Town boss George Burley sees Saturday's visit to Derby as even more important than last year's. On the final day of last season Town visited Pride Park as they challenged in vain for a Champions' League place. This year survival is the prize.

Burley said: "This one is much more important both teams are fighting for Premiership survival."

The Town boss was surprised when he discovered that Derby will be managed, at least temporarily, by Billy McEwan after Colin Todd was sacked earlier in the week: "I think many people in football were caught out by that. Colin had been groomed to take over from Jim Smith at Derby, but it just goes to show how quickly things change in football."

The Town injury situation is a bit worse than was suggested earlier in the day. The Blues will definitely be without Jim Magilton who is suffering from a hamstring problem while Thomas Gaardsøe is still out with the ankle problem he picked up in the Charlton game. Ulrich Le Pen has a knee problem, Keith Branagan a shoulder injury and Tommy Miller a thigh strain. All are doubts.

Burley added that Town's change in results is to some degree down to a change of luck recently: "Luck comes into it. I can remember games this season, early on, when we've had 70 to 80% of the play, but have lost the match. That's not happening as much now and, of course, goals count in football, at both ends. We're managing to not give goals away through silly errors and our strikers are finding the net with more regularity and long may that continue."

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