There were times when this felt more like a celebration than a cup tie. Those present could rejoice in some encouraging storylines and almost comical subplots just as much as thrill at the wonderfully attacking football delivered by both teams with Frank Lampard, a beaten opposing manager, conducting a post-match lap of the pitch to applaud those supporters who will always count him as one of their own.

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Chelsea’s all-time record goalscorer has hoisted Premier League trophies in this arena but this occasion, spied from the vantage point of the opposition dugout, still left him brimming with pride.

He could purr at the performance of his Derby County players, the visitors having finished the stronger team and within the width of a post from forcing a penalty shootout. But he could cling, too, to that appreciative din which was still echoing round the ground well after the final whistle. “I left out of the back door here [in 2014] and that was disappointing, but I walked in the front door today and got that reception,” said Lampard. “I’m a lucky man to get that support from both ends of the ground tonight.”

His only regret was elimination, as Maurizio Sarri’s unbeaten Chelsea progressed into a quarter-final against Bournemouth and Lampard aimed his frustration at the award of the home side’s winning goal after Davide Zappacosta’s apparent foul in the build-up.

VAR was consulted before Jon Moss awarded that goal, Cesc Fàbregas’s snapshot having flown in via Scott Carson’s left glove with Derby’s players already mustering their protest. Would Lampard depart wondering whether the bigger clubs do, indeed, benefit from fortunate decisions at key times as was suggested so often when he was propelling Chelsea to trophies? “No,” came the response through a smile.

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There were other elements to this frenzy of a contest which felt unique, not least given Chelsea had 13 of their own players on the pitch throughout after their decision to permit the young loanees Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount to feature against their parent club.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cesc Fàbregas (right) celebrates with Ruben Loftus-Cheek after scoring Chelsea’s third goal. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

Tomori would end up being taken to one side by David Luiz, the Brazilian offering the England Under-21 defender encouragement given it had been the youngster’s own goal which had edged the home side ahead within the opening five minutes. Slicing in Zappacosta’s cross was not how Tomori had envisaged scoring his first Chelsea goal in front of the Shed End.

“But to deal with that and play as he did afterwards, his character was immense,” said Lampard.

Yet if a Chelsea player representing Derby and still scoring for Chelsea was a surreal start, then add to that Jack Marriott, a boyhood supporter of the London club, netting the visitors’ swift equaliser. Or Richard Keogh putting through his own net to restore Chelsea’s lead, the third goal Carson had shipped to one of his own team-mates in five days.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A cross skewed off the ankle of Fikayo Tomori, a Chelsea loanee at Derby, to give the home side a first-half lead. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

By the time Martyn Waghorn tapped home to draw Derby level for a second time just before the half-hour, after slick approach play from Mount down the left, the visitors had scored four times and still never been ahead. Indeed, Fàbregas’s shot late in the half was one of Chelsea’s first on target, even as it swelled their goal tally to three.

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All of which will have left Sarri dissatisfied. Gianfranco Zola bemoaned the slack pace of the team’s passing in that opening period and the panic which set in late on after Álvaro Morata and Gary Cahill, whose slip had presented Marriott with his early chance, had seen Carson deny them breathing space with saves from headers. The last quarter-hour was far too helter-skelter for Chelsea’s comfort as they imposed no control on frantic proceedings. “A lot of that was down to Derby,” said Zola of the opposition from the Championship. “They really played with a lot of quality and surprised us.”

But, for all Mount’s elusive approach-play and Marriott’s energy, the third equaliser would not come. David Nugent went closest as full-time approached, wrestling himself beyond Cahill and on to another expertly weighted Tom Huddlestone pass before skimming his shot off the far post with the ball rebounding to a grateful Willy Caballero.

“That’s bad luck, bad fortune, but we’ve shown we can compete,” said Lampard. “The challenge is to do that week in, week out. When we won at Manchester United in the last round, we went and lost at Bolton in the next game and didn’t really turn up. So let’s see how we do this weekend [at home to Birmingham]. I’m proud of my team. It doesn’t feel like a defeat but it’s a benchmark for how we want to play from now on.”