Stand-in skipper Jason De Vos has been declared fit for Saturday's trip to Derby County, with regular skipper Jim Magilton again on the sidelines due to his thigh muscle tear. The Northern Irishman is due for a scan on the injury - which has kept out of Town's first three games - on Monday.

De Vos, who joins Canada for their World Cup qualifier against Guatemala in Vancouver after Saturday's match, picked-up a knock to the knee in the Osasuna friendly and aggravated the problem against Nottingham Forest but has improved significantly in the days since the trip to the City Ground.

Manager Joe Royle says the Canada captain almost sat out the draw against Forest: "He was very close to missing the game. He'd done no training at all. He found it became a little bit easier as the game went on and the blood started to move.

"He's got a lot of swelling still but the more the circulation improves, the better he'll get."

Royle wants his strikers to give Derby's defenders more trouble than they gave Forest's backline on Wednesday: "We've got to be a bigger threat on goal. I looked at Forest's attempts on goal and they out-numbered ours.

"I did hear the Forest manager say that they murdered us, which I thought was a little bit extreme from my friend Mr Kinnear because I do remember we had other opportunities and we dominated the ball at times.

"But equally, I can't argue with the fact that they had more opportunities than us. All round, we've got to pass the ball better in midfield, we've got to get more shots on goal and we still haven't had a clean sheet."

Royle has been impressed with new midfield loanee Tony Dinning, despite his lack of pre-season matches: "That first game when you've not played first team football for a while is hard but I thought he did OK, not spectacular but I thought he did OK."

Town name he same 17-man squad as travelled to Nottingham Forest with Scott Mitchell the favourite to win the final sub berth ahead of Scott Barron.

Dean Bowditch could be in line for a recall, probably in place of Shefki Kuqi, after Royle was critical of his strikers at the City Ground.

Despite Derby not yet having scored a point, Royle says his scouts have told him their performance was good on Wednesday: "They played well. Our report said they were unfortunate not to beat Leicester the other night, never mind lose.

"I saw them against Leeds and they certainly didn't deserve to lose that game. George will know his side is playing well, it's not the start they would have liked but he'll just say 'Keep playing this way and the results will come'."

"We can play better than we have in the two games and we've got four points. I don't think we've played anything like our best yet but have four points."

Royle Burley would be particularly pleased to gain a win against Town: "I know he would dearly love to do well against his old club, but equally George has got great affection for this club, I know as he's a great pal of mine and he has certainly never said anything bad about this club to me.

"He'd love to beat us and he'd love the three points. But equally, we need the three points and the incentive for the players is that we have a chance of going top. I'd dearly love that and we'd have more points after three games than we had after about seven or eight last year."

The Town side has changed dramatically since Royle took over from Burley after his sacking in October 2002.

Town's starting line-up at Forest on Wednesday contained no members of the eleven which began Royle's first game in charge against Slovan Liberec in the UEFA Cup - Marshall, Makin, McGreal, Brown, Hreidarsson, Ambrose, Magilton, Holland, Clapham, Couñago, Armstrong - although Darren Bent came off the bench to score the winning goal and Fabian Wilnis and Tommy Miller were also subs.

Royle says the mass changes were not something he expected when he took the Town job: "I came here, hopefully, to lead Holland, Hreidarsson, Clapham and company back into the Premier Division. But things have changed, the game had to change with administration and we now have a new team and I think they've been smashing, the way they've come together.

"The young lads have played their part, the frees and the loans have all played theirs and they've done great. Normally the turnover in a team doesn't happen inside two years."

The Town boss picks out three Derby frontmen as their most impressive players: "The lad Junior has a good goal sense and Marcus Tudgay will work hard, and I've always liked Tommy Smith who I think is a very mobile striker. They have players who can score a goal, although they haven't got going as an attacking force quite yet."

Rams' boss George Burley, whose Town sides were also notoriously slow starters, says he is not overly concerned by defeats in their first two matches: "There's nobody in the dressing room panicking, nor am I because I'm pleased with the way we are playing.

"I thought we deserved a draw at Leeds and should have beaten Leicester. I was proud of the way we played against a team who are favourites for promotion."

The Rams are without summer central defensive signing Mo Konjic due to a tendinitis problem and full-back Jamie Vincent who like Town skipper Jim Magilton has a tear to a thigh muscle.

In Konjic's absence 17-year-old Tom Huddlestone - an England U17 compatriot of Dean Bowditch - will continue at centre-half. Marcus Tudgay came on as a sub at left midfield on Wednesday and is expected to start in that role ahead of Marco Reich.

Saturday's referee is Richard Beeby who officiated in Coventry's 2-0 victory over Sunderland a week ago, booking two players. Last season he showed 100 yellow cards and 10 red in 35 matches.

He refereed Town in the 1-1 home draw with Cardiff on the final day of the regular season.

Squad: Davis, Price, Diallo, Richards, Wilnis, Barron, Mitchell, De Vos, Naylor, Miller, Horlock, Dinning, Westlake, Bent, Kuqi, Bowditch, Couñago.

Photo: Action Images

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