Derby's second tilt at European football was made in the 1998–99 season, the Rams peaking in 2nd place after 6 games with a 2–0 home win over
Leicester City, eventually finishing one place better off in 8th. They reached the FA Cup Quarter finals for the third time in seven years, losing out only to late
Nwankwo Kanu goal in a 0–1 away defeat to Arsenal, and recorded some memorable victories, including a league double over
Liverpool 2–1 at
Anfield and 3–2 at
Pride Park and a 1–0 win over
Nottingham Forest in the teams' first ever meeting at Pride Park. Derby County were a club on the up; Pride Park's capacity was expanded (32,913 fans attended the 3–2 victory over
Liverpool) and Derby's players were getting noticed – five had represented their countries at the
1998 World Cup, and
Christian Dailly was sold to
Blackburn Rovers for £5.35m, comfortably the highest fee Derby had ever received. The key departure, however, was
Steve McClaren – Smith's number two since he had taken the Derby managerial position 3 years earlier – who departed in February 1999 to become
Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant at
Manchester United, winning
the treble in his first
3 months at Old Trafford. The 1998–99 season was Jim Smith's Derby County peak, as the financial demands of Premier League football began to catch up with them. ==Final league table==