Derby fans stage protest before Bielik’s late heroics seal draw with Birmingham

Derby County, clearly, have no intention of giving up. As they go into yet another week where their hopes of surviving as a club are up in the air, Wayne Rooney’s team gave their fans every reason to chant: “We’re Derby County, we fight till the end” on a day when the local support for the club was proved to be beyond doubt.

In the sixth minute of stoppage time of a game that had been slated as potentially Derby’s last ever, substitute Krystian Bielik, on his first appearance for a year after an anterior cruciate ligament injury, took off into the air with his back to goal and scored the equaliser with a brilliant scissor-kick. That the Polish midfielder damaged his shoulder as he hit the ground did not dampen the manic celebrations that ensued.

Tom Lawrence’s free-kick had been headed back by Richard Stearman, the 34-year-old centre-half who had abdicated his defensive duties to go and join an all-out attack as Derby, not for the first time in this spirited winter, came from two goals behind to salvage a draw.

Now Rooney, having declined the invitation to be interviewed for the Everton manager’s job, just needs the club to be saved. The season’s biggest Championship crowd, of 32,211, gave a sense of just how important this club is to its community.

It would have to be a Nottingham Forest player who had started this match by rubbing salt into their wounds. Lyle Taylor, seven minutes into his Birmingham City debut on loan from Derby’s fiercest rivals, scored the first goal to dilute the fervour of the crowd before Scott Hogan made it 2-0.

“Lyle Taylor, he’s sending you down,” sang the triumphal visiting fans as Derby’s big protest match got off to the worst start. Birmingham have been able to make five signings this month