Derby thump Portsmouth to end six-game winless run in the Championship
Wilson fired Rams into early lead with fine first-time finish
Cashin & Adams made it 3-0 inside 30 minutes
Rams got fourth after break through Pack OG
Nine fixtures on Saturday including leaders Sheff Utd v Plymouth
Derby County 0-0 Portsmouth
Lively start from the home side, who are looking to (at least) avoid a third successive defeat at Pride Park.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing wins a corner that comes to nothing, but the Rams are making the early running here.
Derby County 0-0 Portsmouth
Martyn Waghorn
Ex-Derby striker on BBC Radio Derby
I would say Mendez-Laing is better on the right-hand side.
He’s really good at getting the ball out of his feet, getting to the by-line and crossing it.
I think he knows what his role is on the right, whereas on the left he can get caught in two minds.
Derby County 0-0 Portsmouth
Guy Whittingham
Former Portsmouth manager on BBC Radio Solent
Signs have been good the last few weeks.
We’ll definitely be okay. I wouldn’t say comfortable. But from what we’ve seen, we’re capable of giving every team a good game.
We should be able to win enough points going forward.
Derby County 0-0 Portsmouth
Here we go, then!
Referee Oliver Langford sounds his whistle and Derby get us under way.
Derby v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Former Derby County striker Martyn Waghorn has been talking to BBC East Midlands Today at Pride Park and says Rams boss Paul Warne was right to emphasis the “enormity” of their game against Portsmouth.
“I can understand it in terms of where both teams are in the league. I think it will be a bit of a statement game in terms of get the win and Derby can build some distance from where they are," Waghorn said.
"First and foremost, they need to get the win on the board after the run they have been on.
"I get why’s he has done it. It’s at home and against another team that has just come up, so I think he needed to try emphasise the win."
Derby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Image source, Rex FeaturesOn Portsmouth’s last two visits to Pride Park, not only have the 1-1 scorelines been identical – so too were the names on the scoresheet.
In the penultimate game of the 2022-23 League One campaign, Colby Bishop fired Pompey into a first-half lead, with James Collins netting the Rams’ equaliser 20 minutes from time.
Five months later, the match remained scoreless until the last five minutes, when Collins’ penalty put Derby ahead – only for Bishop to strike in added time and salvage a point for the visitors.
Surely they’ll let someone else have a go this evening?!
Derby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Image source, Getty ImagesHaving returned from Burnley with a point from their 0-0 draw on Tuesday, Derby manager Paul Warne has stressed the importance of backing up that result with a victory against Portsmouth.
The Rams have not won in six games, scoring just one goal in their last three and go into tonight’s game four places – and points – above their opponents, who have two games in hand.
“We have to try to get the best out of our players and perform well against a very good team. So I’m well aware of the enormity of this game,” Warne told BBC Radio Derby.
“On the run of three tough games (against Leeds, Burnley and Portsmouth), this is the one that we need to pick up all three points or give a really good performance to give ourselves a chance to.
“We do need a win and we do need a good home performance. Coming into the Christmas period it would be great if we can get this win.”
Derby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Both sides have made a number of changes - five for Derby and three for Portsmouth - since their respective 0-0 draws in midweek.
Kane Wilson, Craig Forsyth, Ben Osborn, Marcus Harness and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing all return to the Rams' starting XI, with Nathaniel Phillips, Liam Thompson, Callum Elder, Joe Ward and Dajaune Brown making way.
Derby County: Zetterstrom, Wilson, Forsyth, Cashin, Osborn, Yates, Mendez-Laing, Goudmijn, Harness, Adams, Nelson.
Subs:Vickers, Barkhuizen, Collins, Phillips, Thompson, Jackson, Elder, Blackett-Taylor, Brown.
Image source, OptaFor Pompey, Callum Lang and Andre Dozzell return after missing the Burnley game, while Tom McIntyre also starts.
Regan Poole, who had been nursing a knock, drops to the bench along with Owen Moxon and Paddy Lane.
Portsmouth: Schmid, Ogilvie, Pack, Potts, Bishop, McIntyre, Dozzell, Murphy, Devlin, Ritchie, Lang.
Subs: Archer, Swanson, Towler, Poole, Moxon, Kamara, Lane, Saydee, Sorensen.
Image source, OptaDerby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Image source, Rex FeaturesIt says plenty for Portsmouth’s recent improvement that there was an evident sense of disappointment at only taking a point from their 0-0 draw against Norwich – one of the highest-scoring teams in the Championship – in midweek.
Pompey extended their unbeaten run to four games, their best since returning to the second tier, but were unable to find a way through the Norwich defence in their bid for a third consecutive win at Fratton Park.
Midfielder Owen Moxon, who made his first start of the campaign against the Canaries, told BBC Radio Solent afterwards: “It’s a good point in the grand scheme of things but I would have liked to have taken all three and I think on the pitch we deserved that.
“It was a bit of a scrappy game at times. We’re pleased with the point but we deserved three.”
The point, however, was enough to lift Portsmouth out of the bottom three, ahead of Cardiff and Plymouth on goal difference and with a game in hand on both.
Derby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Image source, Rex FeaturesThe momentum of Derby’s promotion back to the Championship has ground to a halt during recent weeks, with the Rams searching for their first victory in seven games tonight.
Paul Warne’s men seemed to be adapting quickly to life in the second tier but they have tasted success on just one occasion since early October – and that came across the Midlands at Coventry.
It’s over three years – back in a wretched era of administration, relegation and uncertainty over the club’s future – since Derby experienced a longer winless streak than their current one and grumbles have begun to surface among the Pride Park crowd.
Losing back-to-back home fixtures to Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday certainly won’t have helped the mood and Derby, just four points above the bottom three in 17th place, desperately need to rectify that situation quickly.
Derby County v Portsmouth (20:00 GMT)
Image source, Rex FeaturesHere we go, then - it's almost time to sample that first slice of another Championship weekend!
Derby County and Portsmouth are first up tonight, with their clash at Pride Park due to get under way in around 20 minutes' time.
Sit back, relax and we'll guide you through all the action...
Ebou Adams has made 21 appearances for Derby this season
Derby County brought an emphatic end to their poor form as they cruised to victory against lowly Portsmouth in the Championship.
Kane Wilson gave Derby - a side that had won just one of their previous 11 games and none of their past six - the ideal start as he slotted home the opener with a first-time finish after cleverly being picked out in the box by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
Eiran Cashin powered home a header from a corner to double the first-half advantage before Ebou Adams soon made it 3-0 at Pride Park with a close-range effort that was deflected in by Pompey defender Tom McIntyre.
Marcus Harness then forced a fourth against his former side, with his dancing run into the box ending with a cutback pass that pinged off Pompey captain Marlon Pack for an own goal.
The game in the East Midlands was the first between the Rams and Pompey since they came up together from League One last season, with Portsmouth winning the title and Derby finishing as runners-up.
And while Pompey's return to the second tier got off to a slow start, spending three of the first four months of the season in the relegation places, their draw with Norwich on Tuesday moved them one place clear of the drop zone.
Derby, by contrast, started the campaign solidly but had struggled in recent weeks.
Having picked up just nine points from a possible 33 in the 11 games since mid-October, Rams boss Paul Warne spoke about being "well aware of the enormity" of their meeting with a side that started the night just four points and four places below them in the table.
After setting his team up to try and smother and frustrate Leeds and Burnley on the road in the past six days, Warne went with a more attacking formation with four at the back while also shuffling his side with five changes.
Two of the five to come into the starting XI for the Rams combined to make a decisive early impression, with winger Mendez-Laing finding Wilson lurking in the box to coolly finish a sweeping move that started with Cashin on the edge of Derby's own area.
Cashin, who was passed fit to play after taking a knock at Turf Moor on Tuesday, got on the end of a Kenzo Goudmijn corner for Derby's second before a smart backheel pass from Mendez-Laing helped set the Rams up for another soon after.
The pass found Craig Forsyth overlapping in the area, and the full-back's low cross was forced home by Adams, via a big deflection, as Derby scored three goals in the first half of a game for the first time since October 2023.
Apart from a cross-turned-shot from Jacob Murphy, which forced Jacob Widell Zetterstrom into action, Portsmouth failed to trouble their hosts.
Derby could have been even better off before half-time if not for a fine save from Nicolas Schmid to deny Jerry Yates.
Pompey's night in the East Midlands only got more miserable after the interval, with the energetic Harness rattling the visitors' defence as he burst into the box before drilling a low ball into the path of backtracking defender Pack, who could only thump it into his own net.
James Collins came off the bench to head just wide in search of a fifth for Derby, while Schmid went on to claw the ball off the line late on to ensure a defensive mix-up did not result in backpass from Abdoulaye Kamara dribbling into his own net.
Derby climb to 14th in the table, seven points clear of the drop zone, while Portsmouth are only out of the bottom three by virtue of having scored more goals than Cardiff.
Derby County head coach Paul Warne told BBC Radio Derby:
"I'm really pleased, there were some good performances within it. I didn't think we had as much control as the scoreline suggested in the first half.
"I don't think we played better tonight than we have in any other home game, it's just that goals change games and fortunately tonight we were on the right side of those chances.
"The lads are really confident, and I can say that because I'm with them all the time.
"They are not, not confident – they know they are a good team. We have been excellent at home, and we have been competitive away from home.
"In the last three games [at Leeds and Burnley before the Portsmouth game] I've been proud of each performance, but obviously this one gets headlines because we have won."
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:
"It all went wrong from the start really. Coming here was always going to be difficult on a Friday night, but we invited pressure with a couple of really poor decisions early on.
"It was a really strange first half, there wasn't a huge amount in it but every time Derby went forward they looked like scoring.
"We actually settled into the game okay after we went a goal down, but the second from a set-piece is really disappointing - I think we could do better from every phase of it.
"And after that, when it's 3-0, we huffed and puffed in the second half and had a couple of very minor chances, and once we didn't convert one of those we don't get back into the game at all.
"I always thought there was a chance at 3-0 to get a goal to get back into the game, but at 4-0 it could have been more after that."
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points | Form, Last 6 games, Oldest first |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 28 | 11 | 17 | 42 |
| |
| 2 | 20 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 14 | 22 | 41 |
| |
| 3 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 24 | 7 | 17 | 38 |
| |
| 4 | 20 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 29 | 15 | 14 | 37 |
| |
| 5 | 19 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 17 | 6 | 34 |
| |
| 6 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 2 | 23 | 14 | 9 | 32 |
| |
| 7 | 20 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 34 | 25 | 9 | 31 |
| |
| 8 | 19 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 27 | 25 | 2 | 31 |
| |
| 9 | 20 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 19 | 2 | 27 |
| |
| 10 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 35 | 30 | 5 | 26 |
| |
| 11 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 25 | 25 | 0 | 26 |
| |
| 12 | 20 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 23 | 29 | -6 | 26 |
| |
| 13 | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 20 | 17 | 3 | 25 |
| |
| 14 | 21 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 24 |
| |
| 15 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 20 | 26 | -6 | 22 |
| |
| 16 | 20 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 23 | 35 | -12 | 22 |
| |
| 17 | 20 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 25 | 29 | -4 | 21 |
| |
| 18 | 20 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 21 | 26 | -5 | 21 |
| |
| 19 | 20 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 20 | 26 | -6 | 21 |
| |
| 20 | 19 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 30 | -10 | 18 |
| |
| 21 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 21 | 34 | -13 | 17 |
| |
| 22 | 19 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 17 | 30 | -13 | 17 |
| |
| 23 | 19 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 40 | -21 | 17 |
| |
| 24 | 20 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 18 | 28 | -10 | 16 |
|
Manager: Paul Warne
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: John Mousinho
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Paul Warne
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: John Mousinho
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Championship
All competitions
All competitions
All competitions
Derby County are unbeaten across their last eight league games against Portsmouth (W3 D5), with each of the las four encounters ending in a draw.
Portsmouth have failed to win any of their last five away league games against Derby County (D3 L2), since a 2-1 victory at Pride Park in November 2002.
Derby are winless in their last four home league games (D2 L2) and could lose three in a row on home soil for the first time since October 2020 (run of five).
Portsmouth have already conceded 20 goals in their first nine away league games this season (W1 D4 L4); Pompey last conceded more than 20 goals in their first 10 away league games of a season in 1999-00 in the second tier (24).
Derby County have won each of their last four home league games played on Fridays, while Portsmouth are unbeaten in their last eight away Friday league games (W3 D5).
