Nathan Ellington, Derby County’s Carling Cup specialist, appeared to be the calmest man in the Britannia Stadium last night as he stroked home the most nonchalant penalty imaginable, in the third minute of added time, to take his team through to their first semi-final in this competition since the 1967-68 season.

The striker scored his sixth goal in the competition this campaign in the most dramatic of circumstances. Andy Griffin, Stoke City’s former Derby defender, raised his arm and handled a cross from Przemyslaw Kazmierczak, who had been allowed to take a short corner with Emanuel Villa without a Stoke player in attendance.

Ellington, on loan from Watford with a view to a permanent £2.5million move, rolled in his penalty in front of 4,700 Derby fans, whose ecstatic reaction seemed to unleash the emotion of a generally depressing 18 months since they won promotion to the Barclays Premier League in the play-offs final at Wembley.

Paul Jewell, the Derby manager, will not take Ellington to task over his penalty-taking style just yet.

“That’s the way he takes them,” Jewell, who led Wigan Athletic to the final of this tournament in 2006, said. “One of these days he’ll miss one and he’ll get a rollicking from me. But he waits to see which way the keeper dives. Credit to the lad.”

Derby had not scored in three successive away defeats since they beat Brighton & Hove Albion two rounds and a month ago and, with their league form tailing off, ties in this competition has offered them beacons amidst the gloom. The opposite is now true of Stoke who, having exchanged divisions with Derby last summer, had sent out weaker sides in this competition until last night.

Stoke have been showing Derby, who mustered only 11 points during their season in the Premier League, what it takes to survive in the top flight, but despite starting with six of the players who had held Hull City 1-1 last Saturday, Stoke struggled to impose their superiority over their visitors from the Coca-Cola Championship.

Rob Styles, the referee in charge of their famous victory over Arsenal last month, did them few favours last night, penalising Richard Cresswell for handball as the forward appeared to chest the ball forward on his way to bursting through to shoot into the net.

A quite awful first half gave way to an exciting second period as Kris Commons headed Ellington’s centre against the bar, only for Rob Hulse to head the rebound wide. Ricardo Fuller, at the other end, managed to head wide when Mamady Sidibe nodded back Rory Delap’s centre. Stoke really should have scored 16 minutes from time. From a quickly taken short throw — they are capable — Fuller sent over a cross from which Sidibe, six yards out, shot wide.

When Miles Addison glanced a header against the foot of a post at the other end, it seemed that extra-time and penalties would be required. In the end, one simple spot-kick sufficed.

Stoke City (4-4-2): S Simonsen — A Griffin, L Cort, I Sonko, D Higginbotham — R Delap, S Olofinjana (sub: D Pugh, 81min), G Whelan, R Cresswell — M Sidibe, R Fuller. Substitutes not used: T Sorensen, V Péricard, Abdoulaye Faye, A Davies, Amdy Faye, C Dickinson.

Derby County (4-4-2): R Carroll — P Connolly, D Powell, J Tomkins, J Stewart — P Green (sub: G Teale, 90), P Kazmierczak, M Addison, K Commons — N Ellington, R Hulse (sub: E Villa, 86). Substitutes not used: S Bywater, M Sterjovski, L Nyatanga, R Zadkovich, M Camara. Booked: Addison, Powell.

Referee: R Styles.