MARK Hughes wrote another chapter in his glittering FA Cup career last night after playing a leading role in Rovers' stunning 5-2 victory at Pride Park.

Hughes -- the only player to have won four winner's medals at Wembley -- led from the front as Graeme Souness's troops left Derby reeling thanks to a spectacular goal-blitz.

Afterwards, the former Manchester United star hailed Rovers' second half performance as the best since he arrived in October.

And the result kept alive his dreams of appearing in another final at Cradiff's Millennium Stadium come the end of the season.

"When you come to any away ground and score the amount of goals that we have that's obviously the result of a very professional performance," said Hughes.

"And, certainly, our second half performance was probably as good as we've played.

"We all know the ability this team possesses, it's just sometimes we don't always show that because teams make it difficult for us.

"But we felt we had a chance here because they had to come out with being the home side.

"And that was the difference compared to the first game."

Rovers trailed 1-0 at half time after Chris Riggott had headed the Rams into a third minute lead.

But a half-time dressing down from Souness resulted in a remarkable transformation which saw Rovers score five times in 29 second half minutes.

"We were disappointed with ourselves at half-time because we knew we could play better than that," said Hughes.

"We wanted to be a bit more forceful, which we were, then we got a goal at the right time and kicked on from there."