The 2010–11 season was Derby County's 112th season in the Football League. It was their third consecutive season in the second tier following the previous campaign and their 43rd overall. The club entered the season with odds of 25/1 for the title, the same as the previous year, 6–1 to be promoted and 8–1 to be relegated. In the event of the season, after a slow start The Rams spent five fixtures in the play-off positions after a run of 8 wins from 11 fixtures before collapsing spectacularly post-November and recording just four wins from their remaining 28 fixtures, with Championship safety not guaranteed until the 44th fixture when, despite losing 3–2 at Norwich City other results left the bottom three unable to overtake them. The club's return of 49 points (from a possible 138) was the club's lowest ever return from a 46-game programme and was their lowest points total in the second tier since 1984, when they took just 42 points from 42 fixtures. The Derbyshire evening telegraph summed up the season as being one in which "with a few exceptions, (Derby) have competed in all the games and yet too often they have come out on the wrong end of the result having been the architects of their own downfall. Mistakes, individually and collectively, carelessness and a lack of concentration have all proved costly. As well as they have played in spells, notably in a wonderful purple patch earlier this season, the bottom line is that at other times they have not been good enough, as their position in the table indicates. That is why an influx of new faces is needed in this most important of summers to make sure they move forward next season."

The club's reserves proved more successful. Consisting of players returning from injury (Russell Anderson, Miles Addison), players on the fringe of the first-team squad (Ben Pringle, Lee Croft) and academy prospects (Callum Ball, Jeff Hendrick) they retained The Central League Division One Central Section, taking 33 points from a possible 42 and scoring 35 goals in the process. They also won the Derbyshire Senior Cup, scoring 24 goals in their four fixtures including a 14-1 win over Shirebrook Town.

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