A moment of quality from the lesser-spotted Mike Tresor secured Burnley’s last-gasp passage into the next round of the Carabao Cup.
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A stodgy cup tie lacking in fluency looked to be heading to penalties, but Tresor - making his first Turf Moor outing in 16 months - had other ideas, producing a sublime through-ball for Oliver Sonne to win it for the hosts in stoppage-time.
Scott Parker’s men had previously taken the lead after just four minutes when Aaron Ramsey capped off a long-awaited first start with a well-taken goal.
But Derby responded well, grew into the game and hit back through Bobby Clark.
While the Clarets dominated possession for the remainder of the game, it looked as though Derby were going to frustrate them and make it to the lottery of penalties - but super-sub Tresor had other ideas.
Burnley made all 11 changes to their line-up from Saturday’s 2-0 win against Sunderland. In fact, none of the players that started on Saturday were involved at all – not even on the bench.
As a result, Parker handed debuts to Max Weiss and Armando Broja, while Loum Tchouana made his first start.
Oliver Sonne was the recipient of Mike Tresor's sublime stoppage-time through-ball (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)placeholder image
Oliver Sonne was the recipient of Mike Tresor's sublime stoppage-time through-ball (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
The likes of Lucas Pires, Marcus Edwards and Zian Flemming all started, while Bashir Humphreys returned from injury to partner Joe Worrall in defence.
Aaron Ramsey also made his first start for the Clarets since suffering a serious knee injury in February 2024 – although he did make a brief cameo off the bench during the back end of last season.
Axel Tuanzebe was fit enough to make the bench, where he featured alongside the likes of Vaclav Hladky, Hannes Delcroix, Mike Tresor and Ashley Barnes.
Jordan Beyer, Connor Roberts and Zeki Amdouni remain injured, while Etienne Green, Manuel Benson, Darko Churlinov and Michael Obafemi weren’t involved.
As for Derby, they also decided to use the occasion to rotate the squad, with John Eustance making eight changes from Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Bristol City.
Burnley took just four minutes to take the lead, edging their noses in front with their first very attack of the game.
It was a touching moment too, with the goal coming from Aaron Ramsey, who slotted home calmly after being teed up by debutant Broja.
Not only was it the perfect way to return to action, after a 13-month injury hell, it was also Ramsey’s first goal in Burnley colours.
Derby’s first shot in anger came from Joe Ward, who failed to test Weiss with a hopeful drive from 25 yards out.
The visitors did grow into the game as the half wore on, albeit Weiss hadn’t been seriously tested in the Burnley goal.
That all changed 10 minutes before the interval when Bobby Clark finished off a well-crafted move to level for the Rams, slotting past Weiss after beating Joe Worrall to Callum Elder’s inside pass.
Perhaps the Clarets needed the wake-up call, because their play was beginning to look a little disjointed. But they did almost instantly restore their lead when Zian Flemming’s close-range header was well kept out by Josh Vickers.
Parker made just the one change at the break, one that was probably pre-planned - with Axel Tuanzebe becoming the latest debutant by replacing Bashir Humphreys at the heart of Burnley’s defence.
Joe Worrall of all people had the first opportunity of the second-half, flicking over with his heel after meeting Oliver Sonne’s centre.
The Clarets were beginning to show a bit more impetus in attack, committing more and more men forward, but that did leave them a little exposed to the counter.
Just before the hour mark, Burnley were unfortunate not to retake the lead as the woodwork came to Derby’s aid.
Tchouana was the unfortunate man, seeing his low first-time effort rebound off the post after Flemming’s free-kick had been blocked by the wall.
If the first-half wasn’t the most enthralling of contests, the second-half was even more drab. While Burnley enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, they were doing very little with it and Derby, it has to be said, looked comfortable.
We did at least get to witness something special - a rare sighting of Mike Tresor in action at Turf Moor, with the winger getting 12 minutes off the bench in what was his first appearance at home in over 16 months.
Jaydon Banel looked bright off the bench and brought a good save out of Vickers with eight minutes remaining, when his low shot after a clever first touch was palmed away from the bottom corner.
With only three minutes added on, it looked as though the game was destined to be decided by penalties - but Burnley, and that man Tresor, had other ideas.
In the first minute of time added on, the Belgian provided a perfectly-weighted pass to find the clever run of Oliver Sonne, who did the rest by finishing beyond Vickers.
It was the one moment of quality in what was an otherwise fairly drab game, and it proved to be enough to secure Burnley’s passage into the third round of the competition.
TEAMS
Burnley: Weiss, Sonne, Worrall, Humphreys (Tuanzebe), Pires, Laurent, Ramsey, Edwards, Tchouana (Banel), Flemming (Tresor), Broja (Barnes)
Subs not used: Hladky, Delcroix, Leulai, Pimlott, Tweedy
Derby: Vickers, Rooney, Sanderson, Forsyth, Ward (Wilson), Adams, Osborn (Thompson), Elder (Clarke), Clark (Brown), Brewster (Weimann), Jackson
Subs not used: O’Donnell, Goudmijn, Nyambe, Wheeldon
Referee: Andrew Kitchen
Attendance: 7,819
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