Avoiding a new low will be the aim for Rams

THERE isn’t a Derby County fan on Earth who needs to be reminded their club hold the record for the fewest points in a Premier League season.

This season is bringing back painful memories of that dreadful 2007-08 campaign, as the possibility of the unthinkable looms – breaking the record for the fewest points in the Championship, too.

If that happens, it will be down to what happens off the pitch, rather than on it.

A further nine-point deduction would leave the club on minusthree points after 17 games and effectively condemn them to relegation to League One.

The record in the modern era, since the Championship rebrand in 2004, currently belongs to Rotherham United, who went down with 23 points in 2016-17.

However, the overall second tier record is shared by two clubs from the early 20th century.

Loughborough took only eight points in the old Second Division in 1899-1900. The Leicestershire outfit failed to gain re-election to the Football League at the end of that season and were declared defunct.

Five years later, Doncaster Rovers matched Loughborough, taking the same number of points in 1904-05.

Adjusting for three points for a win, Loughborough would have finished on nine points, while Rovers would have ended with 11.

Although Derby’s current predicament is pretty grim, they should surpass both of those paltry tallies by May.

Taking Rotherham’s 23-point total as the one to beat, Derby need to earn another 26 points from 29 matches to avoid finishing with the fewest points in a Championship season since 2004.

Nine wins would do it, though as the Rams have taken only three from their first 17 matches, that will not be easy. They have become the division’s draw specialists with nine and need to start converting a few of them into victories in the second half of the season.

Derby have earned 0.94 points per game so far and accumulating points at the same rate for the rest of the campaign will see them overhaul Rotherham’s tally – just.