Championship Play-Off Final Preview: Derby County v Queens Park Rangers

Derby County – The team for the purists

The manner in which the Rams have achieved their success this season has gained approval from fans all around the league including in some quarters of their bitter rivals Nottingham Forest. Steve McClaren took over from Nigel Clough after just 9 games of the Championship season with defeat to Forest the final nail in the coffin for Clough. However, as McClaren has said on record he owes a lot of the success to Clough who had put together a very talented group of players who all wanted to play the game in the right way.

403763_heroaUnlike promoted Burnley, Derby have the fortune of good squad depth. Any injury from 1-to-11 can easily be dealt without causing detriment to the team. In midfield, for example, Craig Bryson has been the stand out contributor with 16 goals, but the likes of Jeff Hendrick, John Eustace and young lions Will Hughes and George Thorne (on loan from West Brom) have all played massive parts in the success of the team. Going forward the trio of Johnny Russell, Jamie Ward and Patrick Bamford (on loan from Chelsea) have supported lead man Chris Martin who has smashed 22 league goals in his first full season at the iPro.

It is no doubt that the neutrals will be supporting the Rams at Wembley as they have proved pleasing on the eye and stand to represent the traditional values of the English game: hard graft, teamwork and an ethos to attack. The fear for Derby is that the big occasion will get the better of them, however their display over two legs in the semi-final against Brighton who were bang in form showed that they had the mental strength required to get the job done.

The key player for Derby will be box-to-box Craig Bryson. Shockingly left out of the top ten for the Championship Player of the Year list, Bryson did feature in the Team of the Year and after looking slightly off the pace in the semi-final his team will need to be on top of his game if they are going to return to the Premier League after a six season absence.

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