Rams aim to avoid another unwanted record

By 5pm on Saturday evening, Derby County had equalled an unwanted record.

Seven straight league defeats for the first time since that Premier League season in 2007-08 in which they registered a record low 11 points.

By November 2007 it was clear that Billy Davies' team were woefully down on the levels of quality needed to compete in the top flight.

He was sacked and replaced by Paul Jewell whose tenure then presided over a further 21 league defeats and a penalty shootout win over Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup.

That season the Rams lost seven in a row before Christmas and six in a row at the end of the campaign. It was woeful and forgettable.

Seventeen years later it is still the butt of all jokes as Southampton scrape towards that 11-point mark in the current Premier League.

Everyone accepted during that season that Derby had got promoted too soon amid a three year plan completed in the first season by the new owners and Davies.

The squad was inadequate in ability and had an age range of players in their teens to mid-thirties.

A Premier League squad it wasn't - and the big money incomings of Claude Davies, Rob Earnshaw and Kenny Miller didn't reap rewards.

Now in 2025, the Rams have rivalled the record of that car crash campaign.

Seven straight defeats in the Championship in a series of matches that have come and gone leaving fans scratching their heads.

It is a similar narrative of obvious deficiencies punished by differing levels of opposition quality.

During the defeat by Sheffield United, some of the supporters made clear their standpoint of what they were witnessing.

Even new arrival Matt Clarke struggled to straight bat the atmosphere he stepped into at Pride Park.

He was excellent in defence and fitted in well to the 100% commitment we've seen from the players for the majority of this run.

Derby head to Norwich City on Saturday looking to avoid another record.

The last time they lost eight league games in a row was 1987 under Arthur Cox; Derby stuck with him throughout and they survived finishing 15th, a point above the bottom four.

Before that it was 1888, four years before Steve Bloomer made his Rams debut.

What they'd give for a hero like him now!