ANOTHER show of Derby County's powers of recovery.
A key factor in establishing themselves as genuine promotion candidates this season has been the manner in which the Ramshave responded to setbacks.
They have brushed off defeats to win the next game on half a dozen occasions.
Derby were knocked to the canvas by Ipswich Town's late blow last month but got up to floor Charlton Athletic four days later.
A bitterly disappointing performance and defeat at Middlesbrough a little over a week ago has been followed by back-to-back 3-1 victories over Blackpool and Huddersfield Town.
Six points from nine was the minimum on Derby's wanted list from those three games – job done and a place in the play-offs all but sealed.
The Blackpool and Huddersfield matches also highlighted the Rams' belief and valuable knack of being able to recover from knocks during games.
Conceding a goal after only 15 seconds, as they did at Blackpool last Tuesday, is often the signal for a team to endure a long and rather painful 90 minutes.
Not this Derby team.
They replied with three goals of their own before the clock showed 20 minutes played.
On Saturday, they again found themselves trailing to an early goal.
Striker Nahki Wells struck from close range after 14 minutes to put Huddersfield ahead and thoughts turned to the last time the Terriers had won at Derby. The answer: November 1957, now 20 attempts ago.
A poor piece of defending by Rams skipper Richard Keogh handed the visitors a chance to double their lead seven minutes later but Wells was denied by Lee Grant's brilliant save.
It was a key moment in a strange start to the game because Derby had played with a good tempo.
Their movement troubled Huddersfield. They found it difficult to pin down Patrick Bamford and Will Hughes and Keogh had already blazed over after Johnny Russell's volley was blocked by Alex Smithies.
You sensed Derby had enough in their locker to turn the game around, although they also survived a penalty shout when Danny Ward went down in a collision with Jake Buxton, who did not get anything on the ball.
When the equaliser came after 28 minutes, it was exquisitely created and finished.
George Thorne's wonderful pass dissected Huddersfield's defence and picked out Russell's run. The Scot kept his cool to dink the ball cleverly over Smithies as he went down in an attempt to make the save.
The lyrics to "Johnny B.Goode" rang out in celebration of Russell's eighth goal of the season and Thorne has been very good since coming into Derby's team.
Level, Derby also went in at half-time with a numerical advantage after defender Joel Lynch was sent off. His first yellow card after 31 minutes was for time-wasting at a throw in, his second for felling Patrick Bamford close to the touchline.
Silly best sums up Lynch's decision to make such a challenge when on a yellow card. Such things must drive managers potty.
Bamford squandered a great chance to punish Huddersfield further, while Smithies was fortunate to escape when he barged Chris Martin over in the penalty area.
The visitors survived those two moments only to shoot themselves in the foot within five minutes of the restart when Smithies flapped at a Craig Forsyth centre from the bye-line and palmed the ball into his own net.
Smithies partly redeemed himself with three excellent saves from Bamford, Russell and substitute Jamie Ward during the second half but he had to collect the ball from his net again just before the hour after being beaten by Chris Martin's penalty.
Hughes was brought down by Peter Clarke for the penalty. The central defender was shown his second yellow card and Huddersfield were down to nine men for the final 30 minutes or so. Game over.
This allowed Derby to make changes, one of which saw the ever-present Forsyth replaced by Lee Naylor. Forsyth had been walking a disciplinary tightrope on nine bookings, one away from a two-match ban, which he has now avoided. The cut-off point for 10 yellow cards was yesterday.
Huddersfield battled away and Smithies' agility kept the score down.
Derby could have been more fluent against nine men but another three points had been tucked away.
Four wins in the last six games have lifted the Rams to 75 points and they are back in third place, having dropped to fourth for a couple of hours following Queens Park Rangers' victory over Nottingham Forest.
The goals are also flowing again – 15 in the last six games and 11 in the last three at the iPro Stadium.
snicholson@derbytelegraph.co.uk
