With the luxury if having a bigger squad to choose from, Neil Warnock may well give El Hadji Diouf another breather tomorrow with the festive games coming thick and fast over the next few weeks.
Diouf, 31 is struggling with a groin strain and the return to fitness of Ross McCormack enabled Warnock to rest his Senegalese star turn in last weekend's 4-2 romp at Huddersfield. Warnock revealed Diouf experienced a similar strain last year at Doncaster but played on and lost three weeks with injury.
My money is on Diouf being rested again and Warnock going for an unchanged eleven. Luke Varney is available again and may just make the subs bench against one of his former clubs. Paul Green is likely to start against the club he left in the summer on a Bosman and whilst Nigel Clough paid tribute to the Irish international as being a "superb" servant it will be interesting to see if the natives are so fond of Green's decision to snub the offer of a new deal to head to Yorkshire!
This fixture certainly gets the heckles up amongst the Derby fans and the rivalry dates back to the late 60's early 70's when two young men from Middesbrough, Brian Clough and Don Revie pitched battle between their two warring sides and rarely was any love lost. Add into the mix Clough's 44-days at Elland Road prior to his success with Derby's hated rivals Forest then you have all the ingredients for a spicy encounter on a cold December day!
Whilst I do not condone the offensive song aimed at Nigel Clough and his late father, I do not have much time for the dull, smug little ****. Derby do not travel well, they went down 4-1 at Leicester last weekend, however their home form makes Pride Park something of a fortress. Leeds actually won their first visit to Pride Park in 1997/98 5-0 in the George Graham era. More recently though it has been 10 years since we returned with all three-points and we have lost five of our last six visits.
Last season Derby beat us 1-0 on Boxing Day and 2-0 at ER on Easter Monday. Our form of late is impressive and more consistent than theirs but I think we will come away with a point at best, my prediction 1-1.