Derby County
Also written as Derby.
The club
Derby County were founded in 1884 and play at Pride Park Stadium, which holds 33,597. They are the Rams, and play in black and white, colours adopted in the 1890s after early years in amber, chocolate and blue. They were founder members of the Football League in 1888, and Wikipedia records them as one of only nine clubs to have played in every season of the English league system since. They moved to Pride Park from the Baseball Ground in 1997.
Recent seasons
Derby finished tenth in the Championship in 2019/20 with 64 points, then 21st in 2020/21 with 44, surviving on the final day. The collapse came in 2021/22. The club entered administration in September 2021 and were docked 21 points across the season, twelve for the administration itself and nine for breaches of EFL accounting rules. They finished 23rd with 34 points and were relegated to League One. David Clowes bought the club in July 2022, taking it out of administration.
In League One they were seventh in 2022/23 with 76 points, missing the play-offs, then second in 2023/24 with 92 points and promotion, which Wikipedia records as the club's highest ever points total. Back in the Championship they were 19th in 2024/25 with 50 points, John Eustace having been appointed head coach on 13 February 2025 with the club in relegation trouble.
Last season was much better. Derby finished eighth in 2025/26 with 69 points from 20 wins, 9 draws and 17 defeats, 67 goals scored and 59 conceded, six points short of the play-offs under the old six-place format. Carlton Morris, signed from Luton Town, was top scorer with 12 goals. Their biggest win was 5-0 away at Bristol City on 30 January 2026. They went out of the FA Cup in the third round, losing 3-1 at home to Leeds United on 11 January 2026, and out of the EFL Cup in the second round. Average home league attendance was 28,911, and the highest crowd was 32,538 against Sheffield United on 2 May 2026.
Honours and landmarks
Derby have won the First Division twice, in 1971/72 and 1974/75, both under Brian Clough and then Dave Mackay, and reached the European Cup semi-final in 1972/73. The FA Cup was won in 1945/46, the first post-war final, Charlton Athletic beaten 4-1. They were First Division runners-up in 1895/96, 1929/30 and 1935/36, and FA Cup runners-up in 1897/98, 1898/99 and 1902/03. Second Division titles came in 1911/12, 1914/15, 1968/69 and 1986/87, the Third Division title in 1956/57, and third-tier runners-up finishes in 1955/56 and 2023/24. They won the Championship play-offs in 2007, the Charity Shield in 1975, the Texaco Cup in 1971/72 and the Watney Cup in 1970.
Kevin Hector holds the appearance record with 589 games between 1966 and 1982. Steve Bloomer is the all-time top scorer with 332 goals across two spells between 1892 and 1914. Jack Bowers scored 43 in a single season in 1932/33, 35 of them in the league. Record attendance is 41,826 for a First Division match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Baseball Ground on 20 September 1969, a 5-0 win; the Pride Park record is 33,378 against Liverpool in March 2000. The largest crowd Derby have ever played in front of was 120,000 against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the 1975/76 European Cup.
The other landmark is an unwanted one. Derby's 2007/08 Premier League season produced 11 points from 38 matches, one win, eight draws and 29 defeats, the lowest total in the competition's history.
Notable scorelines
Derby jointly hold, with Watford, the record for the heaviest defeat in an FA Cup final, 6-0 against Bury in 1903. No all-time record win or record defeat could be established from any source read for this dossier; treat any figure quoted elsewhere as unverified.
The famous matches are the 1946 FA Cup final and the two title seasons. From last season, the 5-0 win at Ashton Gate on 30 January 2026 was the standout result.
Head-to-head notes
Derby do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and none were established for their 2026/27 Championship opponents. What can be given is last season's meetings, since 21 of the 24 clubs in this year's division were also in it in 2025/26.
Derby drew 1-1 at home with Charlton Athletic on 30 September 2025 and won 2-1 at The Valley on 20 January 2026; Charlton are the opening-day opponents. They won 3-1 at Sheffield United on 1 November 2025, beat Swansea City twice, 2-1 away on 25 November 2025 and 2-0 at home on 14 February 2026, and took four points off both Portsmouth and West Bromwich Albion. Middlesbrough won 2-1 at the Riverside on 29 November 2025 before Derby won the return 1-0 on 1 January 2026. Millwall took four points off Derby, a 1-1 draw at Pride Park on 10 December 2025 and a 1-0 win at The Den on 10 March 2026.
Three clubs are new to the fixture list: West Ham United, Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers, all relegated from the Premier League, along with the promoted Lincoln City, Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers. Derby's main rivals, Nottingham Forest, are in the Premier League, and Leicester City were relegated to League One, so neither derby is on this season.
Right now (2026/27)
John Eustace is head coach, appointed 13 February 2025. David Clowes owns the club.
Recruitment has been mostly free transfers around one significant fee. Midfielder Bobby Clark joined from Red Bull Salzburg on 22 June 2026 for a reported £6m. Left-back Charlie Taylor arrived free from Southampton on 14 July, wing-back Frankie Jones from Sheffield United and winger Kean Wren from Everton both on 17 July, and winger Filip Bilbija from Paderborn on 22 July. Twelve players left when contracts expired on 30 June, among them Danny Batth and Andreas Weimann; Callum Elder joined Lincoln City on 1 July, Jake Rooney went to Boston United on 23 July and Ben Osborn to Stockport County on 27 July. No permanent sales have been recorded.
Pre-season: 2-0 at Alfreton Town on 17 July, 1-3 at home to Freiburg on 24 July, 1-2 to Valencia behind closed doors on 28 July, with Mansfield Town on 31 July, Burton Albion in the Bass Charity Vase on 1 August and Rotherham United on 4 August still to play.
The Championship starts on 14 August 2026, and Derby open away at Charlton Athletic on 15 August, then Cardiff City at home on 22 August, Swansea City at home on 29 August, Portsmouth away on 1 September and West Ham United away on 5 September. In the EFL Cup they are at home to Lincoln City in the first round, scheduled for the weekend of 7 to 9 August 2026. Note that the Championship play-offs expand from four teams to six this season.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_County_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Derby_County_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Derby_County_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Derby_County_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Championship
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.