It's the loan club

It’s only a couple of months since we there, in the FA Cup, and apparently this was the defeat that cost us Ade Akinbiyi according to the man who speaks on behalf of our club and claims himself to be a diehard Claret.

It was a bad day for us, in fact Ade could have won it for us but missed a good chance, but it didn’t take Derby on too long a cup run. They had a 5-1 win and a 6-1 defeat in the league before going down to Colchester in the fourth round and they came unstuck at Layer Road, going down 3-1 and missing out on a trip to Chelsea in the next round.

It was almost enough to remove Phil Brown’s fake tan but was enough to remove him from his job and two days later he was sacked after just a few months in the job. There was a lot of speculation as to who might take the job but they have now decided to stick with caretaker Terry Westley, the former Luton boss, until the end of the season.

Derby have picked up seven points since he took over and Westley has continued the Brown style of management with four more loan deals to add to the nine made by his predecessor.

The first of them was Mounir El Hamdaoui from Spurs who was returning for his second spell with them, but this time the Dutch striker’s time at Derby was cut short because of injury. Since then he’s brought in Kevin Lisbie from Charlton, who was strongly linked with a move to Burnley, Sheffield United full back Alan Wright and then this week McIndoe from Doncaster.

There are two other new faces too since our cup meeting, just days before losing his job Phil Brown spent half a million on West Brom defender Darren Moore and also signed Polish defender Tomasz Hajto from Southampton.

Derby are currently in 19^th place in the table but just four points behind the Clarets from a game more. They are reasonably comfortable and are six points above the bottom three and way the results have been going down at the bottom they should be safe.

Click HERE to see all Derby’s results this season.

It’s Burnley in need of the result right now, to get us out of the poor run we are in; getting it at Derby would surely ease the worries for the pessimists amongst us.

There were worries for Derby during the week with a number of players carrying injuries but they have had good news in the last couple of days with Kevin Lisbie (hamstring), Darren Moore (thigh) and Inigo Idiakez (knee) all having been declared fit.

Tomasz Hajto looked a certain non-starter after missing out last week but he too is fit and ready to join the squad but Richard Jackson will not feature despite having returned to training following a hamstring injury. The Johnsons, Seth and Michael, are also both still out.

Derby are expected to line up: Lee Camp, Marc Edworthy, Darren Moore, Lewin Natyanga, Alan Wright, Tommy Smith, Giles Barnes, Inigo Idiakez, Adam Bolder, Lee Holmes, Kevin Lisbie. Subs from: Kevin Poole, Jeff Kenna, Paul Thirlwell, Morten Bisgaard, Tomasz Hajto, Martin McIndoe, Mr Karren Brady.

Click HERE to see the full Derby squad.

Over recent weeks we’ve been without players virtually every game, be it defenders with suspensions or forwards through illness or injury, but it looks as though Steve Cotterill has virtually a stronger squad to choose from at Derby.

It’s not a full squad though, and apart from Danny Coyne it is unlikely that either of Graham Branch or Garreth O’Connor will be fit and so Chris McCann is likely to continue on the left hand side of midfield.

That will almost certainly mean that Michael Duff won’t be playing up front, and there’s every chance we could have both Michael Ricketts and Gifton Noel-Williams back to lead the attack.

At the back it gives us options and it is a question as to whether Duff or Wayne Thomas is the player left out. If Duff plays then captain Frank Sinclair will partner John McGreal in the centre but if Thomas plays then Frank will move to full back.

There could be changes to in the midfield and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wade Elliott recalled with John Spicer starting on the bench.

We could line up: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Chris McCann, Gifton Noel-Williams, Michael Ricketts. Subs from: Mark Crossley, Duane Courtney, Wayne Thomas, John Spicer, Danny Karbassiyoon, Kyle Lafferty.

On a cold snowy night last February we came away with a point from a 1-1 draw after Jean-Louis Valois had given us a first half lead. For more on this, and other games at Derby, read Honours even at Pride Park in our Look Back section.

The teams last season were,

Derby: Lee Camp, Pablo Mills (Mo Konjic 58), Jeff Kenna, Tom Huddlestone, Chris Makin, Marcus Tudgay, Adam Bolder, Inigo Idiakez, Marco Reich (Mr Karren Brady 58), Morten Bisgaard, Grzegorz Rasiak. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Nathan Doyle, Junior.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Gary Cahill, Michael Duff, Mo Camara, John Oster, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, Pete Whittingham, Jean-Louis Valois, Ian Moore (Graham Branch 84). Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Mark Yates.