Derby’s Miserable Season Almost Over

Tom Oldfield

Long since doomed to head back to the Championship, Derby County are simply playing out time in their truly dire Premiership campaign. It was always going to be hard for the club to compete in the top flight after gaining promotion through the playoffs but few could have predicted such a spectacularly woeful effort.

Former boss Billy Davies deserved great credit for securing promotion last year but neither he nor his successor ex-Wigan manager Paul Jewell have been able to find sufficient quality within the Derby squad. As a result, the club never looked likely to stay long in the Premiership.

The most pitiful statistic – and there is plenty of choice here – is the fact that Derby have won just one match all season. With just a couple of matches to go, the prospect of one win out of 38 games is looking an increasingly likely outcome. How Newcastle must be blushing after losing 1-0 to give the Rams their solitary triumph.

That victory came back on 17th September in the club’s sixth league fixture, meaning they have managed no win in 29 games since. Jewell, who surprised many by taking the job at Pride Park in November, has yet to experience a league win.

The club appeared to decide very early on that they were not going to retain their Premiership status and as a result plans for next season back in the Championship quickly began in earnest. The appointment of Jewell seemed to be based on the belief that he would be the right man to lead Derby out of the Championship rather than that he would keep the Rams in the top flight.

The problems have been all too obvious. There are weak areas all over the pitch and the personnel is simply not of Premiership standard. The defence has leaked goals all season, often in embarrassing circumstances. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa scored six, Arsenal again and West Ham managed five and Manchester United (and Preston in the FA Cup) got four against hapless Derby line-ups. It has made for agonising viewing for Derby fans. After the elation of reaching the top flight, this was not what they all had in mind.

The likes of Darren Moore, Dean Leacock and Tyrone Mears are clearly solid Championship performers but have looked all at sea against the pace and movement of Premier League attacks. The leaky back line is not just something that has plagued Derby on their travels, as can sometimes be the case with newly promoted sides. Heavy defeats to Aston Villa, West Ham and Preston all came at Pride Park in front of a disbelieving home crowd. At the time of writing, the Rams had conceded 39 at home and 43 away.

The midfield has arguably been the strongest link of the team. The work ethic of Matt Oakley and Robbie Savage is to be admired and there has been no absence of effort. But the creativity has been lacking, ensuring that there is little to keep supporters on the edge of their seats. It means that the strikers have received little quality service.

Whoever Davies or Jewell have picked up front, the outcome has been the same – very few goals. These days, there is more chance of an exciting Avram Grant press conference than a Derby goal.  They just do not possess the pace and trickery to worry Premiership opponents. The statistics do not lie. The Rams have managed a measly 19 goals in the league all season – less than one every two games. Seven goals in 18 away fixtures explains why Derby have yet to win away from Pride Park.

The record for the lowest number of points in a Premiership season stands at 15 from Sunderland’s awful 2005/06 campaign. Derby have 11 and look destined to put their name in the history books. With fixtures against Blackburn and Reading to come, the Rams need five points to avoid the record low. It is hard to see it happening. You would not back Derby against the Scouts at the moment.

Should Derby lose their remaining three games, they will finish with an incredible 29 defeats to go with one win and eight draws. That is as many defeats as a top club suffers in six or seven seasons and it would surely make Derby the worst team to ever appear in the Premiership.

Where do the Rams go from here? Well, they have had plenty of time to get their heads round relegation. It is hard to tell how embarrassed the players and staff are as most have seemed resigned to the drop for months. There were no attempts in January to bolster the squad, as some teams have done successfully in the past. Instead, Derby opted to save the cash for next season, effectively admitting that they expected to be relegated.

However, the fans have kept coming, displaying great loyalty to the club. The whole experience has especially exposed the huge gulf between the Premier League and the Championship. Sunderland had to invest heavily to survive – bringing in some experience and quality – and still languished near the foot of the table for much of the campaign. It is a hugely difficult league to master and in this sense it is hard to be too critical of Derby’s efforts. Far better sides have tried and failed to survive.

On a more positive note, facing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas and Steven Gerrard can only help the Derby players to improve. They now know all about what level of performance is required in the Premiership.

Jewell will hope his squad show they have learnt from their season in the top flight. Come August he will demand that the players are focused on getting back to the Premier League and giving a better account of themselves. How easy that will be remains to be seen.