"Perfect timing": Derby County vs Fleetwood Town preview

Derby County look to bounce back after a disappointing 3-2 defeat to promotion rivals Peterborough United last Saturday.

This week they face a Fleetwood Town side who sit rock bottom of the League One table having had three managers since the start of the season.

They appointed former Liverpool, Stoke City and Blackpool midfielder Charlie Adam on New Year's Eve and will be hoping for some improvement under the new boss.

The Rams will have a great chance to get back to winning ways. Despite the loss last week, Paul Warne's side are still one of the most in form teams in the league with one loss in 10 games.

Derby sit in fourth place and so will be aiming to put some more pressure on the teams above them this Saturday.

State of flux

For Derby, this is the perfect time to face Fleetwood who have been all over the place lately. They started the season with manager Scott Brown who lasted just seven games this season after they lost six of those seven.

The Cod army then appointed former Derby midfielder and Bristol City boss Lee Johnson in the hope of some stability. However, despite Johnson's managerial experience, Fleetwood still struggled.

Following a run of six consecutive losses, Johnson was sacked in late December and they now have Charlie Adam.

In his first game, Adam's side lost 3-1 to a pretty average Shrewsbury Town side, confirming how much of a state of flux Fleetwood are in at the moment.

On the contrary, Derby are looking strong and despite last weekend's loss, Paul Warne seems to have figured out how to get this team to win games. On paper, it should be very one-sided.

Last time out

The Rams hosted Fleetwood earlier in the season at Pride Park in August in what was a dire afternoon of football with neither team showing much quality at all.

The only goal of the game came from Martyn Waghorn in the 23rd minute to give Derby what was a deciding goal in a 1-0 victory.

Fans of both sides will be hoping for a more entertaining affair on Saturday which should be the case considering that the Rams have improved a lot since August and Fleetwood are in the unknown.

Predictions

As previously mentioned, on paper, this should be a write off and Derby should run away with it. However, they haven't had chance to examine Charlie Adam's playing style or his philisophy which could bring up some suprises.

Fleetwood Town have the worst defensive record in the league which doesn't bode well for them, especially considering that Derby have scored the fourth most goals in League One and have netted twice or more in four of their last six games.

Anything around a 3-0 or even 4-0 scoreline is probable here, all Derby need to do is make sure they don't slip on this banana skin and get back to winning ways.

The game kicks off at 12:30pm on Saturday 6 January.