The Sky Blues travel to Pride Park to play Derby County on Tuesday night. Here’s everything you need to know about our opponents.

Fact File

Name: Derby County

Founded: 1884

Stadium: Pride Park (first opened 1997)

Capacity: 33,597

Nickname: The Rams

Address: Pride Park, Derby, DE24 8XL

Pitch Size: 115 x 74 yards

The Opposition

Derby are currently bottom of the table, having endured a tough start to the 2020/21 season and sacked manager Phillip Cocu in mid-November.

The Rams are currently being managed by player-coach Wayne Rooney on an interim basis, who oversaw their 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers last weekend.

The Derbyshire club have won just one league game all season and are on a 10-game winless run five points from safety.

Manager

Wayne Rooney was named sole interim manager last week, taking on his first role in management, having initially signed as a player-coach last January.

The 35-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable playing career, winning five Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FA Cup and three Carabao Cup’s and won a total of 16 honours during his time with Manchester United.

He also became the club’s record goalscorer with 253 goals, surpassing the likes of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best, and is England’s all-time top scorer with 53 goals in 120 international caps.

His spell at Old Trafford came in-between two stints with Everton, before spending two years with Major League Soccer side DC United.

He sensationally returned to England with Derby in January 2020 and scored five goals in 20 appearances last term as the Rams finished six points off the play-off places.

Rooney scored his only goal of the current season in his side’s 1-0 win against Norwich City in early October.

With Derby, Rooney has been part of the management team for three matches, drawing one and losing two of those games, and is still awaiting his first win as a manager.

Last Six Games

Drew – Derby 1-1 Wycombe (Sky Bet Championship)

Lost – Middlesbrough 3-0 Derby (Sky Bet Championship)

Lost – Bristol City 1-0 Derby (Sky Bet Championship)

Lost – Derby 0-2 Barnsley (Sky Bet Championship)

Lost – Derby 0-1 Queens Park Rangers (Sky Bet Championship)

Drew – Bournemouth 1-1 Derby (Sky Bet Championship)

Last Time We Met

The two sides last met in the Championship back in January 2012 when the Sky Blues were beaten 1-0 at Pride Park courtesy of a second-half strike from Callum Ball.

City started on the front foot when Gary McSheffrey was denied by Frank Fielding, before then firing over the crossbar from inside the penalty area.

The Sky Blues had another chance to break the deadlock before the interval when Carl Baker headed into the side netting.

Derby responded after the break however, with Joe Murphy making a string of fine saves to keep the score level.

Andy Thorn’s side continued to probe for an opening goal with Baker and Gary Deegan both firing efforts wide of the target from distance.

The hosts came close to a breakthrough when Jamie Ward’s free-kick from 25-yards out whistled inches wide of the left-hand post.

Theo Robinson then fired over when well-placed in the penalty area before Fielding pushed away McSheffrey’s goalbound flick-on from Baker’s cross.

The Rams took the lead on 75 minutes when Craig Bryson found Ball who finished low into the bottom corner to hand Derby the points.

Head-to-Head Record

Sky Blues Wins – 28

Draws – 19

Derby Wins – 32

Club Connections

Richard Keogh

Republic of Ireland international Richard Keogh spent two impressive seasons with the Sky Blues before moving to Derby.

The defender began his career with Stoke City but failed to make an appearance for the club and spent time on loan with Icelandic side Vikingur before making a permanent switch to Bristol City in July 2005.

He spent three seasons with the Robins, helping them gain promotion to the Championship in 2006/07, and was loaned out on four occasions to Wycombe, Huddersfield Town, Carlisle United and Cheltenham Town, before departing Ashton Gate to re-join Carlisle on a permanent basis in August 2008.

The Irishman excelled for the Cumbrians over a two-season spell, winning the club’s Player of the Year award in 2009/10 before signing for the Sky Blues in June 2010.

Keogh enjoyed an excellent first season with the club, winning the Players’ Player of the Year award, before retaining the award the following season, whilst also winning the Player of the Year award as voted for by supporters.

His impressive displays saw him depart for Derby in July 2012, having made 95 appearances for City, scoring one goal, and was named captain of his new side upon joining the club, having also skippered the Sky Blues.

The centre-back would go on to make 356 appearances for the Rams, across an eight-season spell, scoring 12 goals, winning the club’s Players’ Player of the Year award three times and Player of the Year award twice.

This included leading his side out in the Championship play-off final at Wembley in 2013/14, where they beaten in the final minute by 10-man QPR and 2018/19, losing 2-1 to Aston Villa.

His time at the club came to an end in September 2019 when he was sacked by the Rams after an off-the-field incident, before returning to football with Milton Keynes Dons this summer.

Lee Camp

The Sky Blues latest recruit, Lee Camp, began his career with hometown club Derby.

The goalkeeper came through the Rams academy and would go on to make 97 appearances for the club over a five-season spell and spent time on loan at Burton Albion, Norwich City and had two temporary spells with QPR.

He eventually completed a permanent move to the R’s in July 2007, having helped the club achieve promotion from the third tier back in 2003/04, during his first loan spell with the capital club.

Camp would spend just over one season with Rangers before being loaned out to Nottingham Forest who he joined permanently in July 2009.

He won the club’s Player of the Season award at the end of his first full campaign with Forest, making a total of 178 appearances over four seasons, before joining Premier League club Norwich in January 2013.

The former Northern Ireland international made three appearances in the top-flight for the Canaries, during his second spell with the Canaries, before joining West Bromwich Albion that summer.

After once again finding himself out of the team, he joined Bournemouth on loan during the 2013/14 season, with the move made permanent in January and played nine games the following season as the Cherries secured the Championship title.

The 36-year-old moved to Rotherham United in September 2015 and won the club’s Player of the Year award at the end of his first season before spending brief spells with Cardiff City and Sunderland.

Most recently, Camp was playing in-between the sticks for Birmingham City, making 86 appearances over the last two seasons, before his release this summer.

Following an injury to Marko Marosi against Cardiff, the Sky Blues swooped for Camp’s services, signing a short-term contract with the club and was named on the bench for the draw at Norwich last weekend.

Match Officials

Dean Whitestone will be the man in the middle on Tuesday night, taking charge of his ninth game of the 2020/21 season.

He last refereed the Sky Blues in October 2018, when City were 2-1 winners against Southend United in a League One tie at Roots Hall.

This will be Whitestone’s 15^th season as a Football League referee and he has officiated the Sky Blues on 21 occasions, with City winning 11, drawing six and losing four of those matches.

So far, Whitestone has awarded seven yellow cards across eight matches in the Carabao Cup, Championship and League Two.

He will be assisted by Jonathan Hunt and Mark Pottage with Geoff Eltringham acting as fourth official.