Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper paid special tribute to the City Ground crowd for their “amazing” part in a 2-1 victory over arch-rivals Derby County.
The packed-out stadium was rocking throughout, no more so than when Lewis Grabban and Brennan Johnson had put the Reds in command in the second half.
The Rams pulled one back through a Tom Lawrence penalty two minutes from time, but Forest clinched the three points to make it back-to-back league wins.
And Cooper delighted in his first experience of an East Midlands derby, in front of the jubilant home fans.
“Now I’m standing here, I can say I enjoyed it,” he grinned.
“I liked it when we went 2-0 up and there was the sense that we were in complete control of the game. We were playing well, and I thought we might go score another one.
“It was a bit gutting to go 2-1.
“But I loved it!
“When we went 2-0 up, it was amazing. You had to take a deep breath and go, ‘wow, how good is it to be part of this?’. And then you’ve got to focus back on the game.”
The hosts had been slow out of the blocks in the lunchtime clash, with their opponents spurning a big chance to take the lead when Lawrence fired wide early on.
Cooper switched from three at the back to a four-man defence with 20 minutes gone, however, and his side worked their way into the game.
“It was an average game in the first half, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“I accepted it a little bit because of the occasion and the importance of the game, you see it so many times in derbies.
“We changed things a little bit tactically. Once we’d done that and clarified it a bit at half-time, I thought we were good.
“We were definitely worthy winners. We created the real opportunities in the second half, and scored two.
“We should never have put ourselves in the situation to have given them one back. And I don’t just mean the foul for the penalty (by Steve Cook) - because it is a penalty - I just didn’t like the lead up to it in any way, shape or form, because we were in complete control.
“The game should have been 2-0, and maybe even get another one late on.
“In saying that, after the 2-1, I thought we managed it really well.
“We kept calm heads. They got a man (Ravel Morrison) sent off, but we didn’t lose our heads in those melees to cross the line.
“I didn’t love the first half, but I accept it.
“But second half onwards, there was only one winner.”
