MATCH PREVIEW: Blackburn Rovers (A)

Derby County will travel to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday for their final Sky Bet Championship outing ahead of the November international break (12:30pm kick-off).

Derby will make the visit to Ewood Park in good form, having won four league matches in a row over the last fortnight.

Successive 1-0 victories on home turf against Norwich City and Queens Park Rangers were followed up by a fine 3-1 win at Sheffield United last Saturday.

Derby left it late to secure a 2-1 triumph at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday evening against Hull City, with striker Lars-Jørgen Salvesen coming off the bench to score the winner with seven minutes remaining.

Blackburn are also in good form, having won their last three matches in league action. A late comeback victory over Southampton at the end of October saw Rovers register their first home win of the season, and they have followed that up impressively so far this month with away successes at Leicester City and Bristol City without conceding a goal.

Ticket Information

Derby will be backed by a full away end at Ewood Park on Saturday. The Rams were handed an allocation of 2,762 tickets for the match, and these have completely sold out.

Those fans without a ticket are advised not to make the trip to Blackburn, as they will be unable to gain access to the stadium.

For further details, click here.

The Opponents

Blackburn, who celebrated their 150th birthday on Wednesday and have special celebrations for the milestone planned at the match this weekend, have been edging their way up the Championship standings in recent weeks.

Valérien Ismaël’s side, following a busy summer of recruitment, started the campaign slowly, but they have momentum on their side with some impressive results of late.

Rovers waved goodbye to several long-serving players in Joe Rankin-Costello, Callum Brittain, John Buckley, Harry Leonard, Dominic Hyam and now Derby captain Lewis Travis during the summer transfer window for transfer fees, while Tyrhys Dolan, a stand-out performer last term, departed for Spanish side Espanyol at the end of his contract. Two other players, experienced duo Andi Weimann and Danny Batth, joined Derby at the end of their Rovers contracts.

Blackburn’s new-look squad has a continental feel to it with Dion De Neve, Sidnei Tavares, Axel Henriksson, Ryōya Morishita, Andri Guðjohnsen and English-born Ryan Alebiosu recruited from abroad, alongside Sean McLoughlin joining from Hull City and Lewis Miller checking in from Scottish side Hibernian. Further Championship experience was also added in the form of Taylor Gardner-Hickman on loan from Bristol City at the end of the transfer window.

Rovers endured a tough start to the campaign, but perhaps understandably so given the summer turnover. They claimed two wins in their opening 10 league outings, away to Hull City and Watford, although the abandoned home fixture against ten-man Ipswich Town when they were leading 1-0 in September denied them the chance to add further points on the board.

Their resurgence in recent weeks has been eye-catching. After falling behind at home to Southampton at the end of October, things didn’t look good. However, Rovers scored twice in the final 15 minutes to turn the game on its head and claim their first home win of the campaign with a 2-1 victory - and they’ve been going in one direction since.

Rovers recorded a comfortable 2-0 win at Leicester City last weekend, and were resilient on the road once again to claim a 1-0 success at Bristol City on Tuesday night to make it nine points from nine.

Ismaël, who has experience of managing Barnsley, West Bromwich Albion, Watford and now Blackburn in England, will no doubt have his side providing a tough test for the Rams when they head to Ewood Park.

Club Links

It would be fair to say there are plenty of links between the two clubs.

Head Coach John Eustace, Assistant Head Coach Matt Gardiner and First Team Coach Keith Downing all joined the Rams from Rovers back in February of this year.

Meanwhile, Rams midfielder and captain Lewis Travis, defenders Danny Batth, Dion Sanderson and Owen Beck, as well as attacker Andi Weimann, all represented Rovers last term under Eustace before he made the move to Pride Park Stadium.

Two other members of the current Derby squad also enjoyed successful spells at Blackburn earlier in their careers.

Ryan Nyambe was born in Namibia but moved to England at the age of ten.

He joined Blackburn Rovers’ Academy whilst he was a teenager and progressed through their ranks to earn professional terms in 2015, with his senior bow coming in a EFL Cup encounter against Shrewsbury Town in August of that year.

Nyambe established himself on the first team scene at Ewood Park in the 2016/17 season and made 28 appearances, as well as featuring for Rovers’ Under-21s in the EFL Trophy, and he bagged the club’s Young Player of the Season award despite their relegation to the third tier.

He was again a key player for Rovers in 2017/18 in League One as they gained automatic promotion to return to the Championship at the first time of asking, finishing second behind title-winners Wigan Athletic.

Nyambe remained a regular member of the Blackburn side in the Championship over the course of the next four seasons and he racked up over 200 appearances for the club before departing at the end of his contract in the summer of 2022 and, following a spell at Wigan Athletic, he joined the Rams as a free agent in September 2023.

Ben Brereton Diaz, meanwhile, spent the first half of the 2018/19 season on loan at Blackburn Rovers from Nottingham Forest and made the move a permanent one in January 2019.

He went on to spend five years at Ewood Park and exploded into goalscoring form during the 2021/22 campaign, scoring 22 times in all competitions with his performances seeing him named as Blackburn’s Players’ Player of the Year, as well as earning a spot in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.

The forward scored 16 goals the following campaign and at the end of that season, he made the move to La Liga side Villarreal.

He returned to English football in January 2024 with Sheffield United to experience the Premier League for the first time, and he impressed with six goals in his 16 appearances for the Blades. A permanent move to the top flight with Southampton followed, before he returned to Bramall Lane on another loan deal for the second half of the 2024/25 season, when he scored four times as they reached the Championship play-off final, before linking up with the Rams on loan for the 2025/26 campaign at the end of this summer's transfer window.

Pre-Match Thoughts

RamsTV sat down with Head Coach John Eustace after training on Thursday to look ahead to Saturday’s action at Ewood Park.

Midfielder Bobby Clark, who has impressed in the middle of the park in recent weeks, also spoke to RamsTV on Thursday to review the side's impressive recent form.

Match Officials

Thomas Kirk will take charge of Saturday’s match at Ewood Park

Kirk oversaw the Rams’ Carabao Cup Round One tie at West Bromwich Albion in August, with John Eustace’s side winning on penalties following a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes.

From 11 matches in all competitions so far this season, Kirk has produced 46 yellow cards and a single red card.

Darren Williams and Callum Gough have been appointed as the assistant referees, whilst Peter Wright will perform the fourth official duties.

RamsTV Audio & Video Coverage

Live audio commentary for all of Derby County’s first team matches in the 2025/26 season - both league and cup fixtures - is available to RamsTV Audio subscribers based both in the UK and internationally.

Information about RamsTV's Video Live Streaming and other services for this season can be found here.

Highlights & Match Replay

Full match reaction will be available on dcfc.co.uk and the Derby County App shortly after full time, with highlights and a full match replay available from midnight.