Full time: Derby 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Derby retain the Brian Clough Trophy with an ultimately comfortable win. Matej Vydra scored after 24 seconds and, though Forest dominated the rest of the first half, David Nugent’s accomplished 50th-minute goal killed the game. Thanks for your company, bye!
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90 min There will be four minutes of added futility for Forest.
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89 min This win will lift Derby to 13th, one place above Forest. They have so much class and expeience in their team that you’d expect them to at least challenge for a play-off place.
87 min Forest know this is over. The timing of the second goal killed them.
86 min Martin miscontrols Forsyth’s low pass but the ball runs across to Lawrence, whose fierce shot is excellently blocked by Smith.
86 min “Good grief, I may even get to be happy all day at this rate,” sniffs Louise Wright. “I wish I’d gone to the pub to watch the darn thing now.”
83 min Martin’s excellent flick allows Russell to surge into the area on the left. He can’t decide whether to pass or shoot and eventually his shot is deflected behind for a corner.
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82 min A lofted ball into the Derby area almost falls nicely for Walker, who stretches to toe-end the ball towards goal. The ball hits Carson and rebounds to safety.
80 min David Nugent, whose accomplished second goal seems to have settled this match, is replaced by Chris Martin.
79 min Bridcutt is back on, though he’s struggling to run. It looks like a thigh injury.
78 min Bridcutt has limped off, so Forest are down to 10 men.
77 min There’s a long delay while Bridcutt receives treatment. He fell awkwardly after a strong challenge from Nugent. Forest have used all three substitutes.
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74 min Forest make their final change, with Tyler Walker replacing Jason Cummings.
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72 min Forest will feel they are unlucky to be behind in this game; Derby will feel they’ve done a job on Forest. There’s a bit of truth in both arguments.
70 min The excellent Vydra, who scored one and made one, is replaced to huge cheers by the fit again George Thorne.
69 min Lawrence’s left-wing cross is bundled wide at the far post by Russell. He may well have scored had the ball not taken a slight touch off the head of Traore just in front of him.
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68 min Lawrence’s free-kick from the left wing dips onto the top of the crossbar! I think it was meant to be a cross. Either way, it curled wickedly over Smith and onto the bar.
66 min There’s an increasing resignation in Forest’s attacking. Fox’s frustration manifests itself in an absurd hack at Russell for which he is rightly booked.
63 min Derby win a free-kick 25 yards from goal, a long way to the right of centre. With everyone expecting a crossl Lawrence smacks a stinging effort towards the near post that Smith pushes behind for a corner.
61 min Traore’s low ball from the left sneaks through to Cummings, who slices an optimistic shot on the turn well wide of the near post.
60 min A double change for Forest: Jamie Ward, once of Derby, replaces the impressive Barrie McKay, and Zach Clough is on for Kieran Dowell.
58 min Derby are content to sit in and hit Forest on the break, a tactic that worked so well for the second goal. Forest have dominated possession throughout this game.
57 min That’s a better save from Carson, who leaps to his left to palm McKay’s 25-yard shot over the bar.
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55 min Dowell’s long-range curler is too close to Carson, who palms it up and grabs it at the second attempt.
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54 min Traore combines well with Dowell and hammers a low cross that is crucially cleared by Davies on the six-yard line.
GOAL! Derby 2-0 Nottingham Forest (Nugent 50)
It could have been 1-1; instead it’s 2-0. This is another expertly taken goal from Derby. Vydra moves away from Bridcutt and slides a lovely angled pass into the path of Nugent, who calmly places the ball into the far corner.
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49 min Another excellent chance goes begging for Forest. McKay on the left plays a classy pass infield to Osborn, whose low ball across the six-yard line is stabbed over by Cummings. He was under pressure from Davies but it was still a big chance.
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47 min “Greetings from Nassau, where Caribbean sports channel SportsMax are screening the game, incredibly,” says Simon Frank. “So the Bahamas NFFC supporters club (membership: 1) are happy in spite of the score. istened to your Nessun Dorma podcast on the way to the footy this morning, and you are quite right - Des Walker would make an all-time England XI. Admit it, you’ve got a thing for the Garibaldi.”
I just hope humanity is the winner, Simon. (But I do love Clough’s late-era Forest sides, even though, as a Man Utd fan, only puberty caused me more pain between 1989 and 1992.
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46 min Peep peep!
Half-time chit-chat
“Although I turned the telly on expecting to watch Brighton and Everton slog out a 0-0 draw (any idea why that’s been scheduled for half one on a Sunday despite Sky and BT wisely passing on the fixture?) I’m quite enjoying the opportunity to catch up with some former Next Big Things and Didn’t Quite Make Its,” says Matt Loten. “I’d completely forgotten Michael Mancienne existed, and as a Portsmouth fan, I’ll always have a soft spot for David Nugent. The man should never have got anywhere near an England shirt, but he’s a trier, damn it, and scored the odd cracker. And despite his antics today, I met him at an autograph signing in a shopping centre shortly after he moved down south (I was after his autograph, not the other around), and he seemed a thoroughly personable chap.”
That Everton game was moved early for Indian TV, with approximately 0.00 per cent consideration for Everton fans who had to get up at around 11.30pm last night just to make it in time for kick-off.
Half time: Derby 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Peep peep! Derby lead through Matej Vydra’s 25th-second goal. Barrie McKay hit the post and missed a one-on-one for Forest, who were the better side for the last 44 minutes 35 seconds of the half. See you in 10 minutes!
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43 min There’s a lot to like about Forest, particularly how patient they are in possession. They probably deserve to be level in this game.
38 min The more I see that McKay chance the more it looks like a good save from Carson. His positioning was immaculate and he didn’t go down, so McKay didn’t have that much space to aim for. You still expect class players to score one-on-ones but Carson deserves a fair bit of credit.
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37 min “We haven’t scored too early,” says Louise Wright. “This way I get to be happy, rather than tense & nervy, for 103 minutes before the inevitable late Forest double strike. The report’s shaping up nicely too.”
We need new lyrics for Everyday Is Like Sunday (Louise Wright remix).
35 min McKay misses a great chance to equalise for Forest! He timed his run perfectly to move onto Bridcutt’s pass over the top, and made his way into the area before sidefooting a low shot that was kicked behind for a corner by Carson. It was as much a poor miss as it was a good save, I think. McKay almost had too much time to think about what he was going to do.
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34 min McKay hits the post! He twisted away from Wisdom 25 yards from goal and raked a left-footed shot that deflected off the stretching Wisdom and whooshed onto the outside of the near post.
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33 min Lawrence’s cross is partially cleared by Fox and eventually comes back to Lawrence, who wafts an attempted curler into orbit.
31 min That’s better from Forest. Cummings attacks Forsyth down the right and clips a flat cross that just evades the diving Murphy at the near post.
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30 min This has, despite the best efforts of David Nugent, been a very nice game so far.
27 min This is a good spell for Derby. Lawrence’s long-range shot hits Fox, prompting appeals for a penalty from the crowd. I’m pretty sure it hit him on the chest, though we haven’t seen a replay yet.
22 min Lawrence wins a corner on the break for Derby, which almost leads to a second goal. When the ball is half cleared, Huddlestone slides it into Keogh on the right of the box. He carefully picks out Vydra, whose first-time shot is brilliantly blocked by the stretching Lichaj.
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21 min There’s an argument that Derby scored too early here, and that as a result they have given the initiative to Forest. Derby are having the old stick/twist dilemma.
18 min Forest are struggling to pick up Vydra, who is taking up some lovely positions in the hole. If Derby get better service into him he could do plenty of damage.
16 min Forest continue to dominate possession, though Derby look pretty comfortable in defence. Dowell’s chip, which drifts a few yards wide, sums up Forest’s strange kind of dominance.
12 min There’s been a notable absence of needle early on. Nugent address that by bumping Mancienne towards an advertising hoarding and using his fingers to apprise the Forest fans of the scoreline. Either that or his right hand was being used to impersonate Donald Trump.
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10 min Vydra plays a fine pass inside Mancienne that invites Russell to charge into the box from the right. Mancienne recovers well to consider a corner, from which bugger all accrues.
7 min Forest have responded excellently to going behind. Lichaj puts in another dangerous cross from the right that is flicked towards goal by Cummings and deflects behind for a corner.
5 min “I was hoping to listen to the Radio Derby coverage of this whilst rewriting a fairly uninteresting report (I type better whilst listening to biased indignation) but I’ve been thwarted as it’s not broadcasting on t’internet so you’re all I’ve got,” says Louise Wright. “Do you have a preferred team in this one or do you want football to be the winner? Because I fear you may be disappointed if it’s the latter.”
I have no allegiance. I just hope humanity is the winner.
4 min Another half chance for Murphy, who heads Lichaj’s cross wide from 15 yards.
2 min Murphy almost equalises straight away with a low shot that is saved to his left by Carson. The chance came from a beautiful angled pass into the area from McKay. Murphy dragged the ball towards goal on the turn but the covering Davies took most of the sting out of the shot and it was a comfortable save for Carson.
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Madon, what a start. It was an excellent goal from Vydra. He found himself in a bit of space 25 yards from goal, ran along the line of the area and drove a superb left-footed shot back across Smith and into the corner.
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GOAL! Derby 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Vydra 1)
Matej Vydra has given Derby the lead after 24 seconds!
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1 min Peep peep! Derby get things going. They are in white, Forest are in red.
The players are ready, the atmosphere is tremendous. Let’s do football!
The teams
Derby County (4-2-3-1) Carson; Wisdom, Keogh, Davies, Forsyth; Huddlestone, Ledley; Lawrence, Vydra, Russell; Nugent.
Substitutes: Mitchell, Baird, Pearce, Thorne, Weimann, Winnall, Martin.
Nottingham Forest (4-3-3) Smith; Lichaj, Mancienne, Fox, Traore; Dowell, Bridcutt, Osborn; Cummings, Murphy, McKay.
Substitutes: Clough, Ward, Darikwa, Henderson, Bouchalakis, Walker, Worrall.
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Pre-match reading
Preamble
Hello. The challenge is to get through this preamble without mentioning Brian Clough. I’ve failed already, so now we can relax and digest this match better. It’s the 100th East Midlands derby (not counting the mezzanine Anglo-Italian Cup), a primal affair between two clubs who are not entirely enamoured of the other’s existence.
Derby have had a surprisingly modest start to the season, and defeat today would put more pressure on Gary Rowett. That’s pretty ridiculous – he and the Forest manager Mark Warburton should be judged after two years rather than seven months – but we all know that’s the game.
Derby start in 17th place, with Forest 13th. The Championship has always been an unpredictable game of snakes and ladders so both sides know that with a decent run they could be in the play-off places by December. That’s something to think about tomorrow. Today is all about beating them.
Kick off is at 1.15pm.
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