Despite beating the Rams 4-0 at Pride Park the Royals will still be joining them, along with Birmingham City, in the Championship next season following Fulham's 1-0 win at Portsmouth.

The Cottagers' superior goal difference was all that separated the two sides after 38 matches, with both finishing on 36 points.

Coppell paid tribute to the recent form of Roy Hodgson's side who pulled off an unlikely escape by winning four of their last five matches - crucially, one of them at the Madejski Stadium.

dreaded news 

However, the Royals manager conceded he had not expected them to win against FA Cup finalists Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

"I thought if we had got three points here it would be enough," he said. "At the end of it all, you have to give huge respect to Roy (Hodgson) and Fulham. We wouldn't have been looking forward to going to Portsmouth.

"I don't know how they have played but, whatever, Fulham had to go there and get a result and that was to their credit. The run they have had has been brilliant."

The carnival atmosphere in the away end soon soured when the dreaded news of a Fulham goal filtered through, although Coppell was proud his side at least did their job.

"I have been in these situations before. As soon as I heard the Derby fans singing it was pretty obvious what was going on," he said.

"From my point of view as I have said all this week all we could do was win our game and trust in the integrity of the league. The only thing we could control was winning the game."