Fri 28 Nov - Posted in Breaking News
Time to read: 6mins
Derby County will round off a busy week of Sky Bet Championship action with a trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Derby will make the journey to the Riverside Stadium in good spirits after returning to winning ways on Tuesday night with a 2-1 success at Swansea City, their sixth win in seven matches in the second tier.
It was also the perfect reaction to the side's 3-2 loss at home to Watford last weekend in their first outing since the November international break.
They will bring down the curtain on a hectic week of action with a visit to a Middlesbrough side under new management, with Kim Hellberg now in the hot-seat after one-time Rams loanee Rob Edwards departed earlier this month to take over at Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Boro have enjoyed a strong start to the campaign and have been at the top end of the table so far this term, although they did taste just their third defeat of the season on Tuesday with a 4-2 defeat at home to leaders Coventry City.
Derby allocation of tickets for Saturday's match have been snapped up.
The Rams were handed a total allocation of 2,058 tickets for the match and these have now completely sold out, with no further seats being made available.
Those fans without a ticket are advised not to make the trip to Middlesbrough, as they will be unable to gain access to the stadium.
There is an element of the unknown in terms of what Derby County will be up against when the visit the Riverside Stadium this weekend.
Middlesbrough are under new management after they appointed Kim Hellberg as their new Head Coach earlier in the week.
The 37-year-old, who had overseen Swedish side Hammarby, replaced Rob Edwards, who left for Premier League strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier this month.
This is a first job for Hellberg outside his native Sweden and the meeting with Derby will be his first in the hotseat, after coach Adi Viveash remained in interim charge for the 4-2 loss at home to Championship leaders Coventry City on Tuesday
Having been in charge at Hammarby for the past two seasons, Hellberg led the Stockholm-based club to successive second-placed finishes in Sweden's top-flight Allsvenskan.
He began his coaching career in the Swedish lower divisions with Kuddby IF and later IF Sylvia before joining the staff at top-tier club IFK Norkopping in 2020.
His first head coach role in the Allsvenskan came at IFK Varnamo, where two impressive seasons led to his move to Hammarby.
“A lot of things make Boro the perfect choice for me,” said Hellberg upon taking charge. “The way they play and want to play, together with the crowd, suits me and how I want to work.”
“Kim is someone I've been monitoring for a while,” Middlesbrough’s Director of Football Kieran Scott said.
“He's well known in the circles of European football as an up-and-coming head coach that was catching a lot of people's eye and was doing really well at Hammarby.
“We met a few candidates, but Kim was high on my list of people I wanted to speak to.”
Edwards’ departure came after a stunning start to the season for Boro.
They opened the campaign with four league wins in a row, conceding just one goal, and registered five wins and three draws from their first eight matches.
A surprise first loss of the season came at Portsmouth before the October international break, but Boro responded well with two wins and a draw in their next three matches.
November has come with its challenges, with a managerial change forced upon them, and has so far provided one win, two draws and two defeats on the pitch.
Despite that, Boro remain firmly in the hunt for automatic promotion and have lost only three times from 17 outings in the second tier this term, including just once at home, making them an extremely difficult proposition for the Rams.
There have been several players to represent both Derby County and Middlesbrough in the last 30 years, including members of both clubs' current squads.
Derby’s squad includes former Boro pair Matt Clarke and Danny Batth, as well as Head Coach John Eustace after making one appearance for Boro in the early 2000s, while the hosts have former Rams Academy graduate Morgan Whittaker and on-time Rangers loanee George Edmundson in their ranks.
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Centre-back Clarke moved to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2022 and went on to play 51 games, scoring three times, across two-and-half seasons at the Riverside Stadium before rejoining the Rams for a third spell in January of this year.
Fellow defender Batth had a loan stint in the north east during the 2018/19 season from Wolverhampton Wanderers, playing 13 times in the first half of the campaign prior to sealing a permanent move to Stoke City.
Attacker Whittaker came through Derby’s youth set-up and was a member of the Under-18s’ 2018/19 title-winning season. He made his senior debut in the 2019/20 campaign and left for Swansea City in early 2021 after making 32 appearances at first-team level, with his only goal in a Derby shirt coming on the final day of 2019/20 season in a 3-1 victory at Birmingham City.
Centre-back Edmundson spent the second half of the 2020/21 season with the Rams on loan from Scottish Premiership side Rangers and played ten times in all competitions, scoring once in a 2-0 home victory over Huddersfield Town.
Other players to represent both clubs since the early 1990s include Fabrizio Ravanelli, Mikkel Beck, Malcolm Christie, Chris Riggott, Patrick Bamford, Noel Whelan, Ryan Shotton, David Nugent, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Danny Graham and Cyrus Christie.
RamsTV sat down with Head Coach
John Eustace to preview the fixture at the Riverside Stadium.
RamsTV also spoke with defender
Callum Elder to assess his recent form, returning to the international stage
with Australia and looking ahead to the clash with Boro.
James Linington will take charge of Saturday’s match at the Riverside Stadium.
The official has overseen seven matches in all competitions this season, producing a total of 22 yellow cards and no reds.
His last Derby fixture was the 1-0 home defeat against Luton Town towards the end of last season, while
Emily Carney and Jacob Graham will be the Assistant Referees, whilst Benjamin Speedie has been appointed as the Fourth Official.
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.
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.
Riverside Stadium
Middlesbrough
Hull City
Wrexham
Derby County
Norwich City
Birmingham City
Swansea City
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