After being handed his first Saints start for 15 months, Martin Cranie produced an outstanding performance at centre back in the heartbreaking play-off semi-final second leg last night.

Cranie, who is now out of contract, was last named in a Saints starting line up at St James Park in February 2006 - for the 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Newcastle United.

But he helped George Burley solve his injury crisis with a top-class display in his favoured centre-back role alongside Chris Baird at Pride Park last night.

The 20-year-old showed the maturity that earned him the England U20 captaincy after being told by George Burley on Monday that he would play in the absence of Claus Lundekvam, Alexander Ostlund and Gareth Bale.

He said: "We've obvioudsly had a few injuries so the gaffer decided to shuffle things about a bit.

"I was happy with how I played but we're very disappointed to lose because we ran the game.

"Going out on penalties is one of those things, but we gave it a real go.

"We practised penalties in training but it's not the same pressure as in a big match away from home.

"The lads played really well, we worked our socks off and couldn't have done any more".

Cranie spent part of this season on loan at home-town club Yeovil with Leon Best, and is backing the young striker to bounce back from the disappointment of missing the first penalty of last night's shoot-out.

He added: "Leon has scored some crucial goals to get us this far and had the bottle to take the first one".

Cranie was one of five changes to the starting XI last night.

Kelvin Davis was recalled in goal while Rudi Skacel, Chris Makin and Best were also promoted.

Seven pages of Derby v Saints reports, reaction and pictures in today's Daily Echo.