Derby County have endured a woeful time on the on the road so far this season; Kieran Dowell has endured an equally tough time at Pride Park since his arrival from Everton. 

The Rams have won just once on their travels and that came on the opening day of the 2019/20 Championship campaign in a narrow 2-1 win over Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Dowell was actually part of the starting XI in that game, making his debut after arriving from the Premier League club on loan deal earlier in the summer.

Whilst maintaining one of the best home records in the entire division, Phillip Cocu’s men also hold one of the worst records away from Pride Park.

They haven’t scored a single goal in their last four games at Charlton Athletic, Hull City, Nottingham Forest and Fulham and have conceded nine in the mean time.

It would seem that London isn’t the best place for Cocu to be. In his three outings to the capital this season against Brentford, Charlton and, most recently, Fulham, they have been battered 3-0 each time.

In that latest defeat to Fulham, Derby looked second best by some margin. Cocu, it seems, tried everything to overcome the deficit. He even tried sticking on Dowell in the late stages of the game.

It is fair to say that Derby’s new number eight hasn’t exactly lived up to the expectations left by the man who wore the shirt in the season before Mason Mount.

As an attacking midfielder, Dowell has more yellow cards than he does goals and assists this season and was sarcastically cheered off when he was substituted amid the 3-0 defeat to Brentford.

His form has meant that he has fallen well out of Cocu’s and the Derby fans’ favour.

In the game with Fulham, though, he was utilised. Derby’s Twitter updates unveiled the news that Dowell had been brought on.

It would be a fair assumption to make that the news didn’t resonate well with the Derby fans.

There was one supporter who went against the grain and was happy to see Dowell.

But even that was met with a comprehensive counter argument.