The play-offs are now approaching and four teams remain in the hunt for a place in the Premier League.

Derby County have had yet another season full of ups and downs, after a poor start, the Rams soon picked up form by going 10 games unbeaten.

This run saw Derby shoot up the table, and a win over Fulham on Boxing Day put them top of the table, and fans started to believe that this was their year.

But following the turn of the year Derby slipped down the table, going eight games without a victory, and sacking head coach Paul Clement in the process.

Darren Wassall was put in charge of Derby until the end of the season.

Under Wassall, the Rams started to pick up points but were still inconsistent, which led to the arrival of Harry Redknapp as director of football.

Since Redknapp's arrival, Derby have just twice in their final 9 games, winning 5 including a victory over East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest.

The Rams qualified for the play-offs in April after a win at Bristol City, and finished in 5th place in the league table.

Football League World writer Rob Booth identifies TWO

reasons Derby will win the play-offs........

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PRESS THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE TWO REASONS!

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Momentum

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Despite losing their last game of the season at home to Ipswich, Derby will take great momentum into the play-offs as they have lost just twice in 10 games, a run which saw them go six games unbeaten, winning four on the bounce.

The Rams hit form at just the right time, compared to the other sides in the play-offs whose form has been up and down lately, with the exception of Brighton, but they are coming off the back of a damaging game at Middlesbrough in which they missed out on automatic promotion.

Some of Derby's players have also hit their best form at the right time of the season, Johnny Russell has scored four goals in his last six matches, whilst Will Hughes has returned from injury in fine form.

Missing out in the last 2 seasons

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After missing out on promotion to the Premier League in the last two seasons, Derby's players will be looking to reward the fans.

In 2014 the Rams lost in the play-off final, after a remarkable season under Steve McClaren, but Derby couldn't go one step further in the following season as they slipped from top of the league to 8th place in the final 3 months.