John Eustace is winless as Derby County manager and will be keen to break his duck against the club he left to take over at Pride Park.
John Eustace hopes to have a reinforced squad available to him when he faces Blackburn Rovers at Pride Park next weekend.
The Rams boss will be facing his former club just three weeks after swapping Ewood Park and the play-off campaign, for Derby and their increasingly testing relegation battle.
Eustace has lost all three of his games so far and goes up against Rovers four points from safety, without a win since Boxing Day and having dropped to the bottom of the table.
However, he hopes to have more options available to him and without naming them, it is thought Kane Wilson and Matt Clarke could be in contention.
“We are fighters, we are not victims,” Eustace told Rams TV. “It’s another disappointing one but the effort and desire is there for everyone to see.
“We add a bit more quality to the group, we have a couple of players coming back this week as well which is a big boost to everyone. We will give it our best next week.”
Nat Phillips returned to the squad for the 1-0 loss at Middlesbrough, a game Clarke missed after limping off against Millwall in the previous match.
“His injury is not as bad as we initially thought,” Eustace has said, adding: “Hopefully Kane Wilson will join back in with the group next week.”
Eustace felt his team deserved to take something home from Teesside – and saw a few positives. “We were solid, had a good shape and were very hard to play against.
“We did create opportunities when we won the ball back too, but it is just our final pass in the last third of the pitch is something we need to work on.
“The transitions are going to be key if we want to score goals while having that good defensive structure. At times we showed that against Middlesbrough, but not at the level that we need to win games.”
