Derby County v Cardiff City Betting Tips: Hosts can come out on top at Pride Park

This match sees one team looking to secure a play-off place take on a side who are simply looking to avoid the drop come May.

Derby have had a bit of a nightmare recently with just one win in their last five in all competitions and they now sit a rather large five points outside the top six. However, they will be encouraged by their comeback against Bristol City at the weekend as they managed to scrape a draw despite being 3-0 down at half time.

Although they have had a bit of a bad time recently with just one clean sheet in their last six league matches, the Rams still have the second-best defensive record in the league with just 25 goals conceded in 30 games as well as the second-best clean sheet record in the league with 15 – an impressive 50% of their matches.

Even though they scored three at the weekend, Steve McLaren’s side are still poor going forward and have the worst ‘Goals For’ record in the Championship’s top 11 teams. Having said this, they haven’t exactly needed to score loads at home, considering their excellent record of no league losses at the Pride Park since 15th October.

Neil Warnock has certainly steadied the ship at Cardiff and it looks like the Bluebirds should be staying up this season with them now 10 points clear of the relegation zone thanks to two victories in their last three Championship matches. 15 points from their last eight games puts them sixth in the league’s form table.

Defensively, Cardiff have been pretty sound since Warnock arrived and they have not lost a league match by a three-goal margin since he arrived. Unfortunately though, they are not the greatest going forward and it is no coincidence that, when they win, they do it with a clean sheet as they often fail to outscore opponents.

The Bluebirds have neither been great nor terrible on their travels with 16 points from 15 league matches. However, they have not won back-to-back matches away from home this season which shows a lack of consistency.

Derby have been on a bit of a downer recently but I expect them to come out on top here. That match against Bristol City on Saturday will no doubt have shocked them a bit and the comeback should have put them back into the right gear, particularly defensively. ‘Derby County to Win & Under 2.5 Goals’, at 3/1 represents good value considering 70% of the Rams’ matches have contained less than three goals.

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