Derby County

Jim Smith took Derby into the Premier League for 1996–97 and they opened with draws 
against Leeds and Spurs. Defeat by Aston Villa was the only reverse in the first seven 
games and by the end of September Derby were 9th and, apart from another very brief 
ninth place, in November that was to be as high as they were to get in their first Premiership 
season. The best sequence of the campaign, five games unbeaten, came towards the end 
of the year and included three consecutive wins but from December to January Derby went 
nine games without a win and defeat by Liverpool dropped the team to 16th. But ‘The bald 
eagle’ steadied his ship and they climbed to 13th before successive away defeats, to 
Middlesbrough and Everton dropped the team back a place.

The best results of the season came with successive victories over Spurs and a cracker of 
a result at Old Trafford, in which Paulo Wanchope bamboozled the reigning champions into 
only a second home defeat of the campaign. A draw with Southampton and a win against 
Aston Villa gave Derby their best points return sequence of the season, 10 from a possible 
12, and helped avert any possibility of a quick return to Division One, and the team finished 
a commendable 12th.

The following season Mart Poom replaced Russell Hoult in goal and Paulo Wanchope and 
Francesco Baiano became the main strike force although Dean Sturridge weighed in with a 
nine-goal haul that campaign. A poor start ended with successive victories before Derby 
lost to Villa. But 11 points from a possible 15 elevated them to seventh when they ran into 
a rampant Liverpool, who won 4–0. But November opened with the best win of the season, 
against Arsenal, and Derby were sixth. They dropped to ninth at the end of November but 
by the first game of 1998 they were sixth after beating Blackburn and stayed there until 
crushed by Leeds at the start of March. That started a decline which saw just one win in 
eight but the team finished the campaign with back to back wins, and two clean sheets to 
ensure ninth place.

Derby made it three consecutive Premiership seasons of improvement, in a row, when they 
ended 1998–99 in eighth. Although the goal tally of 40 was amongst the lowest in the top 
flight only five clubs had a better home record and just four defeats at Pride Park helped 
achieve that splendid position. A League double over Liverpool, with the enigmatic 
Wanchope scoring in both games was the obvious highlight, along with being as high as 
second in the Premier League table, in September, could be counted as a successful 
season. Indeed it proved to be Derby’s best season in the top flight as the following 
campaign proved an eight-month struggle to avoid relegation.

By the last week of August 1999 Derby were 19th. A couple of wins improved the position 
to 14th but the writing was already on the wall. Losing at Liverpool plunged The Rams into 
the relegation zone and they stayed there until the first game of the New Year when 
beating Watford took them out of the bottom three and they stayed 17th until Watford 
again provided a lift and a draw at Vicarage Road elevated County to 16th. Although Derby 
lost to West Ham four unbeaten games kept them safe enough to even lose to Chelsea in 
the last game. But 16th place became 17th by the end of the following season and Jim 
Smith was replaced by Colin Todd for 2001–02. But he was sacked and replaced by John 
Gregory, in January, but it was too late and Derby never moved from 19th place. A 
staggering 24 defeats that season, including seven in a row in the final eight games, 
confirmed relegation, and an end to the six year stint in the Premiership. A potentially lethal 
strike force of Malcolm Christie and the very expensive Fabrizio Ravanelli yielded just 18 
goals from a total of 33 in the League and Derby used 34 players in looking for the elusive 
winning combination that never came.

Managers

Jim Smith           1995–2001

Colin Todd          2001–2002