Derby County 3-1 Hull City: Rams win to reignite hopes of Championship survival
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Craig Forsyth opened the scoring for Derby but would also later put the ball into his own net
Derby County reignited their hopes of pulling off a remarkable escape from Championship relegation as they beat Hull City at home.
A Craig Forsyth header, Tom Lawrence pouncing on a rebound and Festy Ebosele firing a half-volley across goal put them into a 3-0 lead just after half-time before Forsyth deflected into his own net to give Hull hope of a comeback.
But the Tigers were unable to claw back any more of the deficit in the remaining 25 minutes with Sean McLoughlin hitting the side-netting in stoppage time.
Derby closed out the game to move within four points of 21st-placed Reading, the side just outside the drop zone, with their first victory in four games.
While Wayne Rooney's side stay second-from-bottom, their win heaps more pressure on nearest rivals Peterborough and the Royals, who sit either side of the drop zone before their games on Wednesday.
Having been deducted 21 points this season for breaching EFL spending regulations as well as entering administration in September, survival for Derby would be an incredible feat with the club still battling numerous off-field problems.
For Hull, it was a second successive defeat under new manager Shota Arveladze, who was appointed last month shortly after a Turkish consortium completed its takeover of the club.
They had started the brighter of the two sides as Keane Lewis-Potter had a well-struck half-volley saved by Ryan Allsop in the opening minutes before the striker also failed to direct a near-post header on target before Derby took the lead.
Forsyth opened the scoring as he headed powerfully in from Jason Knight's deep cross and then Lawrence showed his finishing instinct to add their second before the break.
Ebosele had seen an initial effort parried away by Matt Ingram, but Lawrence reacted quickest in the six-yard box before slotting home.
There was no let up from Derby from the restart as Lawrence then turned provider for Ebosele to net the pick of their goals inside two minutes of the second half. A powerful low strike across goal found the bottom far corner to make it 3-0.
The only blot on Derby's performance was when Forsyth got the final touch on a Brandon Fleming cross from the left towards Lewis-Potter but that would be the only moment of real concern.
While Derby have played three more games than Peterborough two points above them and two more games than Reading, who are four points ahead, they will head to Middlesbrough on Saturday confident of building on this victory.
Derby County manager Wayne Rooney speaking about captain Tom Lawrence:
"He's been excellent. I knew at the start of the season when I made him captain that some people would have said it was a controversial decision.
"But I've known Tom for a long time and know what he's capable of and knew that by giving him that extra responsibility it would up his game.
"He's a player who wants to be challenged and I think Tom is probably in the best form he's been in for a long time.
"He's scoring goals, creating goals but the other side of it which people don't really see that much is his work-rate is incredible.
"He's playing almost every minute of every game and although he's had issues in the past with getting cramp a lot, he's really worked hard on his diet and he's been magnificent."
Hull City manager Shota Arveladze told BBC Radio Humberside:
"We started well but they are a team who play high up and close the pockets of space and take the game to you.
"It's difficult when you give away 50-50 balls, even 60-40 balls, the opponent always gets a head start and it's always difficult to get back into the game.
"We have to work our way out of this and I have to try and understand where the more-experienced players are to help us out.
"We tried a couple of new players tonight and gave them a chance to show what they can do, but there's a lot of games coming up now where we have to keep trying things and keep building."