Derby 21/10 to add to Cardiff’s woe away from Wales

Derby County enter tonight’s fixture at home to Cardiff having put to bed a run of five games without a win with victory over Portsmouth at Pride Park on Saturday.

Before their comfortable 3-1 success over Pompey, Nigel Clough’s County side had seen their fine early season form begin to evaporate after taking just three points from five games.

This downturn in form coincided with a growing injury list which got even larger at the weekend with Chris Maguire and Theo Robinson both picking up knocks.

Maguire is expected to recover in time to be involved today, although Robinson is almost certain to miss out with a hamstring injury.

Despite the recent slump, Derby have surpassed pre-season expectations and not ventured out of the play-off places.

Indeed, they sit just four points behind promotion favourites West Ham having played a game less.

However, despite their slightly superior league placing, Derby find themselves in the odd position of being longer odds to claim the three points this evening than their visitors, who are tenth in the Championship.

In bwin’s 3Way football betting market the home side are priced at 21/10 to clinch the victory, a draw is at 23/10 and County’s opponents are the favourites at 6/5.

Although Cardiff may be favourites in terms of odds, a bet on Derby to emerge victorious looks to be wiser given the awful away record of Malky Mackay’s side.

Mackay’s reign as Cardiff boss got off to the perfect start when they shocked West Ham with a 1-0 win at Upton Park on the opening weekend of the campaign, but since then they haven’t managed to win any of their subsequent six away fixtures.

Perhaps the most worrying thing for Cardiff about their poor away form is that they have thrown away the lead on a number of occasions, having led in four of the six away fixtures they’ve failed to win.