Derby County Match Preview

The victory over fellow relegated club Wolverhampton Wanderers in Stratford on Tuesday night should have given West Ham United a boost going into this afternoon’s home match with Derby County. Now that the transfer window is shut until January, the home support will certainly hope for some consistency to build a platform for promotion back to the top-flight.

The home side’s week started off with a 1-1 draw at Watford, so how good would it be if the Hammers could achieve back-to-back wins here?

Neither team has had a good start to the season despite both sides coming out on top four days ago. However, it’s important to note that the hosts currently have one more point than their opponents who go into this game off the back of three points at Portsmouth so, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top here.

Nuno Espírito Santo and John Eustace have had the same amount of time to work with their teams after Tuesday’s matches, meaning neither has an advantage in terms of preparation ahead of this encounter.

The Hammers’ Head-Coach made four changes for the game against his former club and he may make more alterations here. Valentín Castellanos made way for Pablo Felipe against the men from the Black Country but the Argentine may be restored to the starting line-up.

Edvin Austbø made his first appearance for his new club from the bench against César Peixoto’s men and he could be in contention to make his full home debut today, while the Rams may also come up against two other new players that have made the move to East London this week, as defenders Morato and Adama Boiro are also in contention.

One player that will not be in the squad this afternoon is young striker Josh Landers as it was confirmed on Thursday afternoon that after continued speculation about a season-long loan move to Scottish Championship outfit Ayr United, he is now back in his homeland and ready for a new challenge.

The match is a 3pm kick-off and the referee is Oliver Langford