Derby County centre-back Curtis Nelson enjoyed a fantastic first season at Pride Park and it has now emerged he achieved something in League One no other player managed.
Derby County sealed their return to the Championship with a 2-0 victory over Carlisle United last weekend.
Paul Warne‘s men fully deserved promotion having contested the top two divisions for the full campaign.
The Rams finished second in the table on 92 points and boasted the best defence in the league, conceding just 37 times.
Derby’s rock solid defensive partnership of Curtis Nelson and Eiran Cashin laid the foundations of their promotion challenge.
READ MORE: Derby County star Eiran Cashin’s journey from almost released to Premier League transfer interest
The dominant pairing helped Joe Wildsmith keep a league-high 20 clean sheets, rounding off a successful campaign with three in a row as Nelson scooped the clubs Player of the Year Award.
Curtis Nelson stands alone for remarkable League One statistic
Derby have seen their players drop like flies throughout this campaign, forcing Warne to navigate through a tricky injury pile up.
It’s made achieving promotion more successful, and shown how crucial Nelson was to them finishing second.
The 30-year-old, who arrived on a free transfer from Blackpool, didn’t suffer a single injury this campaign and was ever-present in the Rams defence.
Remarkably, he’s the only outfield player in League One who hasn’t missed a single minute of football, as per WhoScored, having played in all 4140 minutes.
In terms of impact, the capture of Nelson last summer was Derby’s biggest piece of business and the statistics speak volumes of their defensive improvement.
Where would Derby County be without Curtis Nelson?
Given the depth of Derby’s squad, they’ve been able to cope when multiple first-team players suffer injuries.
Warne was without top scorer James Collins for eight matches recently, but the 50-year-old coped by moving Nathaniel Mendez-Laing into a forward position.
Similar couldn’t be said if they were without Nelson as Derby are light on options defensively and they’d have to play Sonny Bradley alongside Cashin in a four man defence.
This would decrease their chances of keeping a cean sheet, as underscored by the physical attributes he brings to the side and the improvement they’ve shown since he arrived in Derbyshire.
Having reduced the number of goals they’ve conceded in each of the last two campaigns, it shows Derby are a much better side with Nelson in their back line.
It’s imperative Warne keeps his defensive duo together in the Championship, otherwise, they could struggle to maintain their solidity.
The post Derby County hero Curtis Nelson is now the only player in League One to do one thing this season appeared first on Derby County News.
