Championship: Derby County v Brentford:
By Ben Mockridge
Steve McClaren takes charge of the second game of his second tenure at Derby County as the Rams play host to potential play-off contenders Brentford.
The former Newcastle United and England manager enjoyed a narrow 1-0 victory over Leeds United at the iPro Stadium in his first game back. McClaren has a deep hole to dig Derby out of after the club suffered a poor start to the season, winning just 2 of their opening 11 Championship fixtures.
Derby will assess the fitness of Ikechi Anya and Will Hughes ahead of Tuesday night’s clash after both suffered knocks and were withdrawn in the win over Leeds.
Steve McClaren told the Derby Telegraph: “Will had a bit of cramp because he had not trained for two weeks… We will just have to assess both of them.”
Nick Blackman and Jason Shackell are expected to again be absent from the Derby squad.
Brentford captain Harlee Dean will be forced to sit out the clash through suspension after collecting his 5th booking of the campaign in their 3-1 defeat away to Newcastle last time out.
The Bees will be hoping their last result is a blip rather than the start of a worrying trend after an impressive start to the season. Brentford sits just 2 points away from a play-off place.
Brentford head coach Dean Smith told the BBC: “We failed at Newcastle on Saturday and Derby is a big game for us… Steve McClaren has just gone in there and will probably give them a lift. We have to go there with a gameplan that can get us a win.”