Derby County would have trudged off the pitch against Reading gutted with their showing, the Rams potentially could have gone top of League One with an emphatic three points on their travels to the turbulent Royals.
Instead, even with all their behind-the-scenes drama, Ruben Selles' Reading shocked Paul Warne's below-par Derby by inflicting a 1-0 defeat on the promotion-chasers to keep them submerged in a playoff battle.
Derby will go again this coming weekend hoping to bounce back with a victory, Warne eager – alongside getting back to winning ways – to add another new face into his group before transfer deadline day to further bump his stuttering side up into the top two.
Derby's striker search
Derby have longed for a new striker all transfer window to complement James Collins, with current Sheffield Wednesday centre-forward Michael Smith always being their desired target.
It had been reported by BBC Derby Sport before the 1-0 loss to the Royals that Derby had made a loan offer to try and land Smith for the rest of the season, but the Owls wanted an 'excessive' fee in return to offload the 32-year-old attacker this transfer window.
Backed up by Sheffield Star journalist Alex Miller, who states that the Owls' preference is to get rid of Smith permanently, this is a transfer that could right down to the wire.
An ongoing transfer saga that will be unsettling Warne even further after his side's misstep in Berkshire, the Rams will do everything in their power to finally get a deal over the line before deadline day at the start of February.
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Smith could well be the difference maker to catapult the unconvincing League One side back into the automatic promotion reckoning, the 6 foot 3 star boasting three promotions up to the Championship already on his glittering career CV.
How Smith fits into the Derby team
It's fair to say Warne moulds his Rams side around having seasoned faces who been there and done it across their esteemed careers, with the Derby boss having the likes of Conor Hourihane and Craig Forsyth to call upon who are EFL veterans in their own right.
Smith would further fit into that category, with Warne trusting the 32-year-old to step up to the mark at Pride Park having managed the experienced striker before whilst at Rotherham United with flying colours.
During his time with the Millers, Warne described the talismanic figure of Smith as being "colossal" – a brute force up top that Derby could well need to bulldoze teams more, instead of just settling at drawing blanks in their last two away outings.
Smith would hit his goalscoring peak with Warne at the helm, bagging 24 goals across all competitions during the South Yorkshire club's promotion campaign back in the 2021/22 season – Rotherham finishing as League One runners-up.
Derby would kill to be in that coveted final automatic promotion position when all 46 games are up in League One, knowing that Smith could well be the statement signing they need to really push on.
With creative machines in the side courtesy of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Corey Blackett Taylor – who have a combined 18 assists between them this season in all competitions – Smith shouldn't find it too tricky to pick up his red-hot third-tier form again in front of goal.
Although it looks like a deal that could well be a hard one to pull off, Derby should continue to persist and test Wednesday if they want to remain in the extremely competitive hunt for the spots right at the top of the league.
There's no guarantee that Derby would go up via the unforgiving lottery of the playoffs on the contrary, the Rams desperate to return to the Championship by any means necessary.
