Ravel Morrison scored a spectacular winner as Derby County maintained their fight for a miraculous survival.
The beleaguered Championship side entered today's contest at home to Preston North End bottom of the table and eight points from safety. But a crucial 1-0 win at Pride Park moved Wayne Rooney's side to within six points of fourth-bottom side Reading.
Preston were reduced to ten men in the first half when Liam Lindsay was given his marching orders only for County's Max Bird to follow suit after the interval. But Morrison, who started his career at Manchester United, popped up with the only goal of the game 10 minutes from time - and it was worth waiting for. The 29-year-old leapt onto a loose ball after Preston failed to clear their lines from a corner and produced a stunning, scissor kick-style effort that flew into the net.
It had Derby fans purring as they now eye up a potential escape which would have to be considered one of the best-ever survival missions of all time given the 21-point handicap handed down to them.
One wrote: "Ravel Morrison needs a contract til [sic] he retires. He finally has a home. Another put: "We are staying up, fact." Another said: "Ravel Morrison doesn't score "normal" goals does he?"
The match-winning strike continued Morrison's rich run of form in front of goal of late. He has now netted four goals in his last five appearances for Derby and is their second top scorer behind skipper Tom Lawrence. In addition, Morrison recently found the net for Jamaica when he scored what proved to be the winner in their World Cup qualifying victory over Honduras during last week's international break.
His two-goal salvo last month in a vital win over drop rivals Barnsley ended a long, long wait for Morrison to net in an English league match. His previous effort had come way back in April 2014 but his current purple patch shows he has well and truly put that drought behind him. Derby have just six games remaining to secure their second tier status but Rooney was under no illusions as to how big Saturday's victory was for their cause.
He said post-match: "It's always nice when you score late on and get three points. I think it was a bit of a strange game. I think we can play better than we did in the first half and then they go to 10 men and I thought we had complete control of the game and were stretching the pitch. What pleased me most was that when we went down to 10 men we wanted to win the game most and so I think we deserved the three points. You can make it difficult when you're playing against 10 men because you can rush things, so we had to stay patient. We created chances and I'm delighted for Ravel getting the goal."
