Steve McClaren led his Derby County side to Emirates FA Cup victory
Steve McClaren was quick to praise his Derby County heroes after seeing his side knock out a higher division outfit in The Emirates FA Cup for the first time in 30 years at The Hawthorns.
The Rams turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage in five second-half minutes before seeing off a barrage of Albion attacks late on to hold on for victory.
And the Derby boss only had one word to describe his players after the game.
“The last 20 minutes was heroic,” he said, “I’ve never seen so many balls going into our box.
“We talk about defending for our lives in the box and they certainly did that.
“There were some heroic performances out there.”
The Rams also had to overcome adversity, with four left-backs out injured midfielder Jamie Hanson was asked to play in the back four whilst McClaren handed a debut to Julien de Sart, the Middlesbrough loanee, having not played a minute of first team action since January.
And he was left amazed by the Belgian who, despite his lack of football, saw out the 90 minutes and McClaren believes he optimised the spirit his squad showed.
“He was unbelievable, everyone was going down with cramp, I think I did going up and down the stairs, so he was incredible,” he joked. “For a lad who only joined us two days ago that was some debut.”
Derby trailed at the break to Matt Phillips’ fifth of the season, but a 25-yard screamer from Darren Bent and a perfectly placed Tom Ince free-kick turned the tables and McClaren reserved special praise for his match winners.
“You don’t see many from outside the box from Benty but it was a cracker and Tom is capable of doing that and I think he showed his Premier League quality today.
“Tom’s got great ability and he does the work too and he should be a Premier League player.
“He’s had opportunities and you see the fight today, he wants to get back there.”
