OPINION: Derby County must use win over Nottingham Forest as a springboard in the Championship

The dust has settled after the latest East Midlands Derby and us Rams fans went home happy.

After going ahead in only 24 seconds from Vydra’s great strike our visitors tried as hard as they could to get back on level terms. McKay hitting the woodwork and also denied by Scott Carson during a one on one chance.

It s fair to say that they had the greater possession, but all of us that’s seen Derby play over the years have plenty of experience of seeing our team have plenty of the ball without being able to capitalise on it.

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The second half also started perfectly with Nugent scoring after a through ball by Matej Vydra with the half only five minutes old.

Forest simply couldn’t make it count when they had the ball. Derby went close a few times to adding to their two goal lead. Tom Lawrence bringing a couple of decent saves from Jordan Smith (a Derby lad) in the Forest goal.

It was pleasing to see George Thorne get a run out later in the game and his return to fitness could mean that the likes of Tom Huddlestone will have to step it up a bit to retain his place in the starting line-up.

Sheffield Wednesday visit Pride Park at the weekend and they have gone off the boil lately.

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Beaten by a struggling Bolton side last weekend will have put a bit of pressure on their gaffer Carlos Carvahal.

Kieron Westwood might be fit to return in goal for them, but Fernado Forestieri, George Boyd and Jordan Rhodes are likely to missing.

Obviously Sam Winnall will be ineligible to play for us and Jacob Butterfield likewise for them.

We really must kick on now and use the win over a Forest as a springboard to better results. Hopefully this will happen on Saturday and we don’t have to go back to the drawing board.

Now is the time to put a run of form together and climb the table.