Derby vs Nottingham Forest match report: Marcus Olsson's late strike wins derby for Rams

Derby County 1 Nottingham Forest 0

Tom Ince and Gary Gardner battle for the ball (Getty Images)

It was a day for firsts in the historic derby. It was Harry Redknapp’s first game as Derby’s football advisor, and it was settled by Marcus Olsson’s first goal for Derby, which secured their 1‑0 victory over Nottingham Forest and kept their Championship promotion challenge on track.

It was a game of few chances in front of a sell-out crowd of 33,000 at the iPro Stadium, with the deadlock broken when Tom Ince played in Olsson 11 minutes from time to score with a low shot.

Redknapp watched from the directors’ box as Forest’s caretaker manager Paul Williams, the former Rams midfielder, came up against his ex-team-mate Darren Wassall .

Derby’s caretaker manager said: “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.

“I welcome anybody’s input but Harry said before the game, ‘I’ll leave it to you’, and that’s what he did, but at half-time he came down and we had a talk about what they’d seen upstairs. His years in the game will improve all of us.”

Redknapp came down to see the players in the dressing room after the game and joined in the celebrations after they had won a match that was higher in emotion than quality.

Federico Macheda’s control let him down when he got behind Derby’s defence early on and the home side’s first decent move ended with Chris Martin unable to touch Olsson’s cross.

Neither goalkeeper was troubled in a poor first half but Ince forced Forest’s De Vries into the first save of the game in the 65th minute. Forest tried to respond and in the fifth minute of stoppage time, former Derby striker Jamie Ward went close.

Derby County: (4-3-3) Carson; Hanson (Christie, 90), Keogh, Shackell (Buxton, 82), Olsson; Bryon, Thorne, Hendrick; Ince, Martin, Johnson (Russell, 64).

Nottingham F: (4-3-3) De Vries; Lichaj, Mills, Mancienne, Jokic; Gardner, Vaughan, Cohen (Ward, 64); Mendes (Blackstock, 84), Macheda (Burke, 70), Osborn.

Referee: Keith Stroud

Man of the match: Olsson (Derby)

Match rating: 6/10