Steve Howard’s career at Derby County may have been short-lived but he remains a cult figure amongst supporters.
The powerful frontman joined Derby in the summer of 2006 from Luton Town for a fee of £1 Million and went on to score 19 times as the Rams gained promotion to the Premier League in 2006/07.
He left the club in early 2008 to join Leicester City and, despite tasting relegation from the Championship later that year, he was part of the Foxes side that romped home to the League One title in 2008/09.
Howard scored 209 career goals, appearing on 783 occasions in his professional career, and looks back on his time at Pride Park Stadium with a huge amount of fondness.
Looking back on Derby’s 2006/07 campaign, Howard admits it feels like only yesterday that the Rams achieved top-flight status with a victory over West Bromwich Albion in the Play-Off Final.
He has revealed that upon joining Derby, he struggled to get his head around the fact that he was a player costing the club a seven-figure sum.
Howard failed to score in his first seven games for the club but, once he broke his duck in 1-0 victory at Wolves, he never looked back.
Reflecting on his career, he says it was the best season of his playing days.
He told dcfc.co.uk in 2017: “I can’t believe it’s so many years ago, it seems like yesterday!
“It took me a while to score at first but once I did, I never looked back.
“To move for a million quid, I wondered if they had the right player!
“I couldn’t believe it and I got my head around it eventually. My dad told me to believe in myself.
“It was the best season of my career; it was fantastic to play in a team like that. The fee played on my mind, it was a lot of money and there was expectation on my shoulders to get the team promoted.”
He added: “Everyone believed in me but I didn’t to be honest; but I looked in the mirror and sorted myself out.
“I think I said at the time, we might not have been the best team on the pitch, but we certainly were by far off of it. That goes a long way when you count on your mate next to you, which is why we succeeded.”
Howard scored 20 goals in total for Derby from 73 appearances in all competitions.