Derby County manager Steve McClaren has been named the Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month for November.
The phrase ‘never go back’ clearly means nothing to McClaren, who has breezed back into Derby with a confidence that his team has adopted.Nine points from a possible nine in the month lifted The Rams back into the promotion picture.
McClaren said: “It’s been a big team effort; this award is one for the rest of the staff and the players because they’ve done the work. I’ve been very lucky to come back into a good situation here and inherit a really good squad and backroom team.
“Chris Powell, Kevin Phillips, Pascal Zuberbuhler, Steve Haines and the medical team have been fantastic and the players have bought into what we want to do. We got the rewards with the points we picked up in November.”
George Burley chairs the Sky Bet Manager of the Month judging panel.
He said: “Most people in football were surprised that Steve was reappointed manager of Derby County but the results have shown what a great decision they made.
“Steve has got them scoring goals and winning games again.”
Sky Sports’ EFL pundit Don Goodman said: “McClaren needed little time to get back to winning ways after his return to Derby. An away victory at Wolves where they put their goal scoring troubles to bed was the catalyst. They backed that up by easing past Rotherham and Norwich to make it a perfect month.
“There's no doubt that for whatever reason they had been underachieving at the start of the season under Nigel Pearson and the change of manager seems to have given the whole club a lift. There’s still a lot of work to do for McClaren, but it seems that promotion is no longer an impossibility.”