Derby - Crewe, English League Championship
2004-08-28 16.00 CET
Pick: Derby
Stake: 2%
Odds: 1,80
Final reasons
Derby has made some fine performances in the league lately. They also have a much more interesting team than last season that hopefully will deliver the goods on a more consistent basis. Tomorrow they face Crewe, a relegation candidate that so far has found it hard to compete this season and only have collected two points. Derby has a real good chance of grabbing their third consecutive win in the league here. 2% stake is suggested.
General comment about the game
On Saturday the English League Championship continues and our attention is drawn to the game between Derby and Crewe. Derby has made some interesting signings in Danish international midfielder Morten Bisgaard, Bosnia international defender Mo Konjic, Spanish midfielder Inigo Idiakez and striker Tommy Smith. These, together with last years signings Ian Taylor and Michael Johnson will add some much needed experience to the otherwise young side. Upfront they will also welcome back Brazilian striker Junior who has been plagued by injury since his arrival a year ago. Hopefully for the Derby faithful, manager George Burley will have the chance to build on a more settled side this year than the chopped and changed team they had last year. He is also confident that they are a better team this season than the previous disappointing one. Derby started the new season badly with two straight defeats against fellow old Premiership sides Leeds and Leicester. However, they played better than the result shows. After that they made a fine performance against Ipswich which saw them turn 1-2 from half time to a victory with 3-2. Also their latest league game ended with a victory, this time against newcomers Queens Park Rangers. In midweek Derby lost when playing away in the Carling Cup against lower division side Lincoln. First half was quite good and Derby seemed to have it all under control after Idiakez had scored the opening goal. Derby had some good opportunities to extend their lead but in the 78th minute Lincoln was rewarded a controversial penalty kick that they scored from. This decision seems to have stunned the Derby players since Lincoln were able to score two more goals to set the final result to 3-1. In this game Derby missed two of their new signings; Bisgaard and Smith through injuries. Both are expected to return to the squad tomorrow. However, defender Richard Jackson is ruled out for the game and fellow defender Konjic is still not fit enough to make his first appearance this season.
Crewe is expected to be among the teams involved in the relegation battle. Most important new signings are goalkeeper Ben Williams from Manchester Utd and midfielder Mark Rivers from Norwich. Both have been regulars in the opening rounds and Rivers has impressed with his three goals already. Biggest loss is former captain Dave Brammer and it will be interesting to see if this will have a detrimental effect on the team. With so little changes it seems like Crewe once again will be dependant of their strikers Dean Ashton and Steve Jones. Last season they scored 34 league goals among them and a similar pattern will be a must for Crewe to stay up. Ashton has started best with three goals with Jones still seeking his first in the league. However, he made a very fine performance in the Carling Cup in midweek when he scored twice to secure a victory against Blackpool with 4-1. Crewe’s start in the league has not been good; despite scoring seven goals in four matches they have only collected two points since they have let in ten goals. In their last league game, last Saturday against West Ham they performed below-par according to their long serving manager Dario Gradi. West Ham rallied away to a comfortable 3-0 lead before the half hour and even if Ashton scored twice the victory was well deserved for the Hammers, winning 3-2. No changes are expected in Crewe’s starting line up since midweek’s Cup victory.
Recent games for home team
|
2004-08-21 |
Queens Park Rangers-Derby |
0-2 |
|
2004-08-14 |
Derby-Ipswich |
3-2 |
|
2004-08-11 |
Derby-Leicester |
1-2 |
|
2004-08-07 |
Leeds-Derby |
1-0 |
Recent games for away team
|
2004-08-21 |
Crewe-West Ham |
2-3 |
|
2004-08-14 |
Nottingham-Crewe |
2-2 |
|
2004-08-10 |
Sunderland-Crewe |
3-1 |
|
2004-08-07 |
Crewe-Cardiff |
2-2 |
Home table
|
Derby |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4-4 |
3 |
Away table
|
Crewe |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3-5 |
1 |
Links for this game
|
Derby: |
|
|
Crewe: |
|
|
|
|
|
Livescore: |
|
|
|
|
|
League: |
|
|
|
|
// SportsObserver 040827
