The Rams travel to Hull this week for a match on Friday evening which promises to be one of the biggest of the season so far.

The Rams are currently fourth in the Championship, with 33 points from 17 games, while Hull lead the table with 35 from 17.

Hull have an excellent home record, with six wins and two draws from eight matches; they have scored sixteen and conceded only three. So at home, Hull score quite freely, and do not let many in.

Approaching the half way mark in the season (still a little way away), the top five in the Championship are beginning to open up a gap on the rest of the teams: fifth placed Burnley are five points clear of sixth placed Birmingham.

The top five are beginning to look as though they have a bit more quality than the rest of the division; the top two seem almost certain to come from this group of five.

It is for this reason that I think it is vitally important for the Rams that they not lose on Friday. Defeat at Hull would put the Rams five points behind Hull; if Brighton were to beat Birmingham at home on Saturday, then the top two would move five points clear of the Rams.

A draw for the Rams at Hull would be very nice indeed. So far this season, the Rams have achieved decent but unspectacular results against the current top five; a home draw against Middlesbrough in August, and a home draw against Burnley in September. In fact, the Rams only league defeats so far have come against two poor teams; Leeds and Forest.

What can we expect from the Rams on Friday? We know that Bradley Johnson will miss the match because of accumulated bookings, but there will not likely be many more changes.

The obvious choice to replace Johnson is between Jeff Hendrick and Craig Bryson. Certainly Hendrick has played much more football this season than Bryson; but Hendrick’s last appearance was in the lamentable performance at Forest and he was not used against Cardiff.

My own preference would be Bryson, since Paul Clement assures us he is fit to start if called upon, but my opinion has as much influence as … well, you know. Will Johnny Russell return to the starting line up? I do not really see it, Weimann cannot really be dropped after three goals in four games, and I also cannot see Ince being left out despite his so-so form.

Here is one somewhat interesting factoid; since Weimann began his run of starts in the Rotherham match, Chris Martin has not scored; and Martin scores only when Johnny Russell starts. But I still do not see Russell replacing Weimann or Ince just at the moment.

What of Hull? I stated earlier that they score quite a few goals, and do not concede a lot. They are a bit like the Rams in that their goals are spread around the team: leading scorer Abel Hernandez has seven in the league this season, while nobody else has more than three.

They have some injury and suspension worries: their Captain, central defender Michael Dawson, will miss the match as will left-back Andrew Robertson and midfielder David Meyler. Dawson looks like the real loss of that group, but they have the highly experienced Curtis Davies to replace him.

All in all, this is an extremely important fixture for the Rams. It is certainly not an easy one, but as I always say with this sort of opposition, hey it’s not Real Madrid. If we want to finish in the top two, we have to get results in matches like this.

The Rams need a draw at the very least from this one, and I think that is well within reach.

After the last away match, at Forest, things can only get better.

I’m looking for nil-nil.

Photo: Action Images

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