G.M's MatchDay Preview: Rams Must Kick Bad Habits Against Addicks
Saturday, 29th Mar 2014 06:46 by George Martin

Derby will be looking to bounce back after the disappointing late loss away to Ipswich on Tuesday evening.

In sport, a massive high is often followed by a low and this proved the case only three days after the total demolition of Notts Forest when Derby could not even gain a point in a match where they dominated for long spells, played attractive football and created chances to seal the victory.

McClaren and the coaching team will need to decide whether to bring back Eustace after his two game ban. Personally, I think Thorne has played very well. Big in stature, comfortable on the ball and more importantly he tends to pass the ball forward more times than Eustace.

With Ward, Dawkins and Hughes still in doubt, I believe Derby will be unchanged form the Ipswich game. Derby will hope the middle three will dominate midfield and Martin, along with the wide players, will get chances to score goals.

The goal in the opening minute against Ipswich was superb with Hendrick, Russell and Forsyth all involved. The movement from Martin to create the space for Bamford should not be underestimated and the timing of Bamford's run and clinical finish was excellent. It is just such a shame we did not close down their player for equaliser and defend higher up the pitch from the free kick that led to the winner.

Charlton will be in confident mood after their 1-0 victory over The Trees in midweek. They have a new manager in Jose Riga after ex-Ram legend Chris Powell was controversially sacked after their great cup run and many games in hand.

Controversy surrounds the new ownership who, by all accounts, seemed to have Riga lined up as a replacement after his connections with Charlton's new owner and Standard Leige.

Charlton could give a debut to midfielder Davide Petrucci following his loan move from Manchester United. Winger Callum Harriott will be assessed prior to kick off, but defenders Leon Cort and Chris Solly are still out with knee injuries.

Jonnie Jackson and Marvin Sordell will provide threats for Charlton, but all will depend on how they approach the game. Teams in their situation seem to want to stop Derby playing, frustrate and play on the counter attack. If they decide to try similar tactics to Millwall then Derby need to ensure they have learnt their lesson from a couple of weeks ago.

We need to continue to make sure crosses; decision making and shots in the final third are the correct ones and are of quality. Derby possesses a number of goal scorers across the pitch and hopefully we will be able to make this count.

Whilst we can still bask in the glory of totally humiliating our local rivals and laugh at the turbulent few months they've had, it is now all about the run in and getting the victories and points on the board to secure a play off spot.

A positive result against Charlton, with not too many games remaining will hopefully go along way to securing that.

Enjoy the game and cheer on The Rams.

Current Form — Last 5 League Matches:

Derby (4th): L, D, D, W, L

Charlton (21st): D, D, W, L, W

The Stats That Matter:

After going 14 matches in which they only scored 1 first half goal, The Rams broke that drought in spectacular fashion by putting 3 past Forest in the first 45 and then 1 past Ipswich in 34 seconds.

Steve McClaren has collected 53 points of a possible 78 points as Rams Head Coach.

Despite having kept 3 clean sheets in 4 matches, The Rams have only won 1 match of their last 6, drawing 2 and losing 3.

Derby has not lost to Charlton in their last 5 meetings (3 wins / 2 draws). You have to go back to 2002 the last time they were defeated by the visitors and even further back to 1999 when Charlton last won away at Derby.

Charlton have won 2 of their last 3 matches, after winning only 2 of their previous 9 matches.

In their last 11 away matches Charlton have only won once — earlier this week against Forest.

Charlton have only scored 26 league goals so far this season, the lowest in the Championship, while the Rams have scored the 2nd most.