Derby County v Nottingham Forest Betting Tips

Sunday’s Championship match is an East Midlands derby between Derby County and Nottingham Forest – both of whom are in good form at the moment.

Derby County are the Championship’s in-form side right now with five wins in their last five matches which has resulted in Steve McClaren (in his second spell in charge at Pride Park) being awarded the Manager of the Month award for November after his side rocketed from 19th to 9th position in the league.

The Rams boss will be particularly pleased with his team’s defensive record during that run with his side keeping clean sheets in four out of those five victories.

Additionally, Derby’s defensive record at home during McClaren’s latest reign has been perfect with zero goals conceded in the five games he has taken charge of at Pride Park. Unsurprisingly, Derby have won all but one of their home matches since the former England manager’s appointment.

Derby had struggled to score goals before McClaren’s arrival but that record has now improved with The Rams now averaging over a goal a game which means the total in their ‘Goals For’ column should dramatically increase from its current number of 17 – the third worst in the division.

All of this means that Derby will be incredibly confident going in to the East Midlands derby on Sunday.

After being very inconsistent in the first third of the season, Nottingham Forest have had a similar upturn in fortunes to Derby with Philippe Montanier’s team winning their last three matches on the spin, scoring nine goals in the process. This change in form has been led by midfielder Henri Lansbury who was recently named as Player of the Month for November.

However, where Forest differ immensely to Derby is in defence. Despite winning three on the spin, their average conceding rate in that period was a goal a game. Only bottom of the table Rotherham United have a worse defensive record than The Reds, conceding 45 to Forest’s 33 whilst Montanier’s side have only kept one clean sheet all season – the same as Rotherham.

When you are conceding so many goals, it is hard to keep a winning run going and I fear this could be Forest’s downfall soon.

Although both of these sides are in good form, Derby are undoubtedly the better team out of the two at the moment so have rightly been made favourites. With such a good defensive record, I do not think they will concede many against Forest – despite the latter’s attacking prowess. Additionally, given it will be a rather tense derby atmosphere, I do not think we will see too many goals. With this in mind, ‘Derby County to Win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1’, at a very nice 7/4, is the first bet to be on here. I like the number of variables given on this bet and am surprised it offers such a large profit margin in the circumstances.

Of course derbies are derbies and many find them close to call. If you are this sort of person then I would certainly recommend looking at ‘2-3 Total Goals’ at 21/20. This gives you great flexibility on the result and, whilst this isn’t likely to be a goal-fest, I expect there to be at least two given we have two sides in good attacking form. Furthermore, this bet would have won in two of the last three meetings between these two sides at Pride Park.

See all of Sunday’s tips here.