Derby County 1-0 Nottingham Forest

Derby remain fifth in the table, despite Marcus Olsson's goal seeing off local rivals Forest

Marcus Olsson's first Derby County goal settled a lacklustre East Midlands derby and consigned Nottingham Forest to a sixth defeat in eight games.

An intense match delivered plenty of endeavour but was short on chances and quality until Olsson's 79th-minute curling strike past Dorus de Vries.

Forest, with Paul Williams in interim charge, edged a goalless first half.

But the Rams, inspired by half-time input from new football adviser Harry Redknapp, improved after the break.

Olsson's fine first-time hit from Tom Ince's pass ensures Derby stayed fifth in the Championship.

Derby 1-0 Forest as it happened

The Redknapp response

Forest's high-tempo, high-pressing game worked perfectly in the opening 25 minutes, forcing error after error from the Rams, which in turn got the home crowd agitated and restless.

Redknapp trudged from his seat in the stands towards the dressing room at the break, and whatever he and head coach Darren Wassall said worked a treat.

Derby could barely put a foot right in the opening 45 minutes, but started to win the midfield battle and looked the more threatening of the two sides after half-time.

Harry Redknapp was appointed as a football adviser by Derby on Wednesday

Too much at stake

The inescapable truth is of a derby match offering plenty of blood and thunder and very little in the way of quality or goalmouth incident. If bone-crunching challenges, blocked shots, misplaced passes and numerous free-kicks is your thing, then it was ideal.

Sadly, there was precious little else to talk about.

Ince looked lively for the hosts, with a couple of surging runs that came to nothing, while a fierce low strike that went straight at Reds goalkeeper De Vries early in the second half was the first effort on target.

Forest had looked comfortable but, aside from a couple of long-range efforts, they were also poor in the final third and they had no way back into things after Olsson's moment of quality.

Man of the match: Jason Shackell (Derby)

The Derby centre-back helped to keep Forest at bay before he was withdrawn late on with a slight injury

Post-match reaction

Derby head coach Darren Wassall: "I wanted Harry in the dressing room before the game, at half-time and at full-time. He chose to sit in the directors' box because he hasn't seen us play recently and he gets a better view.

"Harry's input is just as much as anyone else's and I welcome that because if he can improve us in our promotion push by three or four per cent we will be delighted.

"I thought we deserved to win. The first half was even-steven but in the second half, if anyone was going to win it it was going to be us."

Nottingham Forest interim manager Paul Williams: "I think it had 0-0 or a draw written all over it.

"For the majority of the game I was very pleased with how the players performed. We know we need to be scoring more goals, but in terms of closing people down and being brave with the football I can't ask for any more.

"The pressure is on me now as to how we are going to create and score goals. We will be working at that over the next two weeks and the onus is on me to try to come up with something to score goals."