Gary Rowett has a warning for Derby successor Frank Lampard

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Could Frank Lampard’s Derby County be at risk of drifting away from the Championship top six ahead of Saturday’s clash with Hull City?

Gary Rowett has issued a warning to his Derby County successor Frank Lampard as The Rams prepare for a huge challenge to secure a place in the Premier League.

Derby have been on a difficult run of form in recent weeks, winning just two of their last eight Championship games, and have dropped out of the play-off places as a result. They are currently sitting seventh, level on points with high-flying Bristol City.

Now, this is not the first time Derby’s form has collapsed heading into the spring. Steve McClaren’s side collapsed during an initially promising 2014/15 campaign while Rowett’s Rams only narrowly made it into the top six after spending much of the season hovering around the automatic promotion positions.

“I think with any type of club like Derby there is always an expectation,” Rowett said on Sky Sports’ EFL Matters podcast.

“I don’t know whether sometimes that expectation is maybe a little bit bigger than it should be because they have had quite a period out of the Premier League now, but I think certainly the players felt that expectation.

“Last season, we were sat in 2nd position, so that expectation only manifests itself into much, much bigger and stronger.

“When you get close, that excitement builds again and you have this massive thing in the sort of February/March period.

“I am not being critical of this, but I think we had a spell, I think we were unbeaten in 12 games, and we lost one game and suddenly it was ‘is this the February wobble?’.”

It is too early to suggest that Derby will drift into mid-table obscurity after an impressive first half of the Championship season but Lampard certainly has to arrest the slide before it becomes a slump that threatens to ruin their promotion hopes.

That is easier said than done, however, given that Derby are playing host to an in-form, free-scoring Hull City side who are now just four points behind their East Midland opponents in the table.