BIG MONEY MAN: Seth Johnson, 21, cost £3million from Crewe Alexander last season. He was named in Peter Taylor's England squad to face Italy. Striker Branko Strupar, a Croatian-born Belgian, also cost £3million, from Belgian club Sporting Club Genk and Craig Burley, signed from Celtic last season, was another that set the club back a similar fee.

LAST SIX RESULTS:

Manchester City (h) drew 1-1

Powell

Middlesbrough (a) lost 4-0

West Brom, FA Cup (h) won 3-2

Christie 2, Eranio

Everton (h) won 1-0

Burton

Southampton (a) lost 1-0

Manchester City (a) drew 0-0

SEASON SO FAR: Derby took just five points from the first 11 games, but then 18 from the next 11 to drag themselves off the bottom of the Premiership.

MANAGER: Jim Smith is now in his sixth season at Derby and appears to have come through his side's early-season bad patch relatively unscathed. He has little money to spend, though, because of the cost of building Pride Park. He took the Rams up in his first season and enjoyed a couple of top-half finishes in the following years.

TOP SCORER: Former Nuneaton Borough star Malcolm Christie, signed for just £50,000 from the Dr Marten's League side, has taken the Premiership by storm in his first full season, scoring 10 goals in all competitions so far.

PREDICTED LINE-UP: The Rams have Craig Burley, Chris Riggott, Deon Burton, Darryl Powell, Taribo West, Seth Johnson, Branko Strupar and Georgi Kinkladze all out through suspension, international call-ups or injury.

ONE TO WATCH: Estonian keeper Mart Poom is a firm fans' favourite, winning the player of the year award by a massive 62 per cent last season, despite missing the early part of the season with a wrist injury

DID YOU KNOW? When Derby fans travelled to Sunderland for an FA Cup sixth round replay in 1933, four train-loads had to be turned back. The ground was already full, with 75,120 inside. Derby won 1-0