Derby manager Frank Lampard turned the spotlight on a player with a big future and one with a glittering past after his team beat Reading 2-1 at Pride Park.
Harry Wilson created the first goal and scored the second while Lampard remains hopeful his former Chelsea and England team-mate Ashley Cole will join Derby.
Wilson was outstanding in a first half in which Derby exploited Reading's defensive fragility to score twice.
Duane Holmes converted his first Derby goal after Wilson cleverly sent him through in the third minute and the on-loan Liverpool forward scored his 12th of the season in the 40th minute with a deflected strike.
Reading looked a well beaten side but they were transformed after the break with the introduction of Sone Aluko making the difference.
It was now Derby who looked uncertain and when Fikayo Tomori gave the ball away in the 66th minute, Aluko went through to slide the ball past Kelle Roos.
Reading kept pressing right to the end but they lacked a player of Wilson's quality and Lampard said: "There's a lot of talk about Harry and early in the season he was hitting spectacular goals.
"But what he's done which has really impressed me in the last two months is really up his game generally.
"Everything about his game is positive, he wants the ball, he's creating, he's scoring so it's not just the fantastic goals that Harry Wilson is; he's a player who is developing fast and I'm loving watching him play at the minute.
"He's a threat, he works hard, he wants to play every minute of every game. I know Harry is happy here, 12 goals this season and performing as well as he is so I hope it continues. He's become a hugely important player for us."
On Cole he added: "It's not done yet so there is no update. I have spoken to Ashley and personally I think he would come in and compete in an area where we know we are slightly short defensively so it would be a big deal for us.
"Ashley for me is the best English left back of the recent generation so to bring that into the dressing room would be a good thing for us but it's not done so I won't get too excited yet."
Reading manager Jose Gomes admitted his team's poor start had cost them the game.
"I am disappointed in the way that we started was completely out of our process and football philosophy and Derby used this as an advantage.
"In the second half we completely controlled the game, created a lot of goal situations but what I felt was my players started the game like they were scared. We are in the bottom of the table and we play against Derby who are in the top of the table.
"We cannot play very well and have hope for the future, we need to win and get points. We need to transfer the way we are playing into good results.
"Now we have just 18 battles which are more than enough to achieve our target but no chance at all to achieve our target if we start playing 20 minutes or even one minute like we start this game."
