G.M's Match Preview: Wolves To Inflict More Suffering On Injured Rams
Friday, 20th Mar 2015 11:54 by George Martin

Unless Derby take a risk on Darren Bent and George Thorne, they are likely to field an unchanged line-up when travelling to Wolves to play in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

The other option for McClaren will be to play Thomas up front and give the team more physical presence, however this would seem unlikely. Buxton and Hendrick are doubts, so any changes are limited and the bench will be more light weight.

Hanson, Hughes and Bryson will look to continue in midfield, but Derby may look to freshen up the wide area with Lingaard.

The effort, desire and commitment of the players cannot be faulted. There is a slight lack of quality in and around the box and this showed on Tuesday, when Derby lost to Boro after a fine finish by Bamford.

Derby is in a sticky patch at the moment and this has coincided with injuries to key positions. It has not helped that the 'covering' players in the central defensive midfield and centre forward positions have also gone down with injury.

Wolves have had good results in recent games against Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham and Rotherham, but have drawn with Brighton, Watford and lost away to Bournemouth.

This suggests they beat mid and lower table teams, but can't manage to beat teams in the top 6. This could change tonight as Derby are out of form. Wolves are quite strong at home and history indicates Derby don't seem to win there.

Wolves defenders Richard Stearman and Dominic Iorfa are fit to face Derby after recovering from injury problems. In Afobe they have pace, power and goals. The back 4 are usually solid at home and Derby will find it difficult to break them down.

It will be another tough game for Derby. They will need to be tight and compact and hope to take advantage of a mistake by the opposition like at Ipswich and Norwich.

It will probably be another difficult night for both Rams players and fans with it likely to be a tough game.

I predict Derby to suffer more pain with a 2-0 loss.

Current League Position & Form:

Derby — 5th (L, L, D, D, L):

The Rams have not won in 5 matches — the last victory being 2-0 against Charlton late in February.

The Rams have only managed 1 win at Molineux in their last 7 attempts. The last victory since 1994 was 1-0 in September 2006.

The Rams have not won on the road in their last 5 matches, losing 2 and drawing 3. Their last win came on January 31st when they won 2-0 at Cardiff.

Wolves — 8th (W, L, D, D, W):

Wolves have only won 1 of their last 4 matches but have been strong at home with 3 wins in their last 4 at Molineux.

The last time a team managed to get the better of Wolves at home was on February 7th when they went down to Reading.