Jewell hails composed Ellington

3rd December 2008

Derby manager Paul Jewell praised Nathan Ellington after the striker held his nerve to score an injury-time penalty at Stoke and fire the Rams into the Carling Cup semi-finals.

Ellington nonchalantly rolled home the spot-kick for his sixth goal of the competition after Andy Griffin was penalised by referee Rob Stiles for handball.

"People may have expected Nathan to blast a penalty in the last minute of a cup tie, but that is the way he takes penalties," said Jewell.

"One of these days he is going to miss one like that and I will give him a rollicking, but that is how he does it. He waits for the keeper to move and rolls it in.

"He has done it that way ever since I have known him, right from when he was with me at Wigan. Credit to him, he showed great confidence and strength of character.

"I was confident he would score, that he would not be scared to take it, but it was great to see it go in.? The result means Derby have reached the last four of a major cup competition for the first time since 1976, when they were beaten by Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals."