Derby County enter tonight’s fixture at home to Cardiff having put to bed a run of five games without a win with victory over Portsmouth at Pride Park on Saturday.
Before their comfortable 3-1 success over Pompey, Nigel Clough’s County side had seen their fine early season form begin to evaporate after taking just three points from five games.
This downturn in form coincided with a growing injury list which got even larger at the weekend with Chris Maguire and Theo Robinson both picking up knocks.
Maguire is expected to recover in time to be involved today, although Robinson is almost certain to miss out with a hamstring injury.
Despite the recent slump, Derby have surpassed pre-season expectations and not ventured out of the play-off places.
Indeed, they sit just four points behind promotion favourites West Ham having played a game less.
However, despite their slightly superior league placing, Derby find themselves in the odd position of being longer odds to claim the three points this evening than their visitors, who are tenth in the Championship.
In bwin’s 3Way football betting market the home side are priced at 21/10 to clinch the victory, a draw is at 23/10 and County’s opponents are the favourites at 6/5.
Although Cardiff may be favourites in terms of odds, a bet on Derby to emerge victorious looks to be wiser given the awful away record of Malky Mackay’s side.
Mackay’s reign as Cardiff boss got off to the perfect start when they shocked West Ham with a 1-0 win at Upton Park on the opening weekend of the campaign, but since then they haven’t managed to win any of their subsequent six away fixtures.
Perhaps the most worrying thing for Cardiff about their poor away form is that they have thrown away the lead on a number of occasions, having led in four of the six away fixtures they’ve failed to win.
Those looking for more attractive odds than offered on a Derby win could therefore look to the run of play market.
The odds on the Welsh side taking the lead before being pegged back for the draw are 17/5, but even better priced is Cardiff letting a lead slip through their grasp and losing the match, which is at 27/4.
Upon signing up to bwin, new customers will receive a free £25 bet and if you place this on Cardiff taking a lead before allowing Derby to win the match you would have a return of £193.75 if it proved successful.
New customers can register here to claim their free £25 bet or click here to see all our Championship odds.
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