We Derby County fans are used to low points, but when we lost our third home game in succession to Scunthorpe 1-4 (who hadn’t previously won in 10 away performances) we realised the slow car-crash that this year is going to be a relegation battle for Nigel Clough’s men.

It’s been embarrassing, we’ve gone from being tonked by Premiership teams, to being demolished by top league championship sides and without any disrepect to Scunny even the relegation threatened sides know they can come to Pride Park and turn over our defence.

You suspect the old ’score a goal and get the home fans on the players backs’ tactic is being employed by any team that visit Pride Park as they can sense the growing frustration.

The Rams are now five points off the relegation zone with Scunthorpe, Ipswich and Reading and Peterborough with games in hand over us, whilst Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday have two games over us.

It sparked off an amazing diatribe from Robbie Savage onto local Radio presenter Colin Gibson when Gibson challenged him about the Rams poor form. . It’s well worth a listen as a piece of Radio, but it ends up like listening to some schoolkids squabbling. Robbie has a lot to learn if he’s going into the media when he retires.

Gibson had somewhat foolishly quoted a rumour on the radio that the players weren’t behind the back-room staff. I’ve no idea where he picked the rumour up from, but it is one that has been circulating the internet message boards of late and to put this on air without any kind of substantiation understandably wound Savage up.

However, as early as September Savage was lowering the expectations of Rams fans by saying that “Staying up would represent a good season for Derby” and in the extended version of the BBC Radio Derby interview he candidly admits the side just haven’t been good enough in the last three or four home games.

I’m hoping Savage will channel his anger and frustration into the Rams games and they can pick up a cup tie win against Milwall tonight and then into the relegation battles against Plymouth and Peterborough. If we lose to Plymouth and Peterborough away then Rams fans hearts really will sink.

However, I refuse to accept that Derbys season was predetermined to be a relegation scrap before it hardly even began, despite the amazing amount of injuries we’ve had.

Taking a look at the squad, we’ve got Savage himself who although at the end of his career should still be more than capable of doing a job in the Championship. Rob Hulse, who can be amongst the best Championship strikers, Kris Commons who although he has been injured should be a top championship player, Miles Addison an up and coming player along the lines of Tom Huddlestone.

Then we have some former Championship captains in Lee Croft and Shaun Barker, who led Norwich and Blackpool, so they should know what this league is all about.

Stephen Bywater was the Rams keeper in their play-off season, so he knows what it takes to be succesful. Stephen Pearson and Paul Green are not bad midfielders at all.

True, the Rams have had injury problems this season and Nigel Clough has got an obvious lack of funds from the board, this is evident in the number of loan signings made this year, so far we’ve had James Vaughan, Paul Dickov, Jake Livermore, DJ Campbell, Frederick Stoor and Nicky Hunt sent to the Rams on short-term loans.

Still, if I was the manager of Derby County or the captain for that part, I would be telling the players to win every game, not that they would be lucky to stay in the division. What kind of a confidence boost is that? Some people might see it as a refreshingly honest, but I think it’s becoming a self-fufilling prophecy.

Most Rams fans are speculating that when Nigel was given the job that his brief from the board was to cut expenditure whilst keeping Derby in the division. If we lose to Peterborough and Plymouth there will be serious doubts over the second part of that mission and we will lose the quality players we have like Commons and Hulse. In their place we are left with some players that Nigel has brought in as ‘promising’ including Saul Deeney from Burton, Jake Buxton (from Burton again) and Ben Pringle from Ilkeston and our finances would be devestated by relegation.

I’m sorry Nigel, but Derby County are too big a club to be experimenting with non-league players. Its quality we need and if we go down and Commons and Hulse leave and they aren’t replaced we are going to struggle in Division One as well.

Derby fans are asking why their side, which was only a few seasons ago were in the play-offs are now at rock bottom and the result is that rumours like the one about the back room staff is cropping up.

This is because the players who clearly should be doing a job at Championship level are clearly not and when we see the likes of Nottingham Forest, under our former manager Billy Davies second in the Division and playing some of their best football in beating WBA 1-3 at the Hawthorns it only makes it worse.

So fans understandably go searching for an explanation and in pubs and internet message boards you hear the rumours, do the players not want to play for him? has there been a rucus behind the scenes? Why are these once decent Championship players getting turned over week in, week out?

We aren’t daft, we do realise that Cloughs first proper season was always going to be difficult and that there was quite a bit of restructuring to do at the club, both in terms of players and finances. However, I still say that the majority of Derby County’s team isn’t that bad, certainly not league one bad.

Despite this, and almost contradictory to the tone of this article, I and almost all Derby fans dearly would like Nigel Clough to succeed, but something has got to change, whether it be the players attitude, Nigels tactics or simply the fillip of a couple of confidence boosting wins. Right now would be a good start.

The second-best supported club in the Championship deserve far better than the shambles being served up at Pride Park and you’d suspect if Clough wasn’t Nigels second name losing three games at home on the trot would have done for any other manager.

Fans, Robbie are entitled to their opinion, we’ve been served up dross for the last few seasons, and if you want them to get off the players backs the only way to do this is to improve the shoddy performances.