The Rams responded to the Crawley loss by allowing Watford to thump them. Rams fan Stuart Hughes gives us his thoughts on the match and beyond.

Oh dear, Derby County's dismal run of poor form in the npower Championship shows no sign of letting up after this latest setback at Vicarage Road.

Watford extended their own run of good form with a comfortable 3-0 victory that extends the Hornets unbeaten league run to eight games and means Watford have now won their last seven games in all competitions. "Magnificent Seven" the Watford Observer is calling it.

But it's far from magnificent as far as Derby County are concerned. Watford may be the form team in the npower Championship at the moment but, in all honesty, the Hornets didn't have to work that hard for their three goals. A combination of individual errors and shoddy defending saw the Rams gift their hosts three goals in nine minutes of madness just before halftime.

For the first Watford goal scored on 36 minutes, Derby County had four defenders plus the goalkeeper inside the six-yard area, three of them on the floor, and still couldn't stop William Buckley's shot as it went under Stephen Bywater and through John Brayford as he knelt on the goal line.

For the second goal on 43 minutes Shaun Barker fell over in his attempt to intercept a cross leaving Danny Graham to hit a side foot shot under Bywater. John Brayford allowed a long clearance to bounce past him on 45 minutes leaving Marvin Sordell to run on unopposed and slot the third goal past Bywater.

It was all very frustrating and disappointing for 1,600 travelling Rams fans as there was nothing between the teams in the opening 35 minutes and nothing between them after the break, although Watford were cruising by then with the three points wrapped up.

Round pegs and square holes has been the subject of much debate recently and once again manager Nigel Clough opted to play two of his back-four out of position. Brayford again played centre-back instead of his preferred right-back position and Paul Green, who isn't even a defender, played at right-back.

It didn't work as Clough conceded when he brought Dean Leacock on for the second-half and played a recognised back four where all four players played in their natural positions.

As if individual errors and bad decision making at the back isn't enough to worry about there are also question marks about where the goals will come from.

Loan strikers Shefki Kuqi and Luke Moore are no longer at the club and Chris Porter, two goals against Preston North End aside, is struggling to make an impact as the lone striker in this 4-2-3-1 system, a formation Clough abandoned for a more traditional 4-4-2 in the second-half.

Even more worrying is the dip in form of attacking players Kris Commons, Alberto Bueno and Tomasz Cywka. Against Crawley Town Commons was poor (like most of the team) and he was substituted at halftime against Watford.

Maybe the protracted contract talks are affecting the Rams top goalscorer but, on Commons's current form, Clough must be wondering why he's asked the board to make Commons our highest paid player.

Clough and the American General Sports Entertainment board have come under pressure after the 5-2 thrashing against arch-rivals Nottingham Forest, the FA Cup defeat to Crawley Town, and more will surely follow after this latest debacle.

The response from both manager and president and chief executive Tom Glick was to say that they felt progress was being made. As evidence they pointed to the fact that the Rams were five league places and eight points better off going into the Watford game than at the exact same stage of last season.

On the other hand, Derby County's current run of one win, one draw and six defeats in the last nine league games is most definitely relegation form.

Watford are the form team in the npower Championship and guess who are second in the npower Championship form table?

That's right, our arch-rivals Nottingham Forest who are next up at Pride Park Stadium.

If Derby County are to avoid being dragged into a relegation dogfight then their form needs to improve and improve soon. And there'd be no better way to start a revival than with a victory over Nottingham Forest.

Here's hoping ...

RamZone would like to thank Stuart Hughes for providing his column from his website and allowing us to re-print it on RamZone.

You can read more of Stuarts work on his Website Here.

Photo: Action Images

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