Ellington stars for the Rams raiders

13 April 2012

Nathan Ellington is not a name familiar to most football fans, but few who witnessed his stunning Pride Park hat-trick yesterday will forget him in a hurry.

The 20-year-old striker wrote himself into FA Cup folklore with a fantastic treble as Garry Thompson's struggling Third Division side produced one of the upsets of the season.

He was backed up by 10 others, of course, who did themselves proud in front of their staggering 7,000-strong following - the largest away contingent ever seen at Pride Park.

But Ellington was their inspiration. He simply tore the sorry Rams to pieces to make a mockery of the 69 League placings separating the two sides.

A delighted Thompson, only confirmed in the fulltime position 10 days ago after Gerry Francis quit on Christmas Eve, said: 'The boys were magnificent.

'Nathan will get the headlines but I had 11 heroes out there. They have set themselves up by showing me how good they can be.

'But you also saw how good he is. He has the potential to be anything he wants and I want to keep him, but that's not an issue because he's got at least two years left on his contract. Well, I think he has and it's going to be the first thing I check tomorrow morning!'

Derby's problems began in the 14th minute when the youngster, a ? 150,000 capture from Ryman League side Walton & Hersham three years ago, chased goalkeeper Scott Howie's long punt and as Youl Mawene and Horacio Carbonari hesitated, he beat Mart Poom to the ball and nodded into an empty net.

Ellington's second, five minutes before the interval, was the product of persistence. He chased Francois Grenet into the corner, robbed him of the ball, turned in-field and his cross-shot was deflected in off Mawene.

If the home crowd thought it couldn't get any worse, Ellington proved them wrong. He took Mark Smith's ball in the 62nd minute on his chest and hit a fine shot on the turn that flew wide of Poom.

Derby grabbed a late consolation through Fabrizio Ravanelli.

At the final whistle, referee Dermot Gallagher initially refused to hand Ellington the match-ball. But the Rovers striker continued his protests inside the officials' room and eventually won the argument.

Ellington said: 'I couldn't believe it when the referee told me that I couldn't have it. He said that he had to find out who scored the second goal, but eventually he gave in. It's just been an amazing day.'

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David Jones (Footballer)

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Ellington stars for the Rams raiders

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