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Photos: PA
A cracking Carling Cup tie, this, not that many people noticed. Rochdale played a blinder and really gave the Prem side a scare – not that I imagine Big Eck would be gutted if his side got knocked out of this competition early on in the season; that said, Brum did put out quite a strong side, including giving a debut to on-loan striker Matt Derbyshire, who won a (dubious) penalty and scored his first goal for the club, from close range.
Derbyshire is a shrewd signing for Birmingham. He has a happy knack of taking his chances, which makes him one of the few English strikers around who you can say that of (Emile Heskey, ahem).