BOTH Matt Derbyshire and Ben Foster stole the limelight as their respective teams made progress to the FA Cup semi-finals on a weekend of high drama.
Below is an article from Sunday's Independent newspaper looking at Matt's rise to fame:
THERE was widespread applause on Tuesday when Blackburn Rovers announced a reduction in the cost of their season tickets for next season. Jack Straw, for 15 years a season-ticket holder at Ewood Park, was among those who voiced approval for the 25 per cent cut. A season-long ticket for the CIS Stand will cost just £249. There have, however, been cheaper seats. Matt Derbyshire used to park his backside in one of them.
"I don't know if you've noticed that little hill behind the CIS Stand," he said. "It's known locally as The Scar. I used to watch Rovers from there."
At the age of 20, Derbyshire now occupies a front-line vantage point on the pitch at Ewood. Blackburn-born and Blackburn-bred, he has not had the most conventional of journeys from The Scar to the Rovers forward line, where he is likely to be found in the company of the South African Benni McCarthy for the sixth-round FA Cup visit of Manchester City this afternoon.
Though he admired Alan Shearer from afar, from that hill above the River Darwen, Derbyshire preferred Rollerblading to football until his mid-teens. He did start his working life on the staff at EwoodPark, but not as a player. He worked for Rovers as a community coach.
Only when young Derbyshire started banging in the goals on his Saturdays off, for Great Harwood Town in the North West Counties League, did his employers realise that they had a player on their hands. "At the time, my aim was just to get my coaching badges and to make it at the level I was playing," the coacher turned game-winner reflected.
"I was 17, working for Rovers, coaching children, and playing in the first team for Great Harwood Town. Then I scored quite a few goals in a short period of time. That's how everything came about."
Everton and Manchester United both chased Derbyshire's signature, but the Blackburn lad only had ink for his beloved Rovers. He made the move from community coach to academy player in November 2003, and was given a taste of first-team action as a substitute against Fulham in the final home game of the 2004-05 season. Last season he was loaned out to Plymouth and Wrexham, scoring 10 goals in 16 games while at the Racecourse Ground.
It is only in the past three months that the wiry, fleet-footed forward has forced his way into the regular first-team picture at Blackburn, getting his first start against Nancy in the Uefa Cup in December and his first goal against Wigan on New Year's Day.
With five goals to his name now - three of them in the FA Cup - Derbyshire is fast becoming a fixture in Mark Hughes' forward line. "To be honest, I didn't think I was going to get my opportunity this season," he said.
"I came back from the loan spell at Wrexham full of confidence, but a place in the first team here still felt a long way off. I know I scored 10 goals there, but that was in Division Two.
"The manager signed four strikers in the summer [McCarthy, Shabani Nonda, Jason Roberts and Francis Jeffers] but that didn't stop me from working hard and showing him what I could do. If you have strikers ahead of you, you want to do better than them. It improves your game. I've learned a lot from the strikers who have come in.
"The manager is the one I have to thank, though. He's given me an opportunity and I've grabbed it with both hands."
Now Derbyshire and Rovers have an opportunity of reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup at the expense of the manager who picked the burgeoning Blackburn striker for the England Under-21 squad last month.
A thigh injury prevented Derbyshire from playing against Spain's Under-21 side, although Stuart Pearce has seen his prowess at first hand; he scored Blackburn's third goal in a 3-0 Premiership win at the City of Manchester Stadium in January.
If he does manage to make it all the way to the new Wembley, Derbyshire will be able to reflect on a sojourn that has taken him to some of the farther-flung outposts on the FA Cup trail.
"Yeah, I did play at a few of those for Great Harwood," the young Rover reflected. "I played against Maine Road in the FA Cup - the Maine Road club from Chorlton-cum-Hardy, that is. We beat them, as well." An omen for Ewood this afternoon, perhaps?
Simon Turnbull - The Independent
