Derby County will not share same feeling Nottingham Forest had with Robert Earnshaw: View | OneFootball

Robert Earnshaw did not get on as well at Derby County as he did at Nottingham Forest.

Robert Earnshaw is a Welsh striker who has forced himself into EFL folklore with some outstanding goalscoring numbers for Nottingham Forest, Norwich City and Cardiff.

However, during his time at Derby County, he was slightly less fortunate in front of goal, with the Welshman scoring just once in 22 appearances for the East Midlands side.

This record is surprising for a striker of Earnshaw's caliber, despite having been recorded as part of the worst side, by far, in Premier League history.

Earnshaw's rise

Earnshaw began his career in South Wales, plying his trade at Cardiff from 2002 up until West Brom purchased him in 2004. He managed to score 12 Premier League goals in the space of two seasons, showing how capable he was at the age of 23.

The Welshman then moved to Norwich City, in a spell which saw him back down in the Championship after being relegated with West Brom the previous season. Earnshaw kept up his stellar form for the Canaries, scoring 27 times in 41 starts.

Earnshaw's Derby County days

This then, in 2007, caught the attention of Derby County, who had just been promoted to the Premier League. Derby splashed out £3.5 million on Earnshaw to break the club's transfer record at the time.

It is fair to say that the Welshman did not deliver, and added to the car crash of a season that saw Derby take just 11 points from their 38 game season in the top flight. Earnshaw scored just once in the entirety of the campaign for the Rams, as they plummeted out of the Premier League faster than you can say "relegation".

When asked about his time at Derby by Derbyshire Live in 2018, Earnshaw stated: "It wasn't a great time because it wasn't about football.

"After I left I got a better idea of what went on and people tell you things about what was going on behind the scenes, and there was a lot that didn't help.

"Everything on the pitch got overshadowed by what happened off the pitch."

It's well-known that Derby's 2007/08 season was a recipe for disaster and the record books stand up to that. For Earnshaw, after arriving for decent money, he found himself with plenty of responsibility. Seven starts, 15 appearances off the bench and a single league goal was hardly producing the goods.

However, to quote Chumbawamba, Earnshaw got knocked down and got back up again, taking a short trip to neighbouring county, Nottinghamshire, where he began a new season with newly promoted Nottingham Forest in the Championship.

It was at the City Ground where Earnshaw found his feet once again. In his first season, the Welshman found the net 12 times in the league (17 in all competitions), which was met with rave reviews from Nottingham Forest fans, something that the Derby faithful across the East Midlands hadn't shared.

Earnshaw's second season in 2009/10 was even better, with the Welshman managing to accumulate 15 league goals in 20 starts for Forest, whilst simultaneously helping the Reds to a third place finish in just their second year back in the Championship.

They crashed into the play-offs again 12 months later, but missed out on promotion to the Premier League. At the end of 2010/11, Earnshaw took his career full circle with a move to Cardiff. He departed Forest with 45 goals to his name in all competitions and was very much a part of a relatively successful period at the City Ground. His four goals in that spell against Derby rubbed salt in the wound.

The Welshman will still go down as one of the great strikers to have set foot in the Championship, but in the East Midlands, as the table above outlines, there are very different memories of him floating around at Derby and Forest.