The Capital One cup, in all of its previous guises, has often been the place for teams to blood young players. Sadly, in recent years, the Rams haven’t progressed far enough to give squad members a chance to impress!

Not so this year - as a new Spanish star was unearthed - setting up a third-round encounter with Reading at the iPro.

Money, or should that be value for, convinced over 16,000 paying punters to witness this one, with the excellent £5 ticket pricing having the desired effect.

Many too may have been enticed with a chance to see some different personnel, with McClaren making six changes from the weekend’s rout. Of them, new-boy Ryan Shotton slotted in for a debut, with Leon Best and Omar Mascarell also making first starts of the campaign.

The first half took a while to get going, with both sides showing much-changed hands. Two early breaks for the visitors saw two deflected efforts-one straight at Grant and one over the bar from Moussa.

Derby were plugging away but struggling for any real consistency and cohesion. Hughes, employed in what you sense was his favoured role in advanced midfield, was threatening without an end product.

Mascarell was seeing a lot of the ball, but his passing was wayward as the half meandered. His quality from set-pieces though, particularly corners, was impressive. He obviously didn’t realise though that a Derby goal from a dead-ball is as rare as a Kate Bush concert, as his deliveries all threatened but came to nought.

Dawkins was again flattering to deceive, while Best was far from his, spending more time on the iPro turf and impersonating a ballerina - than getting the ball under control. Shotton did at least treat us to one long throw, which Pope easily gathered.

That changed though as the half finally broke into life just after the half hour. Hendrick drove forwards and found Best. Letting the ball run across his body, he feigned to shoot before cutting back inside on his right.

Cracking a powerful drive with his right-foot, Leon brought a biblical save from Pope in the Charlton goal. From the resulting, quality corner and pinball in the box, the ball was finally cleared but helped straight back by Hughes. The chipped ball found Keogh, who nodded down for Hendrick to somehow screw just wide.

As the half drew to a close, it was still the Rams in the ascendancy as Russell crossed just too high for Best. At the other end, Whitbread was impressing, nullifying any rare threat from the Charlton attack. Shotton too looked steady, although he did seem to be blowing a little as half-time came!

No changes occurred at the break and as the second-half began, a curious mobile-phone lighting epidemic broke out within the iPro.

Quite what the holding up of a light on a mobile phone has to do with generating atmosphere is a mystery to me, particularly when the sparse North Stand’s rendition of such an act looked as awe-inspiring as anything by Mumford and Sons. Anyway, I digress…

Back on the pitch, the pattern remained. Derby was playing by far and away the better football but time and again was frustrated by the final ball. Russell was the nearly man- I counted four balls either a fraction too high, too far in front of players or on the final occasion, a bigger toe-nail away from Hendrick’s right-boot.

Forsyth was worryingly poor in possession again, gifting Charlton two opportunities to break, which again were snuffed out by the excellent Whitbread. Mascarell was growing into the game, showing a neat range of passing and always demanding the ball. Best though was still playing in fits and starts, struggling for change out of Bikey. To be fair, if the visiting centre-half told me it was Sunday, I’d agree with him...

The game was crying out for Martin and on 70 mins McClaren obliged… with a treble change. Refreshingly, the gaffer turned to youth, with the much-hyped Calero and Santos joining the big man. The go-for-it attitude still very much exists in the home dugout, with both wingers and Omar withdrawn as we went for broke.

There followed a frantic final twenty. Martin immediately went close with a curled effort wide, before teeing up Calero to shoot straight at Pope. What was apparent were that the young debutants were not to be over-awed, with Santos in particular driving at the full-back at every opportunity. Possessing raw pace that made me feel guilty for eating my body weight in Harvester pre-match, it was clear that chances would come.

With no protection in the midfield, we ran the risk of being exposed, with Charlton now posing a real-threat on the break. Another poor bit of play from Forsyth saw him concede a free-kick, which substitute Gudmundsson, after comically running over to the bench to receive orders, saw brilliantly saved by Grant at his near post.

The action was now end-to-end and Martin had provided a real spark. Linking up more in ten minutes than Best had in the entire game, he was desperately unlucky to see his thunderous drive pushed away superbly by Pope.

Then came the moment.

In an all-too rare occurrence, the referee stopped to penalise Pope for holding the ball for over six seconds. Booking the goalkeeper for time-wasting, there followed a pretty embarrassing five or so seconds, where 22 professional players seemed to forget the rules of the game.

With the referee holding the ball almost apologetically, waiting for a Derby man to take the indirect free-kick, blank faces peered back at him.

What I can confirm is that a man in the East Stand was certainly imploring Best and Martin to take a quick free-kick while the net was unguarded, and yes, I was also met with blank glances all around!

When someone finally discovered the rule-book, the players almost farcically retreated as one. Almost predictably, the free-kick came to nought, or so we thought...

Showing great desire, Martin chased back to win the ball and turned to drive back into the area. With great awareness, he flicked inside to Calero, who smashed an unstoppable effort into the top corner. A moment to light up the night… but not with phones…

Still, the game wasn’t won. Still the play switched from end to end. Despite having a couple of breakaway chances, they both came to nought as we were forced to manfully dig in until the final whistle.

A Charlton corner in the 93rd minute had me convinced that we had succumbed to extra-time, but to my relief, the ball skidded wide. Led by the excellent centre-backs, we held on, and had progressed to round three.

A number of positives and a clear indication that the squad has depth, considering the likes of Christie, Buxton, Bryson and Ward - were all given the night off. The night though, belonged to Calero.

As I type, we have drawn Reading in round three. Hopefully the Spandiard makes it terrible for them too!

Weston’s Player Ratings:

Lee Grant — 7: Very good save to keep the score at 0-0.

Craig Forsyth — 5: Poor in possession and going forwards.

Ryan Shotton — 7: A composed, solid debut. Came forwards well and defended astutely.

Zak Whitbread — Weston’s Star Man 9: If Bucko is injured, Zak has done all he can to be selected. A dominant, composed display which will do him no harm at all.

Richard Keogh - 8 Also a very good game alongside a new centre-half partner.

Jeff Hendrick — 7: Worked hard in the midfield and could/should have bagged a goal.

Will Hughes — 7: Seemed to relish being further forwards. Normal industrious self.

Omar Mascarell - 6Grew into the game after shaky start. Will improve - I’m sure of that!

Simon Dawkins — 5: Too many miscontrolled balls and didn’t look threatening.

Johnny Russell — 7: The nearly man of the evening. Always looked likely.

Leon Best — 6: Showed two moments of real quality but not a lot in between.

Subs:

Chris Martin — 8: Absolutely brilliant off the bench. Looked sharp, could have had two and set-up the winner.

Ivan Calero — 8: The hero of the night. A dream debut and a lively cameo.

Santos — 7: Another one who made a bright cameo.

Match Info & Stats — Derby / Charlton:

Referee: Graham Salisbury

Crowd: 16,367

Possession: 56% / 44%

Shots On Target: 6 / 2

Shots Off Target: 10 / 4

Corners: 10 / 7

Fouls: 12 / 6

Teams:

The Rams: Grant, Shotton, Keogh, Whitbread, Forsyth, Mascarell (Martin 68'), Hughes, Hendrick, Dawkins (Calero 68'), Best, Russell (Santos 68')

Unused Subs: Roos, Christie, Bryson, Rawson.

The Addicks: Pope, Gomez, Fox, Bikey-Amougou, Morrison; Wilson, Cousins, Jackson (Buyens 63'), Harriott; Moussa (Gudmundsson 78'), Tucudean (Vetokele 63')

Unused Subs: Mitov, Wiggins, Church, Ben-Haim.

We Said / They Said - Match Reaction:

We Said — Steve McClaren:

"These under-21 boys have been doing well. We talk about recruitment being important for the first team but it's very important that we get an under-21 development team of quality as well because we are playing top teams.”

“Our under-21 squad is very good and they deserved a chance. With 20 minutes to go I thought 'let's open this game up' because no one wanted extra time and it was a fitting end for us and I'm delighted Ivan stepped up for us."

They said — Bob Peeters:

"I'm disappointed with the way we have been beaten, if they rip us apart you can give them a round of applause but I'm unhappy with the way we lost. But Derby are a very good side and I wish them all the luck now in the Capital One Cup.”

"I'm very proud of what my team showed and I give compliments to my players because they proved they are working very hard and know what we want."

Match Highlights / Interviews:

Up Next For The Rams:

Derby County vs. Ipswich Town

iPro Stadium

3pm Saturday - 30th of August

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls