Derby survive embarrassment

Derby County 2 Sheffield Wednesday 2:Derby hauled themselves back from the brink of humiliating defeat at Pride Park yesterday.

Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday led 2-0 after just 23 minutes courtesy of Mark Beevers and former Derby striker Marcus Tudgay.

But one-time Wednesday manager Paul Jewell will return to his old Hillsborough stamping ground as Kenny Miller and Giles Barnes salvaged a third-round replay.

For 35 minutes, though, Derby were as bad as they have been at any stage of an abysmal season, and it was no wonder they were the target of taunts from over 5,500 fans.

When Lewis Price handed 18-year-old centre back Beevers the first goal of his fledgling career in the eighth minute, the Wednesday followers broke into a chorus of "That's why you're going down."

That one incident summed up Derby's campaign. Price had dived onto Beevers's 20-yard drive, only to inexplicably spill the ball and watch as it trundled over his own goal-line.

Derby's failings did not stop there, and in the 15th minute Craig Fagan sidefooted over an open goal from six yards after a left-wing cross from Gary Teale had bounced off the bar.

Then midway through the half Darren Moore attempted to back-flick a ball on to Price. But the veteran centre-back barely got off the ground as the ball skimmed off his head and fell into the path of Tudgay, who ended a 12-match drought with a precise shot inside the left-hand post.

Derby had no right to be on level terms going into the break, but remarkably they were.

Seven minutes from the break, Scotland striker Miller gave Derby hope as he made amends for a miss just two minutes earlier when he netted from a shot on the turn from 15 yards.

And in the 44th minute Barnes capitalised on inept defending at a corner, the 19-year-old firing home a left-foot shot from 15 yards.