Derby County prevailed on Saturday in a come from behind 2-3 win against Mansfield.
The pre-season friendly at Field Mill kept over a thousand traveling Rams fans on the edge of their seat right up until the final whistle.
Things started badly when on the 10 minute mark Alan O'Hare gave the home side the lead with a firm header.
The reply was swift when only 2 minutes later Rob Hulse in his first appearance for the Rams equalized from a Jordan Stewart cross.
Former Rams striker Mark Stallard scored in the 34th minute restoring Mansfield’s advantage which they took into half time. At 2-1 Derby were staring at the possibility of another dire pre-season result against lower league opposition.
Derby played some good football in the second half but it took until the final quarter hour of the game for the Rams to finally get some reward when two goals in three minutes gave them the lead.
Villa struck a confident close range header from a Commons corner for his second goal in two games. Minutes later the Rams were ahead with a superb volley from Paul Green taking the score to 2-3.
Liam Dickinson’s introduction in the 80th minute could have produced instant reward had his goal 2 minutes later stood, instead the referee ruled Villa had committed a foul in the build up to the strike.
There was drama aplenty in the final minute of injury time when Ryan Goward was fouled in the box by Alan Stubbs only for the resulting spot kick to be saved by the legs of Roy Carroll. The rebound was cleared and the final whistle soon followed.
Many positives came from the match with Hulse, Stubbs and Commons making their first appearances for the season with Commons especially showing some good touches during his 45 minutes on the park which was a major part of the teams fight back.
Most importantly the Rams strikers are finding the net with all of their main strike force putting away goals so far in the pre-season with even Dickinson showing he knows his way to goal.
Dean Leacock and Robbie Savage missed the game due to minor injuries.