[themaclad]

This was our last 3pm Saturday away win, a mere 463 days ago when the game eventually kicks off, we will be at a ground where we usually get all of sod. Last seasons defeat at the Park was a dire performance, let's hope we do better against the Rams on Saturday

MANAGER

John Mark Eustace (born 3 November 1979) is an English professional football coach and former player who is head coach of EFL Championship club Derby County.

During his playing career, he played as a central midfielder for Coventry City, Stoke City, Watford and Derby County. He also spent time on loan at Dundee United, Middlesbrough and Hereford United.

After retiring as a player, Eustace served as manager of Kidderminster Harriers between 2016 and 2018, eventually leaving to become assistant manager of Queens Park Rangers in 2018. He had a brief spell as caretaker manager of QPR in 2019. Eustace served as head coach of Birmingham City between July 2022 to October 2023. He was appointed head coach of Blackburn Rovers in February 2024, before leaving to become Derby County head coach in February 2025



https://www.dcfc.co.uk/

NEWBIES AND THEM IN FORM



Raided Blackburn for a few of his ex players actually surprised we are not playing this at Ewood

FORM GUIDE



MYSTIC MACS FORM GUIDE RETURNS

RAMS 8 PNE 9

OTHER GAMES AND STANDINGS




BIT OF HISTORY

Derby County F.C. was formed in 1884 as an offshoot of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club, becoming a founder member of the Football League in 1888. The club experienced its peak success in the 1970s, winning two English First Division titles and reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup. Derby County has also won the FA Cup once and holds the distinction of being one of the few clubs to have competed in every season of the English football league system.

[themaclad]

Team News
[​IMG]
After missing the last two matches, it’s hoped that Milutin Osmajić will be available in some capacity following a return to training.

Brad Potts is also getting involved in sessions at Euxton, although he’s a couple of weeks away from a return.

Robbie Brady is expected to be sidelined for a number of months after undergoing surgery on his calf. Jordan Thompson and Will Keane also remain out.

The Hosts

After being appointed as head coach in February, John Eustace has added 13 new signings to his Derby County squad for his first full season in charge.

There’s a real mix of youth and experience within the Rams ranks, with Andreas Weimann and Lewis Travis two examples of the latter, while young loanees such as Bobby Clark and David Ozoh have added freshness.

Derby are unbeaten in their last three. Draws against Bristol City and Ipswich Town were followed by a 1-0 victory last weekend away from home against West Brom.
Match Officials

Referee: Lewis Smith
Assistant Referees: Hugh Gilroy and Daniel Leach
Fourth Official: Simon Mather

Lewis Smith refereed both of PNE’s meetings with Sunderland last season and he was the man in the middle for the 4-1 victory over Huddersfield Town in April 2024, when Milutin Osmajić scored an eight-minute hat-trick.

We’ve Met Before
PNE’s last victory over Derby County came in April 2021, when Ben Whiteman, Ched Evans and Ryan Ledson were scorers in a 3-0 win.

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The manager speaks

Paul Heckingbottom is hopeful of being able to welcome back Milutin Osmajić for this weekend’s match against Derby County.

The striker has missed the last two Championship matches and was touch and go for the Middlesbrough clash, but the Montenegrin is that step closer for the trip to Pride Park.

Brad Potts is also nearing a return, albeit he’s still a few weeks off, meanwhile Robbie Brady has been ruled out for a number of months.

With last weekend’s squad full of contracted professionals, the addition of even one injured player provides the gaffer with a selection headache as it means someone will have to miss out from the 20-man squad.

Hecky said: “That only happened once or twice last season and if everyone's fit and there are decisions to make then I would welcome them. It is tough. It's not nice but I would welcome them and we'd probably make decisions then based game on game.

“I know what type of game I'm expecting from Derby for example so you pick a team accordingly. Probably something that you don't speak about as much is if you have got the choice you can pick a bench accordingly as well, depending on if you're winning, if you're losing, what their strengths are, what you might have to deal with and the more options you've got to do that over the season it’s bound to get you more points.”

North End will take on the Rams in search of a first away victory in the league this season.

The same journey was made towards the end of the last campaign and it was John Eustace’s side who came out on top. Both teams now look very different, though, with PNE adding 12 new players over the summer and Derby recruiting 13.

Hecky said: “It’ll be a tough game from what I've seen of Derby. They're showing all those strengths that they showed last season when I saw them. They know how to stay in games and know how to make it difficult for opponents. They’re not embarrassed to win the games by making it tough and then scoring late goals as they did against Bristol City and West Brom so it's going to be a tough, tough game.

“John's put a lot more firepower in at the front end as well to make them more of a threat. He improved it by changing the squad, adding players, but still maintained that toughness if you like which they showed last year.

“I'm looking forward to it for lots of different reasons. It's going to be tough. Our team will be a lot different [compared to the last meeting] and probably we’ll look more different than them in terms of set up, style, personnel. They’re not an easy team to play against as anyone who's played them so far will say and it's going to be a real test for us.”

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Attendance: 29,143 (1,817 PNE fans).

Referee: Lewis Smith.

Divine intervention on a soggy afternoon in Derby, a sumptuous left foot strike from the Tottenham loan player settled the game and broke the Saturday afternoon away hoodoo.
Both teams won one half difference being we scored and they didn't.
Derby escaped the worst of the drenching the North of the country got, one change Osmajic returned for Jebbison.
Started the better of the two Dobbin giving the rather poberous Clarke and Sanderson the run around although he does have a tendancy to fall over easily otherwise this lad has some ability. Derby rarely threatened and were duly punished by the goal which could have had a second when Osmajic got in front of the defender and flicked the ball goalwards, decent save by Zetterstrom.
The Chilean, Ben should probably have done better than geymang came on for the Rams and tame effort easily saved by Big Dan and Clark could get an effort on goal from close range. The Rams first half could be summed up by a Rams player dumming a pass to let the ball run through his legs to a team mate behind him who wasn't there.



Ageymang came on for the Rams and was a danger from the off, pacey and direct gave our defence problems, we didn't help ourselves with our inability to pass to each other. The big substitute had one effort saved by Iversen's legs, Forsyth poked one wide and a clearnce hit Ageymang and flew narrowly wide for a coal kick.
The tide started to subside and we gradually gained a foothold and Jebbison could have double the lead late on.
Three points, play off places and totally different feel to the miserable defeat we had here last April

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom felt his side showed everything in a “really strong away performance” against Derby County.

North End left Pride Park with a 1-0 victory thanks to a moment of brilliance from Alfie Devine, who opened the scoring with a superb effort in the 29th minute.

PNE had to defend well in the second half to keep the hosts at bay and did just that, with Daniel Iversen having to produce a top stop to ensure they left Derbyshire with three points.

On his side’s performance, Hecky said: “Really good. We say how hard this league is. We had to show everything today.

“I thought with the ball we were excellent. Derby struggled to get to grips with us in the first half and they had to make changes in the second half and go a lot more direct.

“Then we had to show a defensive side to our game as well. And again, to a man, we stood up to it. When Dan was called upon once, he made a save. We could have made it more comfortable if we could have scored that second goal but it wasn't to be. It’s a really strong away performance.”

The victory at Pride Park was even more evidence after the early showings this season that North End are a team working together, fighting for every ball and giving everything to win.

They caused lots of problems in the first half in particular, most notably through Lewis Dobbin and goalscorer Devine, who couldn’t have taken his opener any better. It’s that kind of individual flair which the manager was so keen to add in the summer window.

Hecky said: “Yeah we did, whether it was wide being able to get crosses in, through Pol [Valentín], Thierry [Small], obviously Andy [Vukčević] with his athleticism on the side. We already know what we've got with the boys in the building who’ve played there for us.

“Then with the late Premier League boys if you like, Lewis, Alfie and Harrison [Armstrong], we’d been in conversations with them for a long, long time but the timing's always got to be right.

“We think that they bring something a little bit different to what we had in the squad but if they're not willing to work hard, if they're not willing to do what they did today to keep clean sheets, track runners and make it difficult for the opposition as well then they won't play because you can't carry anyone. But when you do get them working and they know their role in the team and they’ve got those moments in them, then it's fantastic.”


The travelling 1,800 North End fans definitely enjoyed the victory at Pride Park and got to celebrate with the team at full-time.

Hecky said: “They turned up in numbers today. You could hear them from the first minute. I think they enjoyed watching the team.

“Again, they saw everything. They saw a team that passed the ball really well, scored a really good goal, and then one that was willing to put their bodies on the line when they had to see the game out and get the clean sheet.

“I just said to the players, there's nothing better than winning a game of football other than probably winning it away from home.”

EUSTACE

Derby County head coach John Eustace told BBC Radio Derby:

"The first-half performance wasn't anywhere near good enough, we are all very disappointed about that, but I thought in the second half we showed lots of energy and it was more like us. And I thought we were really unlucky not to at least get an equaliser.

"We have battled away in the last three or four games, and we have had a good solid formation to play from, and today that first-half formation didn't work for us and we were a little too passive and not getting tight enough.

"We deservedly went in [at half-time] 1-0 down, but it's about learning and growing as a group and getting the right formula and chemistry between the players. I thought today, the changes in the second half showed a different side to us."

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