2007–08 Derby County F.C. season  The 2007–08 season was Derby County's 109th season in the Football League, their 65th season in the top division of English football and their first season in the top flight since the 2001–02 season. They were promoted after beating West Bromwich Albion 1–0 in the 2007 Championship play-off final. After a very poor start to the season, manager Billy Davies left the club on 26 November after winning only 1 game to be replaced by former Wigan Athletic manager Paul Jewell. Jewell failed to turn things around for Derby and the club spent most of the season at the foot of the table, recording a club and top-flight record run of 32 league games without a win. Derby were officially relegated on 29 March after their 2–2 home draw with fellow strugglers Fulham and Birmingham City's 3–1 victory over Manchester City left them 19 points away from safety with only 6 games left. This made Derby the first club in Premiership history to be relegated in March and only the second in post-war English Football league history. They also accumulated the league's lowest points total since the introduction of 3 points for a win with just 11 points, as well as the record for the fewest wins in a Premier League season with just 1 victory in 38 games. Despite producing a reasonably good performance in a 2–2 draw against Portsmouth on the opening day of the season, followed by a narrow 1–0 defeat away to Sven-Göran Eriksson's Manchester City (the only two games which Derby spent outside the bottom three), Derby made a generally disastrous start to the Premier League season. Following their 6–0 defeat to Liverpool on 1 September, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power decided to pay out on the club to be relegated after just five games of the new season. The poor start saw fans accuse Gadsby and the board of failing to invest properly in players for the club. The repercussions of this saw Trevor Birch leave his position as Chief Executive on 19 October and, on 29 October, Gadsby stepped down as chairman to be replaced by former Hull City owner Adam Pearson. Meanwhile, results on the pitch were not improving, with another poor performance away to Aston Villa followed up by a 5–0 home defeat against a West Ham United side ravaged by injuries. After taking just 6 points from 14 matches, their only win a 1–0 victory over future strugglers Newcastle United, Davies left by mutual consent after a meeting with Adam Pearson, taking nearly all of his newly assembled backroom staff with him.