The Commodores once sang; ‘Easy like Sunday morning’, well how about; ‘easy like early Sunday afternoon’, playing your local rivals off the park and receiving an early Christmas gift? Sounds better to me!

The festive season certainly arrived early in Derbyshire as the Rams gave us three magic reasons to eat, drink and be merry after well and truly stuffing our rivals from down the wrong end of the A52.

Despite Sky’s best efforts to dampen any sort of atmosphere with a high-noon kick-off, Pride Park was a sight to behold come show-time. A flag for all home supporters was some effort - a doth of the Santa hat to all involved.

Of course, this was described as ‘tin-pot’ by one Forest friend, who went suspiciously quiet after I pointed out you couldn’t do it at their shed, as empty seats can’t wave flags…

Bent returned from his knock to lead the line but a look at the red dogs’ line-up revealed one key absentee. Yes, pantomime villain Lansbury had tweaked a hair braid in the warm up and with no mirror present, had to relinquish his role to a Carayol singer.

There was no good will in the early going, as an unsavoury spat between Johnson and Osborn saw the latter perform his best Lansbury impression-rolling around worse than a child that you’ve just told Santa isn’t real. Thankfully, the referee saw through it-though did give cards to both, as an early melee ensued.

Strangely, this seemed to calm Bradley down, as Forest had looked threatening and caught him out of position in the early going. Still, there was no real flow to the game, with neither team finding their stride. Baird’s low cross evaded Bent, while a free kick was headed straight at the keeper from Keogh.

Then, the Lord decided to intervene.

Ince’s corner from the right was flicked on by Russell onto the donkey Bendtner, who inadvertently flicked into the net. After a momentary pause, realization that we (or they) had actually scored from a set-piece again! Thank the Lord indeed.

Still, the dogs looked a threat on the break and after Lam had been allowed the freedom of the middle of the park, he teed up Kasami to shoot tamely at Carson, while back at the right end, Ince’s cross was headed over by Russell.

Now I must have missed the news in the week when Forest announced Tom Daley as part of their coaching staff. He would have been thrilled to see Bendtner performing a triple pirouette with pike as Olsson challenged. Thankfully, the free-kick resulted in Kasami nodding straight to Carson.

As half-time approached, the chance. A long-throw was nodded down by the Lord and as two Forest players fluffed their lines, the ball broke beautifully for Cash. Already making to go and celebrate, his finish wasn’t on the money, with his side-footed effort well saved by Carson.

I say the chance as that was it for the dogs, with the Rams making turkeys of them throughout a stunning second period.

Just as I’d missed the appointment of Tom Daley, I also missed Sam Rush slipping Bendtner £20 quid before kickoff. A dangerous free kick from the right delivered by Butterfield just missed the head of Pearce but did find the donkey, who inexplicably headed against his own post.

No matter, as soon, the ghost of Christmas past came back to haunt Forest.

A wonderful ball inside the full-back from Bairdinho found Ince near the box. Twisting inside then outside, Tom tied Mancienne up like tinsel round the tree before stabbing home a cracker!

Now Pride Park was jumping. The players seemingly settled further, with red shirts chasing shadows as the Rams took full control. The midfield trio were bossing the show and soon enough, our star took his turn to top the tree.

Good football built up to Ince finding Hughes, who fed Russell in the box. Johnny turned well and shot right footed, bringing a good save. However, quicker than you could shout ‘he’s behind you’ to the static Forest defence, Will had his rewards, tapping in the rebound.

Hard to believe it was his first goal of the season, that fact excited us all including a Forest supporter let off a smoke bomb in celebration.

The white smoke might as well have been a white flag as our visitors unconditionally surrendered in front of our eyes.

No desire. No passion. A nightmare before Christmas.

As we suggested another famous five may have been on the cards, Vydra joined the party in place of Bent, looking for a confidence-building goal. A fourth nearly eventuated as Matej controlled well, found Hughes who poked through to Ince, only to for Tom to see his curling effort zip wide.

Such was our dominance, we even had chance to rest Hughes and Ince ahead of another two games this week. To be honest, I reckon I’d have looked decent out there, such was the resigned nature of the dogs.

Deforestation complete.

Sadly, there was to be no more goals as we got in the festive spirit and stuck at three. A dominant, controlled second-period, in which we had well and truly muzzled the dogs and kept the Brian Clough trophy in its rightful place.

Taking to magnitude of the fixture out of the equation, that’s now six straight wins and six straight home clean sheets-a terrific run at any level. But remember that we are poor at the back, aren’t we Kenny Burns?

That play-off wish for Christmas might just come true after all.

Three is the magic number. Now who sang that?

Weston’s Player Ratings:

Scott Carson — 7: One save of note but distribution very good.

Chris Baird — 8: Another very composed display - what a pass for Ince’s goal!

Richard Keogh — 7: Think Bendtner is still in his pocket.

Alex Pearce — 8: Very good once again.

Marcus Olsson — 8: Easily his best game of the season.

Will Hughes — 8: Showed Forest’s midfield how to play. He’s rubbish though remember?

Jacob Butterfield — 8: Strong, creative and worked hard.

Bradley Johnson — 8: Bullied Osborn into submission.

Johnny Russell — 7: Poor start but got much better as it went on.

Tom Ince — 8: Moment of absolutely quality lit up the game.

Darren Bent — 7: Good on his return from injury.

Subs:

Matej Vydra — 7: Looked sharp.

Craig Bryson — 7: Absolutely loved it for 15 mins.

Andreas Weimann — 7: Good late cameo.

We Said / They Said:

We said: Rams Gaffer - Steve McClaren

It's a huge win for the supporters and will make their week and a huge three points for us that puts us up there, but I'm still not looking at the table. There's a long way to go. Someone did say we are fifth and I told them to shut up! It's not where you are now but we are delighted to climb up the league and to do it in the manner that we are.”

"I thought we earned the right to play in the first half and sorted things out. In the second half, we played football, we gave the wide players more licence to go one-on-one and that's how we got the two goals."

They said: Forest Gaffer Phillipe Montanier:

‘The first half was correct but I don't understand the second half because we lost our shape and we played a poor second half, physically, technically and tactically.”

"During a derby game you need to play a full game at 100% and at 1-0 you can come back, but we needed to play at a good level. We had no opportunity of scoring and it was easy for Derby County to score because we did not have a good discipline.”

Match Highlights:

Post Match Reaction — Gaffer & Players

COYR!!

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls