Good News For Taylor - But Owen Out Again!

But he does expect defensive trio Steven Taylor, Abdoulaye Faye and Stephen Carr to be back in the reckoning for Sunday's fixture against the Premier League's basement club.

Taylor missed Saturday night's 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage with a hamstring problem, and as a result fit-again Cacapa returned to the starting line-up for the first time since the Portsmouth debacle.

Owen, meanwhile, is still struggling from the thigh problem he suffered in England's friendly win over Austria last month.

Allardyce: "Michael's was hoping to get back into some form of training this week, but Derby will be a bit soon.

"Certainly, we'd hope to have Steven Taylor, and possibly Abdoulaye Faye and Stephen Carr, back.

"We'll try to get them into training as quickly as we can, because the games are coming thick and fast. We've got four games in a 10-day period, that we've got to cope with.

"That'll be a big push for those games, and with everybody fit, it'll help us get more points on the board. We need to get those players back into the selection process, and hopefully keep this run going.

"Taylor got through 90 minutes with his experience and quality of defending, and I'm glad to say he's made it look pretty easy.

"I hope he continues on from here. He's a been a big miss."