Derby County entered the 2014-15 season as one of the favourites for automatic promotion to the Premier League following a third-place finish the previous year.
Their 2013-14 campaign ultimately ended in heartbreaking fashion when Queens Park Rangers scored in second-half stoppage time to clinch promotion, having been on the back foot for long spells in the playoff final at Wembley.
Even so, with Steve McClaren gearing up for his first full season at the helm, optimism was high that the Rams could go one better this time around and end their seven-year stay in the second tier.
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It looked like heading that way for much of the campaign too, but a severe dip in form during the closing months of the season, during which time they won just two of their final 13 matches, saw them fall off the pace and miss out on the playoffs altogether.
The club parted company with McClaren as a result of their collapse, leaving Derby needing to once again pick themselves up from a disappointing end to the season. Next year they will have former Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain assistant Paul Clement in charge.
He has plenty of experience at the very highest level, but McClaren will be a tough act to follow in what is a devilishly difficult league to succeed in.
Five key results
Derby 5-1 Fulham, August 23, 2014: An inauspicious start to the season resulted in questions as to whether Derby were suffering a hangover from their playoff final defeat to QPR, with a narrow home victory over newly-promoted Rotherham United on the opening day being followed by a draw with Sheffield Wednesday and defeat to Charlton Athletic. However, they first announced themselves as real promotion contenders in their fourth league match of the campaign, when Fulham were put to the sword at the iPro Stadium.
The Rams led by just a solitary Jamie Ward strike at half time, and were pegged back 10 minutes after the restart when Scott Parker restored parity for the Cottagers. From that point on it was all about Derby, however, and they put the game beyond their visitors with two goals in as many minutes around the hour mark. Chris Martin then doubled his personal tally in the closing stages before Simon Dawkins added another just a minute later to complete the rout.
Middlesbrough 2-0 Derby, December 13, 2014: By the time December came around, Derby were the league's pacesetters and many people's favourites to go on and win the title. Eleven wins and just four defeats from their opening 20 league games had seen them rise to the top of the table when they travelled to fellow automatic promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough, although a loss to Leeds United a fortnight previously had made their lead a little less commanding.
It proved to be a miserable trip for the Rams, who fell behind after just six minutes at the Riverside. Their hopes of dragging themselves back into the match suffered a blow when Ryan Shotton was given his marching orders for a foul inside the box, and Grant Leadbitter compounded their woes by converting the resulting penalty. There was no reply from Derby as they fell to a costly defeat that saw them drop out of the automatic promotion places.
Derby 1-2 Nottingham Forest, January 17, 2015: Derby responded to that defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough with three wins and a draw from their next four matches, and they were expected to extend that unbeaten streak when local rivals Nottingham Forest came to town in January. Forest had lost four games on the bounce and were winless in eight going into the match, while Derby's form had seen them climb back into the top two.
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It looked like going as planned when Henri Lansbury turned the ball into his own net after just quarter of an hour, but the Rams failed to build on that lead and found themselves on the back foot for much of the game. Forest were finally rewarded 15 minutes from time when Britt Assombalonga levelled things, and there was more late drama to come as Ben Osborn scored in the second minute of injury time to send under-pressure boss Stuart Pearce wild on the touchlines. For Derby, it was their only defeat in a 12-match run, but the dropped points would prove to be costly.
Derby 2-2 Birmingham City, March 7, 2015: One of the tightest Championship title races in recent memory was developing, with as many as eight teams still harbouring ambitions of winning the league going into March. Derby were right in the mix but, while slip-ups at the top were becoming a weekly occurrence, their slide seemed more worrying than most. They still occupied an automatic promotion place, but back-to-back 2-0 defeats at the hands of struggling duo Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion were cause for concern.
They were on course for a return to winning ways when they hosted Birmingham at the iPro on a pivotal afternoon of Championship action, with Ward and Tom Ince making up for the loss of both Martin and Darren Bent to injury by putting the Rams 2-0 up early in the second half. That advantage, which would have opened up daylight between Derby and the rest at the top of the table, lasted until the 93rd minute, when Paul Caddis pulled one back from the spot to halve the deficit. It looked to be a mere consolation, but Clayton Donaldson ensured that it was more than that with an equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time to cost Derby two crucial points. The result meant that four teams were locked on 66 points at the top of the table, while fifth-placed Norwich City were just one behind on 65.
Derby 0-3 Reading, May 2, 2015:
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A run of just 12 points from a possible 36 had seen Derby slip out of the title race by the time they welcomed Reading on the final day of the season. Now, the Rams found themselves in a battle just to keep their place in the playoffs, although their fate was still in their own hands. They held a two-point lead over both Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and their vastly superior goal difference ensured that only a draw was needed to book their place in the top six.
What followed was a disastrous collapse which provided a microcosm of the final two months of their season. Having shipped four against Huddersfield Town and three against Millwall in their previous two games, they once again leaked goals to meekly surrender to an eighth-place finish. Kwesi Appiah got the Royals up and running in just the second minute, before Bent missed the chance to restore parity right on the stroke of half time when he failed to convert a penalty. Two more goals came for Reading in the second half to condemn Derby to an embarrassing defeat and another term in the Championship.
Best Player - Chris Martin
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Even with their collapse in the final months of the season, only the top three teams scored more goals than Derby in the Championship during the 2014-15 campaign. They were a potent attacking force, scoring three or more goals on 14 separate occasions in all competitions, and Martin was a big reason behind that. It is no coincidence that the team's dip in form arrived following his injury as the Rams were suddenly robbed of the focal point of that attack.
Even with the two-month absence, Martin managed to find the back of the net 18 times in 31 league starts, while he added a further three in the cup competitions to take him over the 20-goal mark. He also weighed in with three assists and made more key passes per game than any other player in the Derby squad.
Most Improved Player - Jeff Hendrick
After having to settle for a role on the fringes last season, Jeff Hendrick established himself in the first team this time around. He made 46 appearances in all competitions - up 11 from last season - and 39 of those saw him named in McClaren's starting XI.
He made the most of his increased chances too, contributing seven goals and nine assists in the league alone. He managed just five goals and one assist in 2013-14 so, while Derby's campaign ended in disappointing fashion, from a personal standpoint Hendrick's stock certainly rose this season.
Best Signing - Tom Ince
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Derby brought in 13 new players on a permanent basis last season, but it was their loan signings that made the biggest impact. Omar Mascarell, Shotton, Jordon Ibe and Jesse Lingard all impressed during their temporary stays at the iPro, but it was Bent and Ince who stood out. The former suffered an injury at a similar time to Martin, without which Derby may well have been able to keep up their title push - or at least finish in the top six.
Bent still managed to score 10 goals in 15 appearances, but Ince's contribution was perhaps even more impressive. From his wide role, the Hull City loanee scored 11 times in 18 outings and posed a constant threat to the opposition defence. Ibe's return to Liverpool was barely felt due to Ince's contribution, with the Englishman showing just why he is so highly rated in some quarters.
Best Goal - Craig Bryson vs. Watford
Hendrick's volleyed equaliser to rescue a point against Millwall deserves an honourable mention, but we've gone for Bryson's stunner at Watford on November 22. Goals from Ibe and Gianni Munari had left the scores level going into the final 10 minutes at Vicarage Road, where Watford still boasted an unbeaten record in 2014-15. That was to come to an end in style, however, as Bryson lashed a swerving long-range strike past the despairing dive of Jonathan Bond to clinch the win in spectacular fashion.
Must Do Better - Simon Dawkins
It is fair to say that Dawkins has never been one of the most clinical attackers, but his return of just three league goals from 34 appearances was a particularly poor one this season. He found the back of the net in August and again in November, before a six-month wait for his next strike on his penultimate appearance of the campaign. He added two more in the League Cup, but McClaren would have been hoping for more than five goals in 42 games from the Jamaican.
End-of-season grade: C-
It all looked like it was going well for Derby up until the end of February. They were on course to win the promotion that they came so agonisingly close to last season, and they were providing plenty of entertainment along the way. However, while they had seven good months, their dip in form in the closing stages of the campaign ultimately saw them woefully underachieve. To have missed out on the playoffs entirely having spent much of the year in the top two is poor, and it wasn't too big of a surprise to see McClaren depart as a result.
It will be interesting to see how Clement gets on. The club has already made signings, including the permanent capture of Bent, but managers with European experience often struggle to adapt to life in the Championship - see Sami Hyypia at Brighton last term.
