Championship: Norwich City 1-2 Derby

Striker Nathan "The Duke" Ellington now has a total of 117 career goals - but his crazy late winner at Carrow Road must surely rate as the strangest of the lot.

With just five minutes to go 10-man Derby were scrapping for survival when left-back Jordan Stewart pumped a hopeful long ball forward for substitute Ellington to chase.

Norwich's stand-in central defender Adam Drury and keeper David Marshall chaotically collided and Ellington stuck out a boot to decide this rousing contest.

A bewildered Ellington said: "Thankfully it trickled in. But I didn't even know I had scored! When I looked up nobody seemed to be celebrating and nobody seemed to be cheering. I was still sitting on the ground, just looking around trying to work out what was happening and it was all a bit weird really.

"When I ran through I thought it was a bit too far for their keeper to come out so Iwassurprised when he did.

"I just hit the ball and it was rolling really slowly and I was just hoping that it would go in. It was certainly one of the most interesting goals I have ever scored."

Injury-hit Norwich seemed set for a torrid afternoon when Rob Hulse headed Derby in front after 26 minutes .

But the Canaries were struggling after the 50th minute until Rams keeper Roy Carroll was shown a red card for bringing down City debut boy Leroy Lita.

Sammy Clingan rattled in the resulting penalty and suddenly Derby were doing all the defending. Yet Ellington won it for Derby, and credit must go to Rams boss Paul Jewell for bravely keeping two men up front.

"We could have just sat back hoping not to concede another goal but he decided to stick with two strikers" added Ellington.

"Then he brought me on and told me to try to get on the end of something and that's exactly what I did."