“We deserved to be booed” – Eustace dejected after another Rams thrashing

Sounding downtrodden and subdued following a 4-0 home defeat to Norwich, John Eustace could offer little assurance that he will still be in the dugout come Friday night. While he is “not a quitter”, the head coach conceded that, “We'll have to wait and see. The club's much bigger than me.”

It was an utterly miserable birthday for the former Rams midfielder, whose side suffered their heaviest defeat since his first game in charge. With further injury blows to Ryan Hedges (hamstring) and David Ozoh (oblique muscle), yet another patched up defensive structure, with three right backs in the back four, was danced through by Philippe Clement’s Canaries.

The visitors effortlessly moved the ball from right-to-left multiple times as the lightning-fast Anthony Musaba left debutant right back Isaac Gordon playing catch-up before prodding in the opener after Jacob Widell Zetterström had kept out the untracked attacking left back Darlin Yongwa’s free header. And the Swedish stopper was on hand again a few minutes later, denied the Dutch winger with a low reflex save after he eased past Gordon once more.

To his credit, Gordon grew into his tough task of tracking Musaba before being substituted at the break to allow for a more conventional centre back pairing of Dion Sanderson and Jack Robinson. The roars that greeted two superb sliding challenges on Musaba just after the half-hour mark were Derby’s loudest of the night, as the flock looked to rally around one of their own who was thrown in at the deep end.

Eustace reflected: “It's a fantastic experience for Isaac. Is Isaac ready to come in the team? Maybe not, [but] because of the amount of injuries we've got, we've given him an opportunity.

“I think it just highlights where we are. He's been working very, very hard with the first team. He did well over pre-season and I was delighted to give him his first team debut. It’s a really tough ask against the top left winger out there and I thought he coped really well as the first half went on.”

The Rams boss spoke recently about not wanting to play young players before they were ready, but reflecting on his own debut, he was not concerned about any negative effects it could have. He said: “I think my debut for Coventry was a League Cup game. We lost 6-1 away to Tranmere and they were in the First Division, we were in the Premier League. It didn't do me too much harm, so don't worry about it.”

Paris Maghoma had made it two from 20 yards after 27 minutes prompting boos from the south stand. And again, when Yongwa made it three by finishing at the back post after Andre Brooks danced round the outside of Dion Sanderson to cross, and Derby failed to clear their lines.

Eustace admitted: “We certainly deserve to be booed after being 2-0 down very early on. No problems at all with that. They'll [the fans] cheer us when we're good and they'll boo us when we're bad.”

A triple change at the break did little to change Derby’s fortunes, though Mo Fuseini was relatively bright, registering one of Derby’s two shots on target, and one of their two accurate crosses. That really should have resulted in a consolation, but Carlton Morris could not keep his six-yard header down following a dead ball delivery.

A stunning effort from former Rams youngster Jovon Makama only rubbed salt in the wounds. The substitute’s 25-yard strike which crashed in off the bar may well be an early goal of the season contender. It prompted a further exodus of the home faithful, allowing the away end to run through their full repertoire of mocking chants to little opposition.

We must not forget that there is a very human element to all of this, as Eustace reflected: “Of course it hurts. I'm a very proud person. The amount of work that we put in to get the club to a certain position. I think people take things for granted sometimes and just expect it to carry on.

“I'm very proud to have managed this football club and taken it from seven points adrift with 11 games to go to 45 minutes out of the playoffs over 15-16 months.”

There is a grim circularity to the situation Derby now find themselves in. After suffering their heaviest defeat since Eustace’s first game in charge, they find themselves seven points adrift. The same number Eustace’s men overcame in their final eleven games of 2024-25 to complete their great escape.

But their position is stark. Averaging just 0.5 points per game, they are on course to finish with 23 points. That is 11 less than the total they finished on in 2021-22, after being docked 21 points. Add to that the fact that they have conceded four goals in consecutive games for the first time since 2000, and that they were only one point worse off after 14 games in their infamous 11-point Premier League campaign, and the size of the task at hand becomes ever clearer.

It is glaringly obvious that something is going to have to change.