With five games left in the regular season, the big question all Rams fans are mulling has to be; will we achieve automatic promotion, go up, stay down or miss out completely?
For me, I think the automatic places are now out of reach, barring some bizarre sequence of results.
I think the Rams can certainly pick up quite a few points in the remaining matches, but finishing ahead of three out of Bournemouth, Norwich, Watford and Middlesbrough would mean a great deal of success on our part and a lot of failure on the part of three out of those four top teams.
Bournemouth have a fairly easy final five matches; Norwich have Middlesbrough to play, but not much else; Watford have an easy time; Middlesbrough have Norwich and Wolves to play, but not much else. The Rams have to pick up a lot of points to finish top two.
As far as the playoffs are concerned, the Rams are currently top of a mini-league consisting of ourselves, Wolves, Brentford and Ipswich. The Rams need to finish in the top six to make the playoffs and long as we do not lose to Brentford on Saturday, then this should be eminently doable.
The playoffs are well within the Rams’ grasp, and I expect us to do it. Things would look much more certain if we were not going to lose Will Hughes to suspension for two matches, but having Chris Martin back at the right time will make a huge difference.
If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Rams would play Middlesbrough, with the first leg at the iPro; the winner would likely play Watford in the final. It would, of course, be ideal if the Rams could move up to third or fourth in order to be away in the first leg.
The recent run of poor results may well have left quite a number of fans wondering how badly we really want the club to get promoted. There was a feeling a couple of months ago that the club is reasonably well equipped to compete in the Prem; a little strengthening here and there is all that would be required. That script may well have to be rewritten, regardless of whether the Rams achieve promotion.
The strange thing is that if all the players are fit, the Rams have a team which looks extremely strong on paper: the team that took us to top spot in mid-February would hopefully all be available, with George Thorne instead of Eustace/Mascarell.
The only players with first team experience who are out of contract this summer are Shaun Barker, Mark O’Brien, Zak Whitbread, Lee Naylor, Tom Naylor and John Eustace. The problems that will have to be addressed this summer are the defence and injuries.
The Rams cannot go into next season with the same defence that has played most of this season. There have been impressive runs of clean sheets, but ultimately the defence has fallen some way short of the required standard.
There may be some possibilities with the changes made for the Wigan, and Ferrend Rawson may have something to offer after his successful loan spell at Rotherham, but it seems likely that defensive reinforcements will have to be brought in.
The other big issue is injuries. In midfield Thorne, Ward, Russell and Bryson have all missed considerable chunks of the season, while Dawkins has rarely started. In attack, the season fell apart when Martin was forced to miss some matches. Since January, most of the Rams’ goals have been scored by Ince and Bent who are both unlikely to be back. So again, help will be needed in both midfield and attack.
Of course, there has been considerable speculation as to whether Steve McClaren will still be manager much beyond the end of the season.
Whether Steve stays, or he leaves and is replaced by a new face, it looks likely to be quite an entertaining summer at the iPro.