Derby County vs Salford City. Carabao Cup First Round.
Pride Park StadiumAttendance4,747.
Derby County win 5-3 on penalties.
Derby trailed 2-0 in the Carabao Cup first-round tie, before coming back to 2-2; However, shortly after the equaliser, Salford went ahead again; Ravel Morrison scored another equaliser late on to send the game to a penalty shootout, which Derby won 5-3
Wednesday 11 August 2021 00:17, UK
Derby survived a Carabao Cup first-round scare, beating Salford 5-3 in a penalty shootout at Pride Park after twice come from behind to draw 3-3 in normal time.
The Rams trailed 2-0 and 3-2 before Ravel Morrison made it 3-3 and goalkeeper Ryan Allsop saved Luke Burgess’ spot-kick to put the Sky Bet Championship side through.
Derby made eight changes and were behind after eight minutes when Jordan Turnbull headed in after Ashley Eastham flicked on a corner.
Salford scored again in the 14th minute when Josh Morris beat Allsop with a 20-yard shot that curled just inside his right-hand post.
Allsop saved from Conor McAleny but Derby pulled a goal back four minutes later when Isaac Hutchinson turned inside the box to fire low past Tom King.
Derby were much better in the second half and levelled in the 70th minute when Josh Lowe tripped Festy Ebosele and Colin Kazim-Richards scored the penalty despite slipping as he ran up.
But Salford regained the lead four minutes later when Burgess was barged over by Craig Forsyth and Morris dispatched the penalty.
Derby equalised in the 82nd minute when Morrison fired into the top-left corner after his free-kick came back off the wall.
Derby manager Wayne Rooney told Sky Sports: "[Reaction at the end] was just pride. I think it's been well documented over the last six months how difficult it's been and over the last 48 to 72 hours, it's been very difficult. I had decisions to make and my decision was to play the young lads and give them the opportunity in the cup.
"I feel like I watched them grow in the game. Some of them went from U20s football to men's football in the space of 90 minutes.
"The fans being behind the players is massive and the fans were excellent tonight. Some of those young players have never played in front of a crowd before so I think for the first 20 minutes, they were nervous.
"We knew set-pieces, we weren't a big team and they were going to cause us problems. But after the first 20 minutes, I thought we coped really well, created some good chances. In the second half, I thought we were excellent.
"What I was pleased about is when the players come over [for penalties], you can make a list of who you want to take penalties, but I asked them 'who wants to take a penalty? It's on you' and to see the likes of Louis Watson go at number five and Jordan Brown at number three, I think it shows the character and bravery in a big game for them and the club with the situation we're in. It shows the mentality they're in.
"I'm a confident person. I'm grateful to Derby for giving me this opportunity to manage the club. It's never been in my mind to walk away, we'll fight through it and we'll see better days. I need to bring some pride and dignity back to this football club."
Salford City manager Gary Bowyer told Sky Sports: "We've come away to a Championship side and you see the reactions from their bench and their football club at beating a League Two team. We take that as a massive compliment as to how we went about it.
"We had great opportunities to [score a third], and that was the frustrating thing a little bit. But at the same time, for us to take forward into the rest of the season, how we've gone about it today has been really good.
"Colin Kazim-Richards' food bill is probably bigger than our wage bill, but we've come away, given a good account, but we're disappointed that we haven't come away with what we deserved."
