Nigel Clough urges Derby County fans to stay patient

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Clough calls for club to pull together

Derby County manager Nigel Clough has urged supporters to "stick with the team and owners" despite their alarming slide down the Championship table.

Several hundred irate Rams fans staged a protest against the owners after Saturday's home loss to Leicester City.

The defeat means Derby are 17th, just seven points off the relegation zone.

But Clough told BBC East Midlands Today: "Stick with us. We have a committed set of owners and we are all going to get through it together."

Clough added: "This season we are going to survive and next season we will be better for these experiences."

Two months ago there weren't any protests and we had the same owners and the same manager and pretty much the same bunch of players Nigel Clough

The 2-0 reverse at Pride Park was Derby's ninth defeat in 12 league games.

During that time, the Rams have also suffered a humiliating FA Cup defeat at the hands of non-league Crawley, as well as two defeats against fierce rivals Nottingham Forest.

And the lack of signings during the January transfer window was seen as the final straw for some supporters who gathered outside the ground to demand that the American owners stand down.

But Clough remains confident he is the right man to lead the revival although he accepts his fair share of the blame for a slump which has seen the club drop from fourth spot in the table in late November.

"I take responsibility for every single game when we send a team out but as a club we stand together and we will get through it together," Clough told BBC Radio Derby on Saturday evening.

"The protests come because we haven't won enough matches in the last two months.

"Two months ago there weren't any protests and we had the same owners and the same manager and pretty much the same bunch of players.

"We will do everything we can to get it right.

"If we finish fourth from bottom we stay in the Championship but I think we are better than that. I think we have enough in the dressing room to get up towards halfway.

"It will take an awful lot of effort, desire and a lot of care but we have enough experience to get us through.

"We will keep battling on; we are not done yet.

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"We desperately, desperately want to succeed. I've lived in Derby for 40-odd years and we know what it means to the people.

"We are not winning matches. Everything we do will be scrutinised and criticised and rightly so, we have no other job other than to win football matches.

"We will do our best to win at Scunthorpe next week. It's a brilliant week for us. We have three games close together and we need to get points on the board," he concluded.