In the driving rain on a cold Monday night at Hillsborough, the ball breaks for Liam Thompson.   He takes a touch before finding the bottom-right corner with an effort he had drilled into the ground, prompting a rush towards a rapturous away end of 3,900.   But the pain he feels as he unwittingly knee-slides on AstroTurf is nothing compared to that felt by administration-stricken Sheffield Wednesday.   Could there have been a more fitting opponent for Thompson, who broke into

It’s 0-0 with nine minutes to play. Derby and Millwall have been locked in an intensely physical battle. Scrappy doesn’t really do it justice. In a game with more aerial duels than a Battle of Britain re-enactment, Thierno Ballo wraps his foot around the ball for what must be cross number 300. As he has done countless times, Matt Clarke dives to head the ball clear, but instead it flies into the back of the net. Even captain for the evening Sondre “quicker than Mbappé” Lang

If there is one thing that is coming to characterise this Derby squad, it is players stepping up in the hour of need.