Derby’s FA Cup first leg against F*rest at Pride Park resulted in a 1-1 draw, giving Nigel Clough the opportunity of returning to his old City Ground to show the Reds exactly what Derby are capable of.

However, George Burley Billy Davies had other plans and within the minute, Chris Cohen thrashed in a left foot shot to give F*rest the early lead.

It didn’t take long for F*rest to get a second opportunity when Derby keeper Stephen Bywater brought down Nathan Tyson in the goal after beating our offside trap. Tyson’s needed little effort to give F*rest an early 2-0 lead and a foot hold over Derby.

Thankfully, Derby were quick to retaliate, pushing forward against F*rest’s defence and creating plenty of opportunities. Robbie Savage was on form in the centre of the field, giving Derby plenty of confidence as well as opening up F*rest’s defence for Rob Hulse, Paul Green and Kris Commons to break though.

After just ten minutes, Gary Teale managed to deliver a fine cross for Rob Hulse to meet and nod in to give Derby that much-needed goal, lifting Derby’s spirits for the remaining minutes of the first half

The second half was where the excitement was at. Both teams fought hard with plenty of chances at both ends of the pitch, but it was Derby who seemed to be dominating.

Deadlock was broken though In the 60th minute when Teale knocked another fine ball in for Paul Green to convert for Derby – it was 2-2 and there was everything to play for.

Remarkably, F*rest struggled to overpower Derby on their home turf through the rest of the second half. Kris Commons was determined to get the winning shot, rattling the up-right with one shot and narrowly mising with another.

His dreams came true though in the 74th minute when his shot took a slight deflection, beating F*rest’s keeper Paul Smith and meeting the back of the net. After all the booing from his old team’s supporters, it must have felt fantastic to get the winning goal in such a prestigous Cup tie.

It was an emotional game for many, with George Burley Billy Davies being beaten by his old side, Nigel Clough beating his old side and Kris Commons, once again, scoring the vital goal.

Derby will now face Man Utd (yet again) in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Sunday 15th February back at Pride Park. If we can repeat what happened in the Carling Cup, there’s no reason why Derby can’t progress to the quarter finals.

Now, back to the league…

With gaining promotion to the Premiership after quite an exciting knockout stage in the Championship last May, we came to expect to see some magic from Billy Davies and his team in the season to follow. But it wasn’t long before the Championship “quality” was proven with thrashing after thrashing from true Premiership teams. The Premiership hadn’t seen such extreme scores, and all in such close proximity of each other.

It wasn’t long before the Board made it clear they needed a change and sent Davies packing (after a mutual agreement apparently). It was then turn of ex-Wigan manager Paul Jewell to take the reigns and attempt to make good of the team that had shown such high spirits six months before.

His dreams were short-lived.

It’s hard to be positive about a season of football that has shown such lack of inspiration. It’s hard to believe why the supporters have stuck behind their beloved Rams for the entire season, singing loud and proud through so many difficult games.

It was only towards the end when it looked like Derby found a life line. With guaranteed relegation approaching fast, Derby County put in some hard graft and very nearly achieved something to sing about. But that was short-lived and it wasn’t long before the nail was in the coffin in record breaking time (at least we’ve got something to take away with us).

With four games of the Premiership left, this is an ideal opportunity for Derby to show what they’re made of, possibly taking a win. With West Ham this weekend, there is an opportunity to shine and let Jewell get something out of his time with Derby. It would be great for him to travel back to Derby on Saturday night with at least a point under his belt.

It looks like Derby are also on track for getting the least points ever in the Premiership, as well as the worst goal difference since the Premiership started.

But we should at least be able to hold our heads high, keep singing loud in to Pride Park and fight for promotion next season with 19,000 dedicated season ticket holders to impress.