Saturday 24 January 2015 18:57, UK
Steve McClaren admitted he was relieved his game of risk paid off after Derby County overcame an impressive Chesterfield side to win an entertaining FA Cup fourth round tie 2-0 at the iPro Stadium.
Derby's head coach experimented with a new 3-5-2 system in the first half and his team were pushed all the way by their League One Derbyshire neighbours before goals from Darren Bent and Will Hughes sealed victory.
It was harsh on Chesterfield who controlled long periods of the game and it was against the run of play when Derby took the lead in the 20th minute from a corner won and converted by Bent.
Omar Mascarell's delivery was headed down by Jake Buxton and Bent was the first to react to head the ball beyond Tommy Lee.
But Chesterfield continued to take the game to Derby with Sam Clucas wasting a good chance and it was a measure of how well the visitors played that McClaren changed formation to a 4-3-3 at half-time.
Bent should have scored again early in the second half but Jimmy Ryan missed a good opening and Chesterfield were always in the tie until Hughes robbed Clucas and fired home in the 82nd minute.
"I took a lot of risk with the team, we tried things, a lot of things, to look at another system and another formation," McClaren admitted."We wanted to get two players up front because we may need that further down the line.
"We knew the game would be open and we were fortunate to go 1-0 up. At half-time we had to change and we tried a lot of things but I think we've learned a lot from that game.
"We wanted to do this for quite a while and we took a risk in doing it and I'm just pleased that we came through the ups and downs of the game and we are in the hat."
Chesterfield manager Paul Cook was proud of the way his players had taken the game to a team chasing promotion to the Premier League.
"When you come to grounds like this, especially when you are from a different pyramid, you want to make sure you acquit yourself well, and I think we caused Derby a lot of problems.
"But unfortunately on the day we fell short and you've got to respect that. Derby have got some quality players and sometimes they find a way to win. But I thought our lads were a credit to the club and I think our support was the same.
"It was always going to be a difficult game for a club from a lower tier but at the end of the day you can only look up and say, 'Did we do okay?' but as a manager I felt they did more than okay."
