Derby County clearly have no intention of giving up. Their hopes of finding new owners remain up in the air which is where substitute Krystian Bielik, making his first appearance for a year after an ACL injury, found himself six minutes into added time, with his back to goal, to score the equaliser with a brilliant scissor kick. “As a team, we’ve been writing our own scripts this season,” Wayne Rooney said.
Bielik’s goal was one overhead the club’s administrators won’t mind. Rooney’s team gave their fans every reason to chant “We’re Derby County, we fight till the end” on a day when thousands marched from the city centre to the game to mark their support for the club.
Now the Derby manager, having declined the invitation to be interviewed for the Everton job, just needs the club to be saved. The season’s biggest Championship crowd, of 32,211, gave a sense of just how important this club is to its community.
Rooney was not happy with the quality of his team’s performance on the field, however. Birmingham deservedly led through goals from Lyle Taylor and Scott Hogan before Luke Plange pulled one back in the 87th minute, but the sheer sense of occasion spoke volumes.
“With no Premier League this weekend, with this game being live on Sky and across the world, it’s a reminder this is a massive club, with a massive fanbase,” Rooney said, “and it’s got a future. The administrators are working hard but Middlesbrough, Wycombe and the EFL [among Derby’s creditors] have to be sensible. It’s people’s livelihoods at stake.”
Such matters are beyond Rooney’s control although he confirmed there will be no more player departures before tonight’s transfer deadline. What is in his remit is his team’s performance although with so many academy graduates having to play week in, week out, it is not surprising they are showing signs of fatigue.
Jordan Hugill (pictured) had a dream debut to remember as Cardiff won 2-1 to dent Nottingham Forest's Championship play-off push and ease their own relegation worries.
Norwich striker Hugill spent the first half of the season on loan at West Brom and his arrival in the Welsh capital was announced only a few hours before kick-off. Cardiff welcomed fans back for the first time since 4 December following Covid-19 restrictions put in place by the Welsh Government, and the returning supporters were celebrating almost immediately.
Loan signing Hugill set the Bluebirds on their way to an impressive victory inside six minutes, and Isaak Davies doubled the lead before Keinan Davies grabbed a stoppage-time consolation for the visitors.
Forest were a pale shadow of the side that have relentlessly climbed the standings since Steve Cooper's appointment on September 21.
Bottom of the table when Cooper took over, victory would have catapulted Forest to fifth and into the play-off places for the first time this season. PA Media
Taylor, seven minutes into his Birmingham debut on loan from Derby’s fiercest rivals Nottingham Forest, sent the ball back where it had come from inside the far side-netting after Onel Hernández prodded the ball wide.
Birmingham have taken five points out of nine this week to alleviate their own relegation fears but it is more than the prospect of a mere demotion which made this such an emotional occasion for Derby.
Club poet Jamie Thrasivoulou gave a stirring pre-match address to the sellout crowd, although the prospect of this being Derby’s last game before liquidation was allayed after Quantuma, the administrators, and the EFL had jointly announced a month’s stay of execution on Thursday.
Derby were chasing shadows for the first hour as Birmingham controlled the game, with debutant Juninho Bacuna impressive. It was no surprise when Hogan volleyed in Ryan Woods’s cross from the right 11 minutes into the second half.
The only surprise was that Birmingham were not further clear, Hogan allowing Ryan Allsop to save when clean through two minutes before half-time. Lee Bowyer was furious with his team for not winning, and particularly with his 10-goal striker.
“That game should have been finished, done,” the Birmingham manager said. “Scott Hogan should have scored at least three goals today. How he hasn’t got a hat-trick today I don’t know.”
Derby improved after Bielik came on but it remained a chaotic match. At one point Richard Stearman was the only defender back against three Birmingham attackers as Rooney let even Curtis Davies off the leash.
Plange, one of five academy graduates appearing for Derby, halved the deficit after he cut back inside on to his right foot and finished powerfully.
Rooney said he told the players at half-time they would be scoring in stoppage time and, sure enough, when Stearman headed Tom Lawrence’s free-kick back across the penalty area, Bielik took off to extend the sense that, hope against hope, Derby know how to pull off the most unlikely of comebacks. That the midfielder damaged his shoulder as he hit the ground did not dampen the manic celebrations that ensued.
