In early November, I wrote in this very column that it is extremely rare for a team to reach the playoffs after performing as poorly as the Rams had in their first fifteen league matches.

When I examined the facts, I pointed out that only Crystal Palace in 2007/2008, had achieved this in the last ten seasons.

Since that column, the Rams have won four consecutive league matches and after nineteen matches are sitting in ninth place, two points behind sixth placed Sheffield Wednesday.

Obviously, this is a much more satisfactory situation for Rams fans and the gloom of the Nigel Pearson days are gradually lifting.

However, we would not be true fans if we could not find something to worry about, and over the last few days I may have found it; goals! Not goals conceded by the Rams, since there have not been many (2nd best defensive record in the league to be exact), but goals scored.

In short, can the current crop of players keep scoring goals in the numbers necessary to secure a top six finish? With that in mind I once again examined the stats of recent seasons.

I took a look at the number of goals scored by top six teams over the last five seasons and only one Championship team has scored less than sixty goals in the last five seasons; Brighton, with fifty-five in 2013/2014.

Usually it is sixty-five or well above that gets teams a top six finish. The Rams’ current total of seventeen goals in nineteen games needs to improve quite a bit to achieve sustained good results.

Just for the sake of argument, let us assume that the Rams, with our solid defence could reach the top six with only sixty goals; from the current squad, who would score them?

Trying to see a path to sixty, I could see the lone striker, Bent or Vydra needing to get fifteen between them. The wide players, Ince and Russell would need to combine for eighteen. The central midfielders, Hughes, Johnson, Butterfield and Bryson would need seventeen between them. That would leave a balance of ten to be provided by the back four.

The back four have made a start; Pearce, Forsyth and Christie each have one goal in the league. More goals are needed, and in particular Keogh, who has not scored yet, needs to get off the mark. It is worth pointing out that Pearce is the only defender currently playing who has scored a goal.

The wide players, Ince and Russell have also made a start with a combined six goals; Anya has also contributed one for the wide players. Russell has only one so far, against five for Ince. It is a bit of a concern that of Ince’s five goals, two have come from penalties; the Rams only scored one from the spot in league matches in the whole of last season, so Ince needs more from open play.

The central midfielders are not yet off to the races; Bradley Johnson’s two goals are the sum total so far for this group of players. Needless to say, this is nowhere near good enough.

The lone strikers have also made a bit of a sputtering start; Bent and Vydra each have two goals for a total of four. Blackman has also scored one — a penalty — so this group is probably closer to its target than any of the others.

So, we can see the problem: even to finish the season with a very low total of sixty goals, the Rams need to do much better than we have been seeing.

The recent improved results cannot be sustained for long without a more consistent flow of goals from more players. In particular, Butterfield, Russell and Hughes need to start scoring.

In addition, Keogh and Pearce need to hope they can start getting some better dead ball service so that they can start making a contribution. Vydra in particular has been getting the chances; he needs to start putting them away and find the clinical finishing that was once a hallmark of his game.

What better way could there be of putting the Pearson era behind us than to spend the rest of the season scoring for fun?

Photo: Action Images

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