Derby County vs Ipswich Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Pride Park StadiumAttendance24,362.
Tuesday 21 August 2018 23:12, UK
Frank Lampard celebrated his first home win in management as Derby beat Ipswich 2-0 to defy the Suffolk club's impressive run at Pride Park.
Ipswich had won on seven of their previous 10 visits to Derby but two goals in eight second-half minutes from Wales internationals Joe Ledley and Tom Lawrence settled what had been a scrappy contest.
Derby started strongly but the visitors were beginning to settle until a loose pass from Trevoh Chalobah allowed Craig Bryson to run in behind the defence on the right. Bryson delivered a cross that just evaded David Nugent who replaced former Ipswich striker Martyn Waghorn, named on the bench.
Ipswich found some promising positions just outside the Derby penalty area but the final ball let them down and the home side were also struggling to create openings.
Derby were forced into a change in the 27th minute when George Evans, on his league debut, fell awkwardly and was replaced by Ledley who was soon involved in a neat passing move that ended with Lawrence losing possession on the edge of the Ipswich area.
Ipswich's Ellis Harrison almost seized on a misplaced pass but Derby fashioned a chance in the 34th minute when Mason Bennett played the ball inside to Nugent who turned away from a blue shirt before curling a shot narrowly wide.
Ipswich had their first effort on target in the 40th minute when Derby gave the ball away, but Grant Ward's shot from the edge of the box was straight at Scott Carson.
Another careless piece of play threatened to allow Harrison to run clear and Richard Keogh was booked when he was forced to haul the striker over inside his own half.
The first 45 minutes had been low on quality and the second began with both teams squandering possession cheaply, until Derby took the lead just before the hour with a superb strike from Ledley.
Ipswich cleared a corner to just outside the area and Ledley arrowed a shot from 22 yards into the top left corner of Bartosz Bialkowski's net.
Derby had a second goal eight minutes later when Lawrence was fouled a couple of yards outside the box and the winger scored with a low free-kick. Bialkowski got a hand to the ball but could not prevent it bouncing over the line.
It left Ipswich, who had rarely threatened Carson's goal, with a lot to do and they never looked like staging a recovery as they lost at Derby for the first time in 12 years.
Frank Lampard: "It was reward for work rate, attitude, and good play. It was a good lesson for me and I've not taken the highs or lows too much either way. After (losing at) Millwall, people were looking at one win out of three, two losses on the bounce and now today we've won.
"I think there's more in the tank but we have to stay grounded, this is a long game for us. We are trying to change a bit of style and bring young players in so there's a process, but of course results are massive because people will judge you by them so it was very big for me and for us to get that one."
Paul Hurst: "Quite a few people have said to me there wasn't too much in the game. Derby had a lot of possession but I'm not sure how many saves Bart (Bialkowski) was actually called upon to make. We spoke about belief again and did we truly have that belief collectively that we were going to get back in the game. I feel like we almost gave them too much respect at times and we've got to shake that off.
"We know there's some big names in this league and some big-name players but we are equal in terms of we are in the same league."
