Derby County welcome Cardiff City to the iPro Stadium on Saturday afternoon with just two places and five points separating the two sides ahead of the contest. 

The Rams were beaten for the first time in eleven games by Nottingham Forest during their last outing and will look to get their promotion bandwagon rolling once again with a victory this weekend.

Cardiff City have surprised many people this season with their form and will be looking to close in on the play-off places with a morale boosting win over the Rams.

This fixture last season ended in a 2-2 draw, with Derby coming out in top in the reverse fixture with a 2-0 win in the Welsh capital.

Here, Football League World's Lee Clarke takes a look at three things to look out for on Saturday:

1) A return to winning ways for the Rams?

Paul Clement's Derby were ousted by local rivals Nottingham Forest by a goal to nil during their last outing in what put a dent in their march to the Championship summit.

Going into the game at the City Ground, the Rams had won eight out of ten games and were unbeaten in 11, making the defeat to a Forest side without a win in eight all the more difficult to comprehend.

However, Clement's men are a different animal at home, and welcome a Cardiff side who are just two places below them in the table after a promising start themselves.

Derby have been beaten just once at home and, given the return to fitness of the influential Tom Ince, they will take some stopping on Saturday.

2) A low-scoring contest?

Given that Saturday's visitors to the iPro Stadium are in a lofty seventh place in the Championship, they have managed just 17 goals this season, which is the lowest of any team in the top half of the league.

Whilst Derby do score fairly frequent at home, Cardiff's robust style should be enough to at least make life difficult for the Rams on Saturday.

Cardiff boss Russell Slade appears under constant pressure at the Cardiff City Stadium, and it is hard to believe that he will travel to the East Midlands with the intention to go gung-ho from the off.

3) Left-back worries for Rams.

Derby were handed a blow just before the international break with the news that the ever-consistent Craig Forsyth would miss the rest of the season with a serious knee ligament injury.

Stephen Warnock filled the void at the City Ground a fortnight ago and was given a torrid time by Forest's ex-Ram Jamie Ward, leading to many Derby supporters call out for a loan recruit to come in.

Boss Clement has since ruled that out and insists he will be sticking with the veteran Warnock, until January at least.

The ex-Liverpool defender is likely to come up against Anthony Pilkington or Craig Noone on Saturday, which on paper suggests that the experienced defender could be in for another tough afternoon.

Derby and Cardiff fans... how do you think the game will go? Can Derby get back to winning ways? Or will Cardiff record back-to-back wins? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!