JEWELL CHERISHES RARE WIN

Jewell - relief after victory.

Under-pressure Derby boss Paul Jewell grabbed some "crumbs of comfort" as the Rams pushed through to the third round for the fifth time in seven years with a 1-0 win at Preston.

Thoughts of their miserable 35-League game barren run were put aside as Paul Green rose to plant a looping header from Jordan Stewart's floated long-range pass five minutes before the interval.

Derby managed to cling on to their slender lead.

But Preston were made to pay for failing to make headway after Neil Mellor's great first-half shot was body-blocked by the keeper early on.

Jewell said afterwards: "We are not out of the woods, but it is a step in the right direction. As much as you cannot get two disheartened about a couple of defeats in the league, you cannot get too excited about a victory.

"As soon as we win a league game, the monkey will be off our back.

"Crumbs of comfort are what we are after at the moment."

He said of Derby's initial approach to the tie: "You could see in patches the nervousness, the lack of confidence that was there at times. But we became more confident as the game went on, having started the match a bit edgy.

"There was a spring in their step once they had scored. I said to them 'Don't be frightened of scoring another'.

"We can watch as many videos, get as many psychologists as we want, but there is only one way to make confidence and that is by winning football matches.

"It doesn't matter how you win it. I wouldn't say the game was pretty but at least we showed a bit of spirit, a bit of fight."

Preston manager Alan Irvine admitted he felt extremely disappointed to be going out of the competition and that it was no consolation that they would now have to concentrate on the league.

He said: "We passed the ball well, built the play up well and were quite controlled and had a lot of good moves. We probably just lacked that cutting edge in the final third.

"There were different reasons. The ball in wasn't quite right or the run wasn't quite right, or the finish. We came close to being extremely dangerous, but didn't quite just put it all together."

Irvine revealed that, at one stage of the match, referee Mr J Moss accused him of abusing the fourth official, Mr P Norris.

He explained: "The ref accused me of something I didn't do. He accused me of abusing the fourth official.

"Fortunately, the fourth official said immediately that I had not done that." An apology was then demanded at that moment from the referee.

Irvine added: "One of the things I pride myself in is honesty and I don't take kindly to being accused of something I didn't do."

He said the referee had gone on to apologise "after a fashion".