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It's been an amazing few weeks. Firstly, a run of five wins in six games left us right on the brink of a play off place but we then followed that with a run of five defeats, and only one point, in the next six games that had appeared to have ended any hopes of a top six finish.
But, two home wins in a week have changed the picture again. Unfortunately that poor run has left the top five all out of reach but we can still get sixth place although we are still outsiders because of our now poor goal difference with the big defeats during that difficult run.
We could have done without Nottingham Forest's late winner against Leicester yesterday but at least Leeds could only draw in the later game. It means, should we win at Derby today we can go level on points with Nottingham Forest who will occupy that sixth spot.
Without doubt, we cannot afford a slip right now but two good results over the Easter weekend could give us a real platform for another shot at those play offs. There is a lot to do but, thanks to the two wins, we have a chance.
When Derby arrived at Burnley in November for the televised game, they did so in fourth place in the table. They had won four of their previous five games and were thought to be strong contenders for promotion.
We beat them with late goals from former Ram Tyrone Mears and Jack Cork and that was the start of a run of five successive defeats for Derby and in a run of fourteen league games they won just one, at Preston on New Year's Day.
That run left them hovering not far from the relegation places but they've picked up three wins since and that's been enough to keep some distance between them and Scunthorpe and they shouldn't have any problems in retaining their place in the Championship.
A blow to them was the loss of Kris Commons in the January transfer window to Celtic. He remains their leading goalscorer this season by some distance with 13 league goals. Their next highest scorer is Steve Davies with 5 goals and 3 of those have come in the last 6 games.
Derby reckon one more win will secure their safety and they've targeted that win today, but their current points total of 49 should be enough.
Manager Nigel Clough is without four players in Tomasz Cywka, Jake Buxton, Paul Green and goalkeeper Saul Deeney who have thigh, groin, knee and shoulder injuries respectively.
Other than that he has a fully fit squad and the only decision will rest on which formation he plays. Derby have been adopting a 4-4-2 system recently but they changed to a 4-3-3 last Monday for their draw at QPR with Theo Robinson replacing Ben Davies.
That appears to be the only likely change to Monday's team which was: Brad Jones, John Brayford, Gareth Roberts, Daniel Ayala, Shaun Barker, Robbie Savage, James Bailey, Stephen Pearson, Theo Robinson, Jamie Ward, Steve Davies. Subs: Ross Atkins, Ben Davies, Russell Anderson, Dean Leacock, Chris Porter, Alberto Bueno, Conor Doyle.
Burnley took some knocks on Tuesday with both Andre Bikey and Dean Marney forced off with injuries. Neither have been ruled out but checks will have to be made on both ahead of kick off.
Eddie Howe will again be without Marvin Bartley, but the midfielder will be available on Monday after completing his three match suspension today. Another player no longer in the squad is central defender Shane Duffy who, after just one game, returned to Everton after Tuesday's win.
There has been speculation, since Wednesday, that Chris McCann could return to the squad after being substituted after an hour in the reserve game.
Time will tell on that one but I expect, if everyone is passed fit, that Howe will go for the same eleven who started against Middlesbrough.
That would see us line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Michael Duff, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Wade Elliott, Jack Cork, Dean Marney, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Lee Grant, David Edgar, Clarke Carlisle, Brian Easton, Graham Alexander, Ross Wallace, Steven Thompson, Nathan Delfouneso.
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Over 2,250 Clarets turned up to witness what was almost another win only for Derby to score an equaliser deep into stoppage time to snatch two of the three points away from us. They hadn't threatened to score, hadn't but any pressure on us at all, but that goal totally silenced the away end who were already celebrating another victory.
We started the game well and more than once came close to taking the lead but in the latter stages of the first half it was Derby who started to come forward more but overall 0-0 at half time was probably about fair.
The breakthrough came early in the second half when Stephen Bywater failed to hold a Chris Eagles cross and there was Chris McCann to score from close range, it remains McCann's last goal in Burnley colours.
From then on in it was Burnley on top and how close we came to increasing the lead. Robbie Blake had the best chance but incredibly failed to control the ball in the box. Then Joey Gudjonsson was hauled down but no penalty was given.
Still, it was another win, at least we thought, until that stoppage time equaliser right out of the blue. Even so, it had taken our run to six games unbeaten since the home loss to Sheffield Wednesday and we were still strongly in the running for a play off place.
The teams were;
Derby Stephen Bywater, Paul Connolly, Lewin Nyatanga, Martin Albrechtsen, Jay McEveley, Barry Bannan, Robbie Savage, Stephen Pearson (Przemyslaw Kazmierczak 84), Gary Teale, Kris Commons (Emanuel Villa 75), Rob Hulse. Subs not used: Lewis Price, Andy Todd, John Eustace.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Rhys Williams, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander (Michael Duff 81), Chris Eagles (Joey Gudjonsson 70), Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson (Jay Rodriguez 76). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Kevin McDonald.Yellow Cards: Martin Paterson.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1991/92 | FAC | h | 2-2 | 18,722 | Harper Eli |
a | 0-2 | abandoned 76 mins due to fog | |||
a | 0-2 | 18,374 | |||
1994/95 | 1 | a | 0-4 | 13,922 | |
h | 3-1 | 11,534 | Davis Eyres Shaw | ||
1999/2000 | FAC | a | 1-0 | 16,030 | Cooke |
2002/03 | 2 | a | 2-1 | 22,343 | Blake(pen) Barton(og) |
h | 2-0 | 15,063 | I Moore Taylor | ||
2003/04 | 1 | a | 0-2 | 21,960 | |
h | 1-0 | 16,189 | Branch | ||
2004/05 | C | h | 0-2 | 13,703 | |
a | 1-1 | 23,701 | Valois | ||
2005/06 | C | h | 2-2 | 12,243 | Akinbiyi Noel-WIlliams |
FAC | a | 1-2 | 12,713 | G O'Connor | |
a | 0-3 | 23,292 | |||
2006/07 | C | h | 0-0 | 12,825 | |
a | 0-1 | 23,122 | |||
2008/09 | C | h | 3-0 | 11,552 | McDonald Paterson(2) |
a | 1-1 | 33,010 | McCann | ||
2010/11 | C | h | 2-1 | 13,790 | Mears Cork |