Derby County 1 - 0 Newcastle United

Derby County 1-0 Newcastle: It's Miller time

Updated: September 18, 2007, 1:14 AM ET

It was a tale of two strikers at Pride Park as Kenny Miller put England's Euro 2008 qualifying hero Michael Owen in the shade with a stunning winner to sink Newcastle and lift Derby off the bottom of the Premier League table.

Deadline-day signing Miller produced a stunning 35-yard volley in the first half to mark a memorable debut and haul the Rams above Bolton with their first win of the campaign.

Miller, who was forced out of Scotland's famous 1-0 win over France in Paris last week with a hamstring problem, far outshone Owen who looked jaded after two match-winning displays for his country.

Davies chose to freshen up his side with Miller taking the suspended Craig Fagan's place and Dean Leacock and Eddie Lewis restored to the side after shaking off injuries of their own.

Newcastle recalled Shola Ameobi to their first XI with Mark Viduka (hamstring) not risked and Obafemi Martins on the bench.

• Davies full of praise for debutant Miller

The home side got off to a positive start, Howard lining up a shot and seeing his effort pushed out for a corner after just 30 seconds.

Gary Teale's inswinging corner then picked out the former Luton forward in a good position but he headed high and wide.

Newcastle had a chance to hit back when Stephen Pearson gave away a free-kick outside his own area but Charles N'Zogbia could not test Stephen Bywater in the home goal.

Tyrone Mears and Teale were combining well on Derby's right flank and with the attacking N'Zogbia patrolling the left side of Newcastle's back four, there were plenty of gaps.

Mears forced Steve Harper into a save in the 10th minute, cutting inside Rozehnal and firing hard and low at the United stopper who parried at the first attempt.

Newcastle served notice of their attacking threat when a quick pass to James Milner down the left caught the Derby defence cold, but when the ball came to Rozehnal 12 yards out - and with Bywater nowhere - he powered the ball wide of the left-hand post.

County then started to show the grit which saw them earn an unlikely promotion last season.

First Teale and then skipper Matt Oakley, twice, put in full-blooded sliding challenges as the ball zipped around a greasy surface.

Miller tried something with a little more finesse when he was released but although he showed quick feet to dance through the penalty box, he took a touch too many and the danger passed.

Geremi hit a fine free-kick as the game continued to open up but it was Derby, and Miller, who broke the deadlock.

The 27-year-old was 35 yards out when he spotted Harper out of his goal and took an instant to release a piledriver into the roof of the net.

Another neat move involving Miller, who pulled off a silky turn before exchanging passes with Lewis, led to a rash challenge from England's Alan Smith who was rewarded with a yellow card.

The home fans, around 30,000 of them in an attendance totalling 33,016, roared for a handball against Claudio Cacapa in the penalty box but the appeal was firmly turned down.

Sam Allardyce took off Owen, unable to repeat his England heroics against the basement club, for Martins after 55 minutes as United desperately sought a cutting edge.

Miller, on the other hand, was forced to sit out the international week and still looked fresh as he chased a hopeless ball and turned it into a corner.

Oakley, comfortably winning his battle with Smith in the middle then found some space before firing high over the crossbar as he looked for a third goal of the season.

While none of Newcastle strikers were able to find an opening as inviting as Rozehnal's in the first half, fellow defender Steven Taylor did after an hour, snatching at his finish and failing to force a save.

The hosts continued to make the most of their possession but, with 22 minutes remaining, Howard was beginning to frustrate with his accuracy.

His best chance of the match found him climbing highest six yards from goal but he missed once more with the full net to aim at.

A clumsy tackle from last man Nicky Butt looked to have denied Derby a scoring opportunity following a superb ball from Andy Griffin and he was lucky to get away with a caution.

Teale produced a pinpoint cross with nine minutes remaining but again Howard's finishing let him down as his diving header flashed wide with Harper static.

Davies full of praise for debutant Miller

Derby manager Billy Davies admitted he was surprised to get a player of Kenny Miller's quality on transfer deadline day after the Scotland international lifted Derby off the bottom of the Barclays Premier League.

Miller's stunning long-range drive - on his Rams debut - banished memories of Derby's 6-0 thrashing by Liverpool last time out as they beat Newcastle 1-0 at Pride Park for their first victory of the season.

After missing out on transfer targets including David Nugent and Kenwyne Jones, Miller finally arrived for around £3million from Celtic hours before the transfer window shut.

Davies said: 'I was a bit (surprised to get him) to be honest with you because I'd seen some of his games up there and he played very well.

'He is what he is. He's an international striker and he's scored goals at every level.

'He has the ability and the pace we need. We identified plenty of other players and we are disappointed we haven't got one or two more but that is for very different reasons.

'I'm certainly delighted to have Kenny.'

Miller's opportunistic strike in the opening 15 minutes of the second half was the moment of magic Derby needed to kickstart a campaign from which they had gained one point from five outings.

Now Davies is keen on keeping his prize asset fit.

He went off in the second half as a precaution having missed Scotland's victory over France in Paris last week with a niggling hamstring complaint.

'He's still struggling for match fitness,' added Davies.

'I said to him at half-time he had to tell us (if he was feeling it) because we didn't want to push him too far. But it was nice to get as much as we got from him.'

The former Preston boss also had words of encouragement for Miller's strike partner Steve Howard, who missed a handful of glorious opportunities to kill the game from close range.

'I've said to him in the dressing room that there'll be plenty of opportunities,' he added.

'He could have had two or three, we could have had four or five, but it was a great three points and, more important, a great performance.'

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce was frustrated with his side's performance, citing early missed chances as key to the result but he was at least able to confirm that the substituted Michael Owen was not injured.

The England man, who could not repeat the form which saw him bag three goals for his country in key Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Russia, was taken off in the second half but Allardyce insists it was precautionary.

Allardyce said: 'He felt his groin at half-time. I gave him the opportunity to go back on because he wanted to but I didn't want to risk him for longer than five or 10 minutes and we took him off as a precaution.'

Asked if he would available at the weekend, Allardyce said: 'Yes. We need him to to be fit because we have too many injured as it is.'

Allardyce went on to complain about the fixture schedule which sees the Magpies face West Ham, Arsenal and Manchester City in quick succession.

'We need to get our whole squad together,' he said. 'But we have a six-day, three-game week coming up. We've been dealt a blow by the Premier League because of the Carling Cup match.

'We've been told we have to play on Tuesday night after playing West Ham on Sunday so it's my turn to moan now rather than the big boys.

'We have a very difficult week ahead of us and I just hope we have enough men to cope.'