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Derby County v Bolton Wanderers: LIVE

37 years of waiting - can Bolton finally end their Derby away hoodoo? I’m not holding my breath...

Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City - Pre-Season Friendly
Jem Karacan returns to the Bolton side for the visit to Derby, as one of six changes by Phil Parkinson
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Bolton Wanderers will be looking to put an end to an unenviable record as they make the trip to play-off chasing Derby County this afternoon.

Having failed to win in their last 11 league visits to today’s hosts and in a really poor run of form in the last few games, today is a colossal ask for The Trotters. Bolton haven’t won a league game at Derby since 1981, and have only managed that feat five times in the last 109 years. Safe to say, optimism is not high.

Derby’s home record is shaky, with just one home win in 2018. Their last home game saw them somehow succumb to a 4-1 thumping by Sunderland, while they lost the previous home game to Fulham and haven’t won at home since early February. That means they will obviously bounce back by hammering Bolton today.

Wanderers’ task has just been made even more of a challenge by the news that Barnsley managed to beat Sheffield United to close within just two points of us.

Phil Parkinson makes several changes from the absolute dross on show against Birmingham last time out, not least switching back to the 5-3-2. That sees David Wheater, Mark Little, Antonee Robinson, Jem Karacan and, no joke, Aaron Wilbraham all step into the starting eleven. Will Buckley is rightly dropped from the match day squad, while Sammy Ameobi drops to the bench.

Derby look to be going for it with a pretty scary looking attack compared to what Bolton can muster. They line up with Matej Vydra supporting David Nugent, with Tom Lawrence and Andreas Weimann providing the wide support - I expect at least three of them to get on the scoresheet today.

Today’s starting line-ups are below. You can follow all the action from the iPro Stadium in the Comments section below.

Derby County (4-2-3-1): Scott Carson; Andre Wisdom, Alex Pearce, Curtis Davies, Chris Baird; Tom Huddlestone, Joe Ledley; Tom Lawrence, Matej Vydra, Andreas Weimann; David Nugent

Substitutes: Kelle Roos, Craig Forsyth, Richard Keogh, Kasey Palmer, Jamie Hanson, Cameron Jerome, Luke Thomas

Bolton Wanderers (5-3-2): Mark Alnwick; Mark Little, Reece Burke, David Wheater, Mark Beevers, Antonee Robinson; Karl Henry, Jem Karacan, Josh Vela; Adam Le Fondre, Aaron Wilbraham

Substitutes: Zach Clough, Sammy Ameobi, Craig Noone, Andrew Taylor, Derik Osede, Dorian Dervite, Mark Howard