Brighton
Line-up
- 27D. Button
- 30Bernardo
- 33D. Burn
- 4S. Duffy
- 2Bruno Saltor
- 7B. Kayal
- 6Dale Stephens
- 8Y. Bissouma
- 11Anthony Knockaert
- 16A. Jahanbakhsh
- 9J. Locadia
- 13P. Groß
- 42Viktor Gyökeres
Subs
- 31Sanchez, Robert
- 3G. Bong
- 22Martín Montoya
- 57L. Østigård
- 49J. Molumby
Derby County
Line-up
- 21K. Roos
- 46S. Malone
- 5F. Tomori
- 6R. Keogh
- 37J. Bogle
- 7H. Wilson
- 44Huddlestone, Tom
- 4C. Bryson
- 23Holmes, Duane
- 28D. Nugent
- 9M. Waghorn
- 26Cole, Ashley
- 11Jozefzoon, Florian
- 14Marriott, Jack
Subs
- 47Ravas, Henrich
- 2A. Wisdom
- 17G. Evans
- 15B. Johnson
Brighton, who enjoyed a very promising opening half of the season, have seen their fortunes turn over the last couple of months. The Seagulls fell to a dismal 3-1 loss at home to the relegation threatened Burnley last weekend to continue their worrying slide down the table.
Chris Hughton’s side now sit just 3 points above the relegation zone, and their loss to Burnley made it 7 competitive games without a win in normal time.
The 3rd round of the FA Cup saw an in form Brighton side win away to Bournemouth, but since then it’s just been a consistent downfall from the south coast side. Their usually excellent home form has disappeared into the ether, with that 3-1 loss to Burnley a new low for them after winning just 1 of their last 7 competitive games at the Amex Stadium.
The Rams are now behind Middlesbrough on goal difference alone, and there is actually a fairly reasonable gap of just 10 points between them and the Championship leaders. A push for automatic promotion isn’t out of the question for Frank Lampard’s side here, and keeping up confidence with another FA Cup triumph would do wonders for their chances.