Derby County decision will still haunt many at Pride Park - Only Nigel Pearson did worse | OneFootball

Paul Jewell was brought in by the Rams to help find any sort of form in the Premier League - but it did not work.

The 2007/08 campaign will forever go down as the most embarrassing in Derby County's long and relatively successful history.

The Rams were promoted to the top flight the season prior as Stephen Pearson's second-half goal saw the East Midlands outfit past West Bromwich Albion in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

It is still one of the club's finest moments in the last 20 years, but what followed was simply not good enough, with recruitment and managerial decisions sending the team back to the second tier at the first time of asking, as they infamously set the record for the fewest points in a Premier League campaign.

Billy Davies was the man in charge of Derby as they rose to the promised land, but his sacking in November 2007 paved the way for, statistically, one of the club's worst ever managers - a decision that still sends shivers up the spines of supporters to this day.

Derby failed greatly with Paul Jewell's appointment

On paper, the Rams' choice of a replacement for the ex-Nottingham Forest boss, Davies, was a good one. Paul Jewell had kept Wigan Athletic in the Premier League on the final day of the 2006/07 season, but departed for a new challenge.

He knew just how difficult his task was going to be in DE24, but did not shy away from it, as he made his way to a team that were languishing at the bottom of the division with just one win to their name.

While he had proven his worth with the Latics in the past, it was clear to see just how poor Derby's squad was, and despite signings in the January transfer window, their struggles continued.

Jewell came close to picking up his first win as the Rams' manager in late December 2007, but a late Mark Viduka equaliser ensured that Newcastle United were not on the receiving end of two defeats to the East Midlands side in the same season.

A return to the Championship was confirmed in March, which was further proof of the lack of quality in the squad, but relegation was not salvation for the now 60-year-old and his team as their lack of form carried over into the new campaign.

Victory against Sheffield United in September 2008, nearly a full year after their last league victory, was Jewell's first at Derby, but six wins later he resigned with a win percentage of just 14% (excluding cup competitions).

Nigel Pearson beat Jewell's wretched Rams record

The Liverpool-born former manager's time at Pride Park was extremely poor, but Nigel Pearson's record with the Rams remains as the club's worst in terms of win percentage.

The ex-Leicester City boss arrived in DE24 with a huge pedigree, but he got off to a poor start, with Derby lacking goals in the first few weeks of the 2016/17 campaign.

Pearson won just one of his nine league games in charge of the Rams, with that victory coming against Preston North End away from home. It left him with a 11.11% win percentage - the worst in the club's history.

Despite this slight difference, Jewell will perhaps always be remembered as Derby's worst-ever manager, with his 50-game league tenure perhaps the longest period of difficulty on the pitch that the club has been through.