an instinct for finding the ball when it’s in the air as his record at youth level clearly suggests.

The correct score forecast of a 2-1 home win is preferred because Derby average 1.6 goals for and 1.1 goals against in their ten home league matches since the turn of the year while the opposite is true of the Bluebirds in their last ten road trips.