SO NOW it is official. The debate can be put to bed once and for all. Derby County, the statistician’s dream but the supporters’ biggest nightmare, are the worst team to have ever graced the Premier League.

Yesterday’s 3-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers confirmed Paul Jewell’s side as the holder of the unwanted new record for the lowest points total in a full Premier League season, their total of 11 with a game to spare leaving them short of the 15 that Sunderland amassed under Mick McCarthy two years ago.

There are more records within Derby’s grasp. Should the side who were relegated earlier than any other in Premier League history – they were condemned to the second tier of English football on March 29 – not score in their final game of the season at home to Reading next week, they will break the record of the 2002-03 Sunderland side for the lowest number of goals by a Premier League team, which stands at 21. Despite Kenny Miller’s sixth goal of the season, Derby’s tally stands at a pathetic 20.

Yet yesterday’s tale was not quite as depressingly familiar as of late. In the first half Derby were actually quite good. With Rovers old boy Robbie Savage at his busy best, they denied the home side time and space on the ball and, as Mark Hughes admitted afterwards, his team were fortunate to level on the stroke of half-time.

However, once the visitors began veering off course, the wind was soon sucked out of their sails. Roy Carroll’s weak parry of a long-range Morten Gamst Pedersen shot just before the break bounced obligingly back to Roque Santa Cruz and the classy Paraguayan striker duly collected his 18th league goal of the season. He later added a 19th that allowed Rovers to cling to hopes of securing sixth spot and European football next season via the Intertoto Cup.

In between Santa Cruz’s double, his strike partner Jason Roberts took advantage of a kamikaze Andy Todd backpass to score his 12th goal of the season.

Jewell has had to get used to comedy errors from his team but that does not make it any easier for the former Wigan manager to bear. “People don’t have to work hard against us,” he said. “We played well in the first half but Blackburn’s tails were up in the second and once they went 2-1 in front, you were looking around at our side and I didn’t see too many that you would want beside you in the trenches. I am sick and tired of that ‘worst club in the Premier League’ tag, but it is deserved.”

Hughes believes his side have over-achieved this season but still wants a grandstand finish in their final game. “We go into the last game with something riding on it,” he said. “That’s what you want. We have never been lower than 10th all season and for a club of our size that’s excellent. If we can get 60-plus points in a Premier League season that would be a fantastic achievement. Even if we don’t, we can still look back and congratulate ourselves.”

Nobody deserves congratulations more than Derby’s fantastic supporters. Incredibly, about 5,000 made the journey to Lancashire yesterday and they were vibrant and noisy throughout, displaying once again the black humour that has served them so well through their fraught campaign.

When the wee Scot, Miller, took advantage of the worst off-side trap imaginable to put the visitors ahead, the diehards celebrated as if it was the cup final winner, launching black and white balloons into the sunny Lancashire sky.

They deserved their moment in the sun but it was never going to last.

Match stats

Star man: Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)

Player ratings: Blackburn: Friedel 6, Reid 7, Samba 5, Nelsen 6, Warnock 6, Bentley 8, Emerton 7, Vogel 5 (Tugay 61min), Pedersen 6 (Olsson 79min), Santa Cruz 8, Roberts 7 (Derbyshire 79min)
Derby: Carroll 7, Todd 5, Moore 6, Addison 5, McEveley 5, Mears 5, Ghaly 6 (Sterjovski 66min), Savage 7, Lewis 6 (Villa 72min), Earnshaw 5, Miller 7

Scorers: Blackburn: Santa Cruz 45, 77, Roberts 47 Derby: Miller 19

Referee: U Rennie

Attendance: 26,110

Dire Derby

Derby’s 3-1 defeat at Blackburn confirmed them as the Premier League’s worst-ever side. With a game to go, at home to Reading on Sunday, they are stranded on 11 points, four short of Sunderland’s total in 2005-06. Derby already hold the record for the earliest relegation when their demotion was confirmed on March 29

Worst totals Derby (2007-08) *11pts Sunderland (2005-06) 15pts Sunderland (2002-03) 19pts

*One match remaining