BRAD Friedel has made some big saves during his seven-year association with Blackburn Rovers.

Who can forget his inspired contribution at the Millennium Stadium in 2002, when he was largely responsible for Rovers winning the Worthington Cup?

Or what about the occasion, again in 2002, when the imposing American almost single-handedly kept Thierry Henry and Arsenal at bay to help Rovers record a fine 2-1 win at Highbury?

At Pride Park yesterday, Friedel came to Rovers' aid once again when he pulled off a magnificent penalty save to deny Derby's Steve Howard.

It proved to be the turning point in this game, and possibly in Rovers' season, because another demoralising defeat, this time at the hands of the Premier League's basement club, would have left manager Mark Hughes and his players facing a bleak mid-Winter.

Instead, thanks to Friedel's endeavours, Rovers can now enter the New Year with renewed vigour, after goals from Roque Santa Cruz and the majestic David Bentley helped deliver only a second league win in 10 attempts.

Already trailing 1-0 to a goal from Derby's Matt Oakley, Rovers were staring down the barrel when the referee, Peter Walton, correctly pointed to the spot in the 37th minute following Ryan Nelsen's clumsy challenge on Kenny Miller.

Having expended so much energy chasing lost causes over the Christmas period, even Rovers' impressive powers of recovery would have been stretched to the limit had they been left to claw back yet another 2-0 deficit.

But, thankfully, Friedel, who brilliantly demonstrated his enduring quality by winning the psychological battle with Howard, spared them that daunting challenge.

In the weeks and months to come, Rovers may well look back on that incident as the defining moment in their season, because it provided the platform from which to launch another successful recovery mission.

"We are delighted with the win," said Hughes. "It was really important for us.

"Once again, we made it difficult for ourselves early on but obviously the penalty save from Brad helped in that respect.

"If we'd have gone 2-0 down at that point, it would have been a lot harder for us.

"When the penalty was awarded, you do fear the worst, particularly considering the run of form we've had of late.

"But I thought the character and the attitude of the players to come back, as they've had to do on numerous occasions recently, held us in good stead."

If Rovers end up claiming a top-six finish at the end of the season then they will have done it the hard way because, up to now, no team in the Premier League has claimed more points (12) than them from losing positions.

Aside from Friedel's heroics, Hughes was also indebted to Santa Cruz and Bentley, who both maintained their excellent form by playing starring roles again here.

Bentley, in particular, was a thorn in Derby's side throughout, brimming with energy and invention in midfield.

Although he started the game in a wide-right position, by the end of it he was popping up everywhere, usually orchestrating most of Rovers' best moves.

Santa Cruz also revelled taking on the team with the worst goal difference in the whole of England and Scotland, helping himself to his now customary goal.

If only Rovers were just as clinical at the back.

Unable to keep a clean sheet, the defence remains a major concern going into 2008.

Determined to reverse a worrying trend that had seen Rovers concede the opening goal in each of their last 10 matches, Hughes decided the best form of defence was attack against the league's bottom club, so he dispensed with his 4-2-3-1 formation and reverted to a more orthodox 4-4-2 line-up, with Benni McCarthy restored up front alongside the in-form Santa Cruz.

The Rovers chief also wielded the axe in midfield too, dropping David Dunn and Steven Reid, both of whom have been feeling the effects of a punishing schedule, for Aaron Mokoena and Tugay - the latter making his 250th appearance in a Blackburn shirt.

With Chris Samba absent on compassionate leave (his partner is about to give birth to the couple's first child), there were also changes at the back, with Zurab Khizanishvili slotting in alongside Ryan Nelsen in the centre, whilst Brett Emerton and Stephen Warnock resumed their positions at full-back.

Despite those switches, Rovers were the quicker to settle, and Santa Cruz might have added to his recent tally of seven goals in four games inside the opening six minutes, but a combination of Lewis Price and Jay McEveley managed to keep out his header.

With Tugay pulling all the strings in the centre of the park, Santa Cruz thought he had given Rovers the lead with a typically towering header midway through the half, only for the assistant referee to rule it out on the grounds that Bentley's cross had curled out of play.

But all of that good work was then cruelly undermined in the 27th minute, when Rovers' defensive failings came back to haunt them again.

Tyrone Mears was granted too much time and space to deliver a cross from the right, Giles Barnes laid a clever ball off to Oakley, and the former Southampton midfielder promptly did the rest, lifting a shot high into the roof of the net:1-0.

Derby should have doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Nelsen tripped Miller.

But cometh the hour, cometh the man as Friedel flung his huge frame to the right to save Howard's spot-kick.

That was the turning point because barely sixty seconds later, Rovers were back on level terms.

Bentley picked out McCarthy with a cross from the right and although Lewis parried the striker's shot, Santa Cruz was on hand to snaffle up the rebound: 1-1.

The game then turned completely on its head in the 42nd minute.

Tugay and McCarthy both traded passes before the ball found its way to Bentley 25 yards out, and the midfielder tamed it with his first touch and drilled a low right-footer inside Lewis's right-hand post with his second: 1-2.

Aside from one brief scare from Oakley, it was all Rovers from that point onwards, and they had numerous chances to put the game beyond Derby's reach in the second half.

Santa Cruz and McCarthy were both denied by Lewis; Morten Gamst Pedersen went close with a trademark free kick; and a Bentley shot cannoned back off the base of the post.