3/1 To Win
Midfielder Tom Huddlestone is expecting a tight encounter against Nottingham Forest at Pride Park Stadium on Monday night.
Three points separate the two sides in the Sky Bet Championship, with the Reds just sitting outside of the play-off places as the half way point of the season approaches.
Meanwhile, prior to the weekend's action getting underway, Derby sat in fourth place.
With so much at stake, Huddlestone is expecting the game to be a cagey affair.
“You know what you’re going to get with an Aitor Karanka team,” Huddlestone told RamsTV.
“They are very organised and with a player like Lewis Grabban, who at this level is the best over the last couple of years at scoring goals, they have got the attacking options. But equally, having played against Karanka’s team at Middlesbrough, he gets them organised and everyone knows their jobs.
“It’s as close at this stage of the season, points wise, than it has been in a number of years so that adds more fuel to the fire.”
The Rams are in relatively good form, winning their last two games - against Swansea City and Wigan Athletic - and only losing twice since in the league since the start of October.
“We haven’t been playing as well as we would have liked but we are getting positive results,” said Huddlestone.
"Everyone above us is churning out wins week in week out, so even if we are not playing well, but still getting three points, we are not really gaining much on teams.
“Looking at the league table, apart from Leeds, we have done well against teams in and around us. We’ve spoken about Aston Villa as well but a lot of the teams are similar to ourselves.
“They like to keep the ball and play in the right way and that’s where we have been at our best this season. Recently we have grounded out results against teams who go a little bit more direct.
“Against Wigan, we weren’t the best on the ball but to grind out a clean sheet like we did gives us a lot of confidence.
“There is not a Wolves, Newcastle, one team that is going to win the league by 15-20 points. It looks like this year could be two out of nine or 10 teams who fancy their chances to finish in the automatic places at the end of the season, and we are no different.
“With the money Forest spent in the summer, that was their main objective and both clubs have put themselves in a good position coming into the Christmas period.
“It’s going to come soon where we get a full performance alongside a good result and there is no better time than Monday night.”
