Jewell witnessed his side’s defeat after heading the team in the Premiership and Championship for 50 games. With only seven wins from that total, you can understand why Jewell was not feeling to comfortable with his performance as a manager but it just goes to show what little confidence he had in Derby’s ability.

Surely the fact he’s taken the side to a semi-final clash with Manchester United in the FA Cup this season is reason enough to stand by the team.

But obviously, it isn’t. The man has shown his true colours and now leaves Derby in the hands of caretaker boss Chris Hutchings.

There is speculation of four potential replacements for Mr Jewell including Hutchings:

• Burton Albion boss and son of Brian, Nigel Clough
• Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson
• Wrexham boss Dean Saunders

Currently, the favourite is Nigel Clough who is sure to be keen to follow his father’s legacy at Derby. He has proved his ability as a calm, influential manager at Burton who are currently 13 points clear at the top of Blue Square Premier league and fits the Board’s requirements according to reports.

An announcement is likely to be made by the end of the week so fingers crossed the FA Cup clash against Man Utd has positive results before the return leg.

With five Premiership teams in the line-up – including Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs, Blackburn and Stoke City – chances were on Derby had a tough game ahead with some tough competition. Saying that, Burnley did the Championship teams proud earlier in the week by beating current holders Chelsea in a nail-biting penalty shoot-out. It was anybody’s cup now!

So imagine our delight when fellow Midlanders Stoke City got pulled from the draw just before our beloved Derby County.

The clash will be held at Britannia Stadium on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 at 7.45pm. Ticket details are still to be finalised but you can be sure thousands of Derby fans will be heading up the A50 to Stoke that evening for a night of goals, tears and celebrations (hopefully, in favour of Derby).

Come on you Potters – we’ll have you!

With gaining promotion to the Premiership after quite an exciting knockout stage in the Championship last May, we came to expect to see some magic from Billy Davies and his team in the season to follow. But it wasn’t long before the Championship “quality” was proven with thrashing after thrashing from true Premiership teams. The Premiership hadn’t seen such extreme scores, and all in such close proximity of each other.

It wasn’t long before the Board made it clear they needed a change and sent Davies packing (after a mutual agreement apparently). It was then turn of ex-Wigan manager Paul Jewell to take the reigns and attempt to make good of the team that had shown such high spirits six months before.

His dreams were short-lived.

It’s hard to be positive about a season of football that has shown such lack of inspiration. It’s hard to believe why the supporters have stuck behind their beloved Rams for the entire season, singing loud and proud through so many difficult games.

It was only towards the end when it looked like Derby found a life line. With guaranteed relegation approaching fast, Derby County put in some hard graft and very nearly achieved something to sing about. But that was short-lived and it wasn’t long before the nail was in the coffin in record breaking time (at least we’ve got something to take away with us).

With four games of the Premiership left, this is an ideal opportunity for Derby to show what they’re made of, possibly taking a win. With West Ham this weekend, there is an opportunity to shine and let Jewell get something out of his time with Derby. It would be great for him to travel back to Derby on Saturday night with at least a point under his belt.

It looks like Derby are also on track for getting the least points ever in the Premiership, as well as the worst goal difference since the Premiership started.

But we should at least be able to hold our heads high, keep singing loud in to Pride Park and fight for promotion next season with 19,000 dedicated season ticket holders to impress.