Derby County vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Pride Park Stadium.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Derby County and Huddersfield at Pride Park as goals from George Edmundson and Martyn Waghorn steered the Rams back to winning ways on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 23 February 2021 22:33, UK
Derby County again enjoyed home comforts as they eased past Huddersfield 2-0 to move further away from the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship.
George Edmundson headed home his maiden goal following his loan move from Rangers before Martyn Waghorn sealed victory with his first goal since October.
It was Derby's fourth consecutive home win and lifted them above Huddersfield, who started brightly with Fraizer Campbell forcing David Marshall into an outstanding save but ended with 10 men when substitute Jaden Brown was sent off.
But after going behind, they posed little threat as former Derby skipper Richard Keogh, who was sacked by the club in October 2019 following a car accident in which he suffered a serious knee injury, came away empty-handed on his return to Pride Park.
Huddersfield started with the confidence of a team that had beaten Swansea convincingly on Saturday and almost went ahead in the 11th minute.
Juninho Bacuna played in Pipa whose low cross was met by Campbell, but his flick was brilliantly turned over by Marshall.
Derby responded by creating a good opening three minutes later with Graeme Shinnie heading the ball back to Colin Kazim-Richards, who could only direct his header over.
But Huddersfield were punished in the 22nd minute when Campbell made a hash of a clearance after a corner was cleared off the line by Nabby Sarr, and Nathan Byrne crossed for Edmundson to head in from six yards.
Huddersfield were looking vulnerable at set-pieces and Edmundson headed wide at the back post from another corner before Kazim-Richards drilled a free-kick straight at Ryan Schofield.
Having taken a while to get into the game, Derby had come back strongly and it was Huddersfield who needed to respond in the second half.
Aside from that early Campbell effort, Huddersfield had not tested Marshall who remained untroubled as Huddersfield struggled to make an impression on Derby's defence.
Their task became even harder in the 66th minute when they were caught upfield and were opened up by a brilliant pass from Kazim-Richards to send Waghorn clear and despite two defenders closing, he kept his composure to finish confidently from just inside the area.
Derby were looking increasingly comfortable and the more likely to add to their lead, with Waghorn flicking a rebound over although an offside flag would have denied him.
The night went from bad to worse for the visitors who had Brown dismissed for a second yellow card in the 89th minute after he tripped Jason Knight just outside the box.
Derby's Wayne Rooney: "I said to the players at half-time, 'tactically I got it wrong'. I've no shame in saying that and I had to change it so first half I take full responsibility for the performance because it wasn't good enough. But thankfully we got the goal and went in 1-0 up and it allowed me to make the changes.
"I changed the shape because I felt we could cause Huddersfield more problems than we did but it actually went the other way and they caused us more problems. I've no shame in saying I got it wrong, that will happen, but I felt the reaction from the players when I made the change back to a back four was very good.
"I think we're doing what we need to do, we're getting good results at the right time so in terms of how we're playing, the main objective of each game is to get three points and until we have some breathing space to worry about getting better performances, that will remain the same."
Huddersfield's Carlos Corberan: "We knew how important it was to come here and try and get a positive result and not get the painful and disappointing feeling that we have now.
"One of the points we tried to sort in the second half was to attack with more determination but we didn't create enough chances and find the spaces and options to change the balance of the game."
