It was not so long ago that things were looking so promising. After the win against Charlton on 24th February, the Rams were sitting very nicely at the top of the Championship.
At that point Derby were two points ahead of Middlesbrough in second place, and six points ahead of third place Bournemouth. All that was needed was to keep putting a few more points between us and the rest; which we would surely do with matches coming up against Fulham, Brighton and Birmingham.
With Tom Ince and Darren Bent rattling in the goals rather than the injured Chris Martin, it looked as though those who said Martin was the one player we could not do without were wrong.
On top of that, perhaps those who said we would miss John Eustace were a bit too pessimistic. Maybe the Rams’ barely adequate defence could continue to hold up.
Not so fast.
Those easy matches against Fulham, Brighton and Birmingham turned out to be problematical; as did the more difficult matches against Norwich and Middlesbrough.
Two points from five matches; two points out of a possible fifteen and things are looking decidedly less rosy. We are now five points behind the top two, Watford and Middlesbrough; and only three points from dropping out of the playoff places. We also have two difficult-looking games coming up, with Wolves away on Friday and Watford at home two weeks later.
Is there any good news we can find?
First of all, the Wolves game is not one to be afraid of: Wolves are in eighth place in the Championship, so they are certainly not Barcelona. They have won several matches lately, but these have been against mediocre opponents; their record against the stronger teams tends to be not so good.
Further, the Rams’ injury situation has to start improving soon. I do not know if Martin, Bent or Thorne are likely to be back for the Wolves match, but I should think they certainly would be considered for a return against Watford.
One question that inevitably comes up, when discussing the Rams’ striker injuries, and the resulting lack of weight up front; where is Mason Bennett?
Mason looks to be playing in the Under-18s, but even without Martin and Bent he does not get a place on the bench for the first team. While on this subject, may I add that I am not advocating a recall from loan for Conor Sammon. Not ever!
Finally, the fixtures start to get a bit easier after Watford: for the remainder of April, we have Wigan away; Brentford and Blackpool at home; then Huddersfield and Millwall away.
We finish up with Reading at home in early May. Being not too wildly optimistic, it’s possible to see the Rams reeling off six successive wins, after draws against Wolves and Watford.
That would be another twenty points, for a total of eighty-seven. Is that being unreasonable?
It’s all up to the players, isn’t it? And we know they are a lot better than they have been showing us lately.
So there we are; nothing to worry about.
What we are seeing is just a blip before the grand finale.