Derby County Preview: Saturday 7th January 2012 (FA Cup 3rd Round)

Monday's Action


The first game of 2012 for The Eagles saw them take on moneybags Leicester City at Selhurst Park and it looked like it was going to be a promising year for The Eagles as they fought for the full 90 minutes only to be defeated 2-1 down to an unfortunate kick from goalkeeper Lewis Price whose clearance hit a Palace defender and fell to ex-Eagle Neil Danns who took advantage of the mistake.
A Neil Danns free kick created Leicester's second, the ball was crossed into the box, striker David Nugent nodding it on with defender Bamba on hand to tap it home.
Palace hit back just before half time with a wonderfully worked goal, which ended with Jonathan Parr's right footed shot curling past Schmeichel and into the top corner.

Team News


Crystal Palace have been hit with a virus this week that kept Speroni, McCarthy & Gardner out of the Leicester defeat. Kadell Daniel, Keiron Cadogan and a number of academy players have made the trip to Derby. Williams, Hills, Marrow & Wright are still out with various injuries. Chris Martin is ineligible as part of his loan contract. New loan signings Mustapha Dumbaya and John Egan are both eligible for this clash.

Derby Jeff Hendrick, Saul Deeney & Mark O'Brien all miss out for the Rams. O'Brien will be out for the remainder of the season after picking up a knee injury in training.

Preview


The Eagles travel to Derby County for their first FA Cup fixture of the campaign. The squad will be an accumulation of reserve and academy players as several key players have been hit with a virus as well as there being a semi-final against Cardiff on Tuesday.
With no previous meetings in the FA Cup this is anyone's match, especially with the last two meetings being tied. However the meeting before hand saw Derby storm to a 5-0 victory at Pride Park in which ex-Eagle Shefki Kuqi scored the fifth and final goal.
The sides have met a grand total of 63 times, in which Derby boast a remarkable 28 wins, with Palace being 10 wins behind them. The sides have not met in a cup match since 1970 in the League Cup which (ironically) was also a draw.

My CPFC line-up


I will not be doing a line-up for this one, purely because there are a lot of different players travelling to Derby and I couldn't begin to tell you where I would put them.

Best of luck to the debutants and all the lads!

Derby's last six:


W-W-W-L-W-D


The draw was against Palace.

Last time out


Crystal Palace 1-1 Derby County


Martin (15')             McCarthy (og) (75')

Match Facts:


- The sides have met 63 times with Derby boasting 28 wins to Palace's 18.

- The last meeting saw two Palace players score but at different ends of the pitch.

- The sides have never met in an FA Cup game before.

- Derby have scored an average of 1.45 goals at home this season, conceding 1.07.

- Palace have scored an average of 1 goal away from home, conceding 1.23.

- Palace are most deadly in front of goal in the final 15 minutes of a game; Derby have conceded six goals in this time period (scoring none).

- Derby are most deadly in front of goal in the middles 15 minutes of the second half (61-75) scoring 11 goals. Palace have conceded 8 goals in this time frame.

Prediction:


Derby 2-2 Palace