Powell's rare strike provides lift for Smith

Three days after beating mighty Leeds United, albeit on penalties, Martin O'Neill's plucky scrappers crashed to their second successive home defeat in the Premiership yesterday, a second-half goal out of nowhere from Daryl Powell earning Derby County a narrow, but none the less very welcome victory.

Three days after beating mighty Leeds United, albeit on penalties, Martin O'Neill's plucky scrappers crashed to their second successive home defeat in the Premiership yesterday, a second-half goal out of nowhere from Daryl Powell earning Derby County a narrow, but none the less very welcome victory.

Powell scored with a long hopeful ball into the box after 68 minutes when Leicester City's goalkeeper, Tim Flowers, appeared to be baulked by Marvin Robinson. It may have been a lucky strike, but it was enough to ignite Derby's fans and bring to an end a sequence of five successive defeats since beating Chelsea on 30 October.

As a spectacle, however, this Midlands derby did little to raise the pulse or inspire flights of imagination. Both sides were poor, littering their play with unforced errors and clumsy fouls, as Leicester slipped to a home defeat that was more painful, if less emphatic, than their recent beating by Arsenal.

From the start, it was clear that the referee, David Elleray, would be playing a prominent part. Not only did he look extremely fit and keep up with the play in his normally unruffled fashion, but he also began to brandish his yellow card with a frequency that was to overwhelm all other incidents in the opening period.

In only half an hour, he had taken the names of four players and was closing in swiftly on his fifth to equal his average per match this season. Elleray duly delivered his fifth before the interval, and for many spectators this series of interventions was puzzling and broke up what little flow there had been to the football. The culprits, some through their own fault, others not, were Deon Burton, for diving in vain hopes of earning a penalty, Muzzy Izzet for a foul on Daryl Powell, Theo Zagorakis, apparently for kicking the ball away at a free-kick, Spencer Prior, for a foul on the Leicester debutant Darren Eadie, and Rory Delap for a late challenge on Emile Heskey.

Eadie, signed from Norwich for £3m, made a busy start. He smacked one early shot against the electronic clock and high over the bar, but lowered his sights as time progressed to produce a header that flew narrowly past the post.

Leicester were less impressive than they had been in their Worthington Cup exploits against Leeds during the week, and missing Neil Lennon and Steve Guppy in midfield, understandably lacked shape and fluency. Derby, however, were little better.

Their manager, Jim Smith, eschewed a chance to give his new £3m signing, the Belgian international striker Branko Strupar, his first start and also left Georgi Kinkladze with him on the substitutes' bench. Their absence looked to be a great loss to his team and the Derby fans' hoping for an upswing in their fortunes.

Leicester began the second half in a re-shaped formation, falling back to 4-4-2 in a bid to take the initiative, but there was little sign this would follow and Mr Elleray dished out another yellow card after 65 minutes, to Seth Johnson, to maintain his prominence in the proceedings.

Matt Elliott might have opened the scoring for Leicester on the hour when he put himself on the end of an inswinging corner from Stefan Oakes, spun on the turn but hooked his shot wide.

This was a signal to Derby, a team so lacking in confidence, that their luck might be in, and so it proved. After 68 minutes, they won a corner on the right, and that was only cleared as far as Daryl Powell 40 yards out from goal and close to the left touchline. As the ball bounced, he hooked it back in towards goal and, unexpectedly, it eluded every player before bouncing behind Tim Flowers and into the net.