Derby County complete a miserable npower Championship season this weekend when they visit Reading.

It’s a nothing game, really. Reading are guaranteed a place in the end of season play-offs and Derby County have narrowly avoided relegation.

Personally I’ll be glad to see the back of a depressing season that has seen the Rams lose 22 of their 45 league games so far, picking up an overall points tally of just 49 in the process, slightly more than a point a game.

In many ways, the season has been very disjointed, almost like three mini-seasons in one.

The first mini-season saw Derby County produce some breath-taking football at times, climb to the dizzy heights of 4th, setting a Pride Park Stadium record for consecutive home victories in the process; that run coincided with loan players Frank Fielding, Shefki Kuqi, and Luke Moore being part of the squad.

The middle mini-season saw the Rams go on an embarrassingly poor run that turned promotion hopes into relegation fears and had me and many other fans wondering where the next win would come from; although there was some overlap, this run saw influential loan players return to parent clubs, our top goal scorer Kris Commons leave for Celtic, and the club waste any opportunities the January transfer window presented.

The third mini-season halted the relegation plummet, provided some consistency of team selection, and saw Derby County steady the ship enough to pick up some half-decent results; this run coincided with the inclusion of a myriad of loan goalkeepers plus Daniel Ayala, Jamie Ward and Theo Robinson.

Against Reading, manager Nigel Clough plans to pick a young side to give the likes of Ross Atkins, Jeff Hendrick, Conor Doyle and Callum Ball some npower Championship experience.

This will be good experience for the youngsters and surely they can’t do any worse than most of the senior professionals who have collectively underperformed for two-thirds of the 2010/11 season?

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Photo: Action Images

nickjelley added 13:58 - May 6 what does anyone know about the "windfall payment" of £8million that the Beeb is saying is due to us - is this where the summer investment is coming from?
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