The Rams' regular Championship season is over, the final match being a somewhat uninspiring draw at Leeds on Saturday.
The club's reward for a fine season overall is a birth in the playoff semi-finals against Brighton. The first leg is at Brighton this Thursday at 7:45 p.m; and the return at the iPro on Sunday the 11th at 5:15 p.m.
It’s important to respect all opponents and take nothing for granted, but the Rams are well capable of beating Brighton, a team that struggled to reach the playoffs, scraping in with a win at Forest on the last day to sneak into 6th spot.
The first stat in the Rams favour, is the fact they performed a League double against Brighton, winning the second game of the season 2-1 away and then again 1-0 at home in January.
Brighton have certainly been tight at the back with their 40 goals conceded bettered only by Burnley's 37. Conversely, they have found it hard to score; to find a team with fewer goals than their 55, you have to go down as far as 18th-placed Charlton.
Impressively, the only teams to put three past them in League matches were Forest, Charlton and Blackburn. Brighton also beat Leicester twice, and achieved a win and a draw against Burnley. So Brighton are certainly not mugs, but the Rams should expect after the two finals — they will be going to Wembley.
I'm certainly hoping that we won't be too far into the first Brighton match before Stephen Pearson loses his status as the last Rams player to score in the playoffs.
Being prone to a historical turn of mind, it was inevitable that I find myself wandering back to the last time the Rams were here.
It was, of course, May 2007 and the lamentable Billy Davies was manager. We were up against another South-coast playoff opponent in Southampton and although it was only seven years ago, it seems much longer when you look at the Rams team. Names like Bywater, Moore, Leacock, Mears, McEvely; Seth Johnson, Oakley, Fagan, Pearson; Howard and Macken.
Given the transient nature of everything Billy Davies does, this team was not built to last. Few of the players stick in the mind, for the right reasons at least. Seth Johnson was near the end of his time at Derby while Oakley and Howard were sacrificed during Paul Jewell's ill-conceived attempt to stay in the Premier League the following year.
By the time Nigel Clough arrived only 18 months later, the only decision with the rest - was how to get rid of them.
I was briefly reminded of that team on Saturday, watching ‘The Football League Show’. Jay McEveley was given a mention as he put a shot over the bar, playing for Swindon. How times have changed!
Whatever happens, we may not see a lot more of Andre Wisdom, Patrick Bamford, George Thorne or Zack Whitbread after this campaign. But the rest of the Rams team is full of players we hope to be talking about years from now.
This group of players have a chance to join that elite group who have become Rams legends, a group that is due for expansion as we have not produced a legend for too long… far too long.
On Sunday they may as well take that next step towards DCFC immortality.