Rooney Makes Three Changes For Birmingham Clash

Manager Wayne Rooney has made three changes to last week’s side which faced Nottingham Forest for this afternoon’s Sky Bet Championship clash against Birmingham City (1:30pm kick-off).

It’s set to be an electric atmosphere inside Pride Park today with supporters snapping up every ticket in the house as the Rams look to close the gap on Reading, who sit just outside the relegation places, to five points.

The Rams will be aiming to continue their three-game winning streak on home soil, which has included victories over Blackpool, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United.

Rooney has made three changes from the East Midlands derby defeat against Forest, with Craig Forsyth, Kamil Jozwiak and Luke Plange returning to the starting line-up.

Lee Buchanan, Festy Ebosele and Colin-Kazim Richards move to the substitute’s bench, whilst Ravel Morrison is away on international duty.

There is also a big welcome back to the matchday squad for Krystian Bielik, exactly one year after sustaining his second ACL knee injury against Bristol City.

The Polish international played 45 minutes for the club’s Under-23s last Friday in a 1-1 draw against Arsenal, whilst he built up more minutes in an in-house training game earlier in the week.

Derby County: Allsop, Byrne, Forsyth, Jozwiak, Bird, Lawrence (C), Stearman, Davies, Knight, Thompson, Plange.

Substitutes: Roos, Bielik, Kazim-Richards, Sibley, Buchanan, Ebiowei, Ebosele.

Birmingham City: Etheridge, Colin, Pedersen, Roberts (C), Woods, Hogan, Mengi, Gardner, Bacuna, Hernandez, Taylor.

Substitutes: Trueman, Friend, Jutkiewicz, Bela, James, Graham, Sunjic.