During Derby’s torrid season, they won one game, scored 20 goals and finished with a goal difference of -69.
They suffered some heavy defeats, losing by five goals or more to Liverpool, Arsenal, West Ham, Chelsea and Aston Villa.
Derby player Andy Todd later said many players “threw the towel in” during that campaign, while manager Paul Jewell revealed he was advised never to take the job.
“The atmosphere was almost pantomime-like at times with chants of ‘let’s pretend we scored a goal’ and ‘you’re nothing special – we lose every week’,” Derby County fan Amelia Warren told BBC Sport.
“Those kinds of things are obviously not what you want to hear your fans chanting, but ultimately we had to make our own fun. If we didn’t laugh we’d cry!”
It was such an awful season that Jewell, who arrived in November 2007 and left in December 2008, said his managerial career “never really recovered”.
Yet Derby fans made the most of a bad situation.
“Weirdly, I think Derby fans have worn the ‘worst team in history’ tag as a badge of honour,” said Barker, the host and creator of Derby podcast RamsTalk.
“The team was awful, got battered most weeks, won one game all season, which I missed, and yet still sold out every week, which in my eyes shows how good this fanbase was and still is.”
