Blackburn To Win

It’s been a tumultuous time for Blackburn of the field with the Venky’s, the club’s owner, embroiled in a court case in India which will impact the financial future of the club. However, John Eustace proved himself to be an astute coach at Birmingham and he will need to be once again.

Blackburn have lost just one of their six matches in pre-season. Eustace led Birmingham from relegation candidates to 6th place in the second tier before being controversially dismissed. There are some signs that he could conjure up some magic with Rovers.

Derby are fresh from League One and while they will be buoyed by Blackburn’s poor showing last season, I still expect them to come up short on Friday night. The Rams have a truly miserable record against Blackburn. They have won just one of the last 10 meetings between the sides. During that time, they have lost eight and scored an average of just 0.7 goals per game.

Both Teams To Score

Despite Derby’s woes in this fixture, they have managed to score in their last three games against Blackburn. They will be keen to put up a fight on their return to the Championship so we are picking both teams to score as part of our bet builder for this match.

The Rams scored an average of 1.70 goals per game in League One this season and these are the sort of matches they’ll need to be competitive in if they are to remain in this division. 
Under John Eustace, Blackburn have scored an average of one goal per competitive game and conceded 1.13. Both teams have scored in all six of their matches in pre-season. 

Over 0.5 Shots For Joe Rankin-Costello

Joe Rankin-Costello could line up as Blackburn’s number 10 here with Makhtar Gueye ahead of him. The midfielder played slightly deeper but still wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger. He had an average of two shots per 90 minutes played in the Championship and may have ample opportunities to shoot against Derby.

Rovers are the pre-match favourites to win this clash, something that rarely happened for the duration of last season. They had an average of 12.3 shots per game as they struggled to keep their heads above water but they will be hoping to show a little more attacking impetus given their rare favourites tag.